AS MUNSTER SEARCHED for a last-gasp chance to rescue a win or at least a draw at Sandy Park yesterday afternoon, they instead found themselves back under their own posts after a sickening intercept try.
Henry Slade scorched away after picking off Conor Murray’s pass, denying Munster what would have been a losing bonus point to go along with their try-scoring bonus point.
The conversion was delayed as referee Mathieu Raynal and his match officials took a good look at the situation, which involved a couple of Exeter players retreating into their defensive line, while Raynal himself was also on that side of the ruck.
Munster captain Tadhg Beirne had an extended debate with Raynal after the try was confirmed but to no avail.
“I think there were two or three lazy runners, even himself [Raynal] is probably in the way of the pass,” said Beirne after Munster’s 32-24 defeat.
“If Mur decides to throw the ball at one of them, it’s a penalty all day. We’re trying to play there and they’re in the way of us hitting the 10, and he tries to throw it to the second man and they intercept it.
“But they’re in the way of the pass in the first place. To me, it’s offside but he felt they weren’t in the way and they weren’t offside so that was the decision made.
“We were already losing the game at that point and we could have put the game to bed a lot earlier, so we’re not going to blame a referee.
“Whether we agree with him or not, that was his decision. We had ample opportunities before that to put ourselves in a better position.”
And there’s the key point. Munster had already blown a winning position at that stage. Maybe they could have gone downfield and earned a last-gasp try to win in dramatic circumstances if Raynal had felt differently but they’ll never know.
Instead, they’re left to rue the things that were directly in their control such as kicking the ball out on the full before Exeter’s second try and not dealing with two back-to-back kicks before the English side’s third score. In the space of four disastrous minutes, Munster conceded 14 points and fell behind for the first time in the game.
The lack of composure was jarring from a team who showed lots of that trait in their run to the URC title last season.
“We’ll look at it when we’ve all calmed down,” said head coach Graham Rowntree yesterday. “We’ll look at those moments where we’ve got to be more composed, where we don’t have to pass the ball, where we need to hang on to the ball.
“We’ll look at it… what can I say? I’m hugely frustrated. To let that get away from us as it did after racking up a bonus point, done some good things, but in the here and now, I haven’t got any more for you. I’ll have to go and look at it with the lads and review it.”
Rowntree did seem a little bit stumped about how it got away from them but he rejected the notion that the final quarter collapse is a worrying sign about his team’s mentality.
“No, as a trait we are normally good in the last quarter of the game,” said Rowntree. “We won a semi-final last year, won a final in the last quarter.
“This year, the games we have lost, we have been strong in the last quarter. We will just look at what tactically and technically we can do better.
“It’s a difficult one for me now, to give you anything more, sensational or brilliant rugby-wise than what I have just said to you. Just hugely frustrated but I have learned to go home, look at it in the cold light of day tomorrow, and we will get stuck into it Tuesday morning.
“There is another big game coming around the corner.”
Leinster at Thomond Park on St Stephen’s Day in the URC looms large now but you just know that Munster will have their final two Champions Cup pool games against Toulon and Northampton in the back of their minds for the coming weeks.
They’ve left themselves with a big job to do after departing Sandy Park in frustration.
“You’ve got to give credit to Exeter,” said Beirne. “They know their home ground better than anyone and I think they played with the wind very cleverly in the second half.
“They pinned us into the corner a few times and we were still in it, and then a bounce of a ball goes against us, and then at the very end there, a decision that you can probably tell I didn’t agree with.”