THERE WILL BE a new name etched onto the URC trophy next weekend and after holders Munster were beaten at home by a spirited Glasgow Warriors side in today’s semi-final at Thomond Park, Graham Rowntree had no complaints with the outcome.
The Munster boss admitted Glasgow were worthy winners after they claimed a 17-10 victory in Limerick, with the province’s frustrations focused around their own shortcomings on the day.
Munster went into the game on the back of a 10-game winning run in the URC, which saw them top the league table and see off the challenge of Ospreys in the quarter-finals.
Yet they couldn’t make the most of their home advantage in this semi-final, with Munster’s accuracy and discipline letting them down as the prospect of a home URC final slipped from their grasp.
The defeat means that Simon Zebo, RG Snyman and Antoine Frisch have all played their last game in a Munster jersey – while the injured Joey Carbery is also moving on this summer.
“It’s going to take a while for that to sink in,” said Rowntree.
“Hugely frustrating, you get yourself in a position, home semi-final and then the game got away from us.
“It’s about taking opportunities, using the possession and territory that we had. We didn’t take our opportunities.
They got the tries that they did without having to do much, to be honest with you, it was just the freak nature of the tries and then we tried a bit too hard near the try-line.
“Credit to them, they were tenacious tonight, were Glasgow. I just said to the group there, we are saying goodbye to some big names who deserve better if I am honest with you.
“It will take a while to sink in. I am proud of how we finished the season, where we got to and the style of play. As I say, you earn yourself a home semi and it’s just frustrating, hugely frustrating.”
The province’s attack struggled today with the home side limited to just one Jack Crowley penalty and a converted Antoine Frisch try. Rowntree felt his players needed to be more composed when in the Warriors 22.
“That’s a composure piece with the players. We speak about one more ruck rather than an offload, which is brilliant if it comes off, you go ‘what a cracking offload!’ But we were just a bit guilty of forcing things a bit too much.”
Munster captain Tadhg Beirne echoed Rowntree’s sentiments, lamenting the province’s lack of accuracy with ball in hand.
“You can’t fault the effort of any of the lads, we stuck in it, were in it right to end,” said Beirne.
“You’ve got to give credit to Glasgow, they defended unbelievably well. Similar to last week [against the Ospreys], we just didn’t take our chances when we got inside the 22.
“We had a few opportunities there to come away with some points and unfortunately we didn’t, we gave away penalties or knock-ons or just silly errors which probably crept into our game a little bit over the last couple of weeks unfortunately and as Wig [Rowntree] said we were probably trying too hard and just needed to take a moment and slow the ball down a touch to get back into our shape and go from there.
“But you can’t fault Glasgow’s effort because they defended unbelievably well and they stopped us. Some teams haven’t been able to stop us from that far out but they were, so credit to them.”
There was almost no impact off the bench today which is disappointing and unexpected. Our scrum was better in the first half in fact. Archer and Loughman were better than those who replaced them and Snyman didn’t bring any power in the scrum when he came in.
@Michael Corkery: The provinces are seriously under achieving.
@Michael Corkery: True. I thought Archer and Loughman both had a great game, best in a while, ditto Beirne.
Coombes and Snyman really needed to start that game. Coombes played ok but Snyman was slow to get into the game and should have held onto the ball at times, instead of quick offloads which went astray.
There is a real problem with modern rugby. If a team actually tries to play attacking running rugby – after a number of phases they inevitably get turned over when a player, trying to break the line, gets isolated and the defence swarms. By far the best way to win a game is to kick relentlessly – hoping for a catch or knock on, milk penalties from scrums and bash your way in from 10 yards.
Munster lost today because their kicking game failed to get them field position and because dominance in the first 20 minutes was not converted to points. This has been a failing (red zone conversions) all season.
The killer thing for a lot of these players is had they won they likely would have also booked their tickets to SA for the Ireland tour. AF will revert to a Leinster based squad for the tour now. The likes of Daly, Coombes , Hodnett will likely miss out now
@Owen ODonoghue: I doubt Hodnett will miss anything as he played well. The problem is Munster didn’t play as a team. Some of that was the coaching selection.
@Con Cussed: 100%, sure the players were also muck, but the tactic of trying to play like a squad team is stoopid in a semi final, RG, Coombes and probably SoB should have started. Would agree with Own, no chance those lads see a tour, deservedly so.
Fineen Wycherley played instead of Snyman, imagine that. And to see the level of penalties he gave away, you wouldn’t see it at U16 level.
To move your best attacking weapon in recent weeks (Zebo) to accommodate the worst attacking full back in Ireland is very, very hard to understand.
And to have JOD even in the squad…
Some terrible calls ..
One thing… maybe best for POM to stop with this trying to be the big man nonsense – his words make him look infantile and have a habit of coming back to haunt his team (Sam Cane etc). Each province has a 6 better than his current level so he should be nowhere near an Irish squad. It’s time to let underachieving players at home (and there are quite a few at Leinster) and bring more younger players and accept a possible beating or two ..
@Andrew Hurley: a very reasoned piece. Hard to argue against most points made. POM brings something intangible that the others don’t have which is commonly referred to as dog. Leinster have none of this intangible factor which is why they keep falling short in the clutch. I agree POM should stay quiet but his influence in the field has broader scope.
@seamus Beirne: I would be shot of him, he’s a negative player, got longer on the park today which he’ll be pleased with, but really didn’t deserve, for his chatter the were bullied off the park, I don’t say this often but in this instance Andrew is 100% correct, terrible calls from Rowntree
JOD was arguably the best Munster player on the field so, so much for your views on him. Also, your POM denigration is a little lacking in true understanding of what he does beyond the words. I think I’d believe Andy and others about his contribution not yourself.
Maybe the truth is that other sides have caught up with Munster / Leinster and have proven plans to beat them? The flavour of these comments is that all the problem is due to management and selection. If the Irish side outperforms with the same players, then I’ll accept that.
@John Morris: One of the worst things is that this is exactly what happened yesterday in Thomond. Glasgow reverted to the classic tactic of letting us have the ball and exposing our lack luster attack, we’ve spend entire seasons trying to be that bulldozing team of old, only to be held up at the 5metre for 30 minutes, it’s sort of ridiculous that we still see it today! Like nothing has changed, our default is zero ideas.
@John Morris: I agree. Both provinces have set attacking plans which are now well analysed by the better opponents. Neither team are bringing any new attacking pieces at the business end of the season. You can get away with predictability during the league but not in Qs, Ss and Final.
Did O’Mahony’s comments have an effect? I thought he shouldn’t have said them until the season was done.
@James Murphy: Not losing lineouts would have been a better contribution.