AS KICK-OFF BETWEEN Munster and Glasgow Warriors inched closer on Saturday, Peter O’Mahony delivered one last rallying call to his teammates, reminding them “there’s no tomorrow” should they fail to get the job done over the next 80 minutes.
The prize on the line was a home URC final against the Bulls and the potential for one of the great Munster days, but by the end of an utterly deflating day at Thomond Park the pre-game sense of cautious optimism had long been sucked out of the place.
With the crowds making their way out of the ground for the final time this season, Graham Rowntree addressed his team in the dressing room, thanking the club’s departing players for their service while apologising for not sending them off with a medal around their necks.
He would later state the nature of the defeat would take a while to sink in, but the dejection on his face said he even more. Munster had a huge opportunity within their grasp here, but blew it with the finish line in sight.
After an encouraging start their game quickly became far too disjointed. There were set-piece struggles, discipline issues, poor decision-making and most tellingly, a shockingly low return rate in the Glasgow 22 as Munster’s handling and accuracy went to pieces. It wasn’t the most encouraging evening for Ireland coaches Andy Farrell and Paul O’Connell, who watched on from the stands as they prepare to finalise a squad to tour South Africa next month.
Across a first-half in which Munster had 63% of the possession and 71% of the territory, their dominance of the ball yielded only three points from the boot of Jack Crowley.
Their sole try was a wonderful piece of quick, clinical attacking play finished by Antoine Frisch in the 55th minute but otherwise they never really looked capable of cracking a superb Warriors defensive effort, while their game management was poor across the final quarter as they struggled to get out of their own half before losing Alex Nankivell to a red card.
Rowntree admitted his team lacked composure and felt they were guilty of forcing things with ball in hand. On the back of wins in which their attack struggled for large parts against Ulster and the Ospreys, that will be a sore point for the coaching team over the summer months.
Glasgow were worthy winners, their pressure forcing many of those Munster errors while they were clinical in striking for their two tries.
“You’ve got to give credit to the opposition as well in forcing mistakes too,” said Munster captain Tadhg Beirne, who was the province’s outstanding performer with a typically relentless shift.
“We’ve had some good opposition over the last two weeks and talking about the composure piece as well, just forcing things a little bit. We’ve spoken a little bit as well, at times we’ve had moments where we’ve gone off script, the gameplan, and that has led to errors. I don’t think we really went off the gameplan today, maybe we probably did when there was 70 minutes on the field.
“We probably overplayed a little bit inside our 40. Ten minutes is a long time in rugby and that’s probably something we’re going to look at next week, we don’t need to play five or six phases inside our 40, we should be probably clearing that. That leads to a scrum and then eventually to three points and unfortunately a red card so they’re moments in the game where we have to be smarter, be more composed and stick to the gameplan.”
Injuries perhaps took their toll – with Calvin Nash, Tom Ahern, Joey Carbery, Jean Kleyn, Dave Kilcoyne and Edwin Edogbo all among the unavailable on Saturday – but the review will focus on areas which remained in their control.
Munster struggled to get their wide players involved against Glasgow and the 6/2 bench split which had been proving so effective since their two-game trip to South Africa in April didn’t work in their favour this time as they chased the game.
Success arrived unexpectedly early under Rowntree when he led the province to the URC title last season but as defending champions and with home advantage in the knock-outs, they couldn’t scale the same heights.
A deflated Rowntree summoned some positivity when asked if he had a message for the province’s supporters.
“Stick with us, keep the faith… You know, 23 months ago, put a new coaching team together, it’s changed how we’re playing the game. Since then we’ve won a trophy, finished top of the league in our second season and a home semi-final. Lost our way in a knockout game tonight, through two bounces of the ball.
There’s a lot there that the fans can see where we’re going. The players are enjoying the brand of rugby, playing a brand of rugby that everyone wants to see.
“We came up short tonight, it’s going to sting. It won’t derail us by any means. The fans will stay with us, I know that. I don’t need to give them a message.”
“I think we have shown in the last two seasons what we can do and what we are capable of doing,” added Beirne.
“We fell short but at the end of the day, they defended well but they also scored two tries whereas on another day that doesn’t happen to us and we come away with a victory.
“I don’t think we performed poorly today, we weren’t clinical. I think at times we played well but definitely, the future is certainly bright. Hopefully we will be able to do it next year.”
Munster were struggling 30 minutes into the game. They appeared lack lustre, there were discipline issues. Glasgow attacking is one of the best in the URC, a point that wasn’t addressed by Munster coaches. It was a hard game to watch at times as you felt Munster were not going to win the game. There were some good moments from Archer and Loughman, which their replacements didn’t match. Beirne and Frisch had good games too. Daly in places and Crowley attacked the game line. However offloads were slow against a fast opposition. Would things have improved if Snyman and Coombes started?
Munster were too slow against a pacy opposition, as indeed were Leinster in the earlier game.
In the end, the opposition had done their homework and neither Irish province looked like they had done theirs. Let’s hope we come up with better plays next season.
@Con Cussed: a lack of power in the tight phases is a problem that dogged us all season . This is especially noticeable when we get close to opposing tryline. It’s too easy to stop and turnover some players due to their lack of physicality . In hindsight, one of Coombes or Snyman should have started to give us a power carry option in those moments (with instructions to Snyman to keep hold of the ball rather than attempt offload to less powerful teammate). There’s no signing that remedies that. We could do with an brutish front row. Maybe Kilcoyne if he can get/stay fit
@Con Cussed: one of the big problems in todays rugby players is their instinct’s are being coached out of them. When Munster got the ball to their wingers they constantly cut back into contact, I don’t think they once kicked a head and backed themselves, even if a Glasgow player recovered the ball he would be getting ball and man at the same time. Also with a rush defence like Glasgows we could have dinked/grouper kicked behind them to keep them guessing. No team, especially forwards, like getting turned
@Liam23: I wonder if this is where Richie Murphy has started to work on with Ulster? Taking the ball to the line and chipping over the heads or through the feet of opponents, Ulster’s last few games were more entertaining and a bit more innovative. Nash was missed on Saturday as he’s more likely to run with the ball in hand and cut around opposition, no fear of him chipping ahead either.
@Michael Corkery: Even with them on we just love camping on a 5 Metre for half an hour. Its not new, been that way for years, yet nothing in the way of a tactic, not one player hitting the line at pace. it’s pretty damning of our ruc/maul attack, it’s atrocious. Who’s in charge of that? Leamy is D, Prendie is A, does that mean it’s on Prendie or is Wig in the mix aswell? I can remember only one occasion where the ran a switch from the back of the ruc, just one.
Genuinely surprised it wasn’t a sell out. The defeats over the weekend are certainly a big blow to the Irish players as we head south for the tests vs SA. My sense is we are struggling a bit on the leadership front and don’t have the ‘dog’
@Daithi Mc Ghiollamhairtin: *have real dog in us. The SA teams have that in spades.
@Daithi Mc Ghiollamhairtin: maybe POM cd growl or insult someone ?
Brutal performance, septic in fact.
What an opportunity missed.