Toulouse 20
Munster 16
THE TRY THAT Munster produced in the second half at Stade Ernest Wallon, a score that was in the style of hosts Toulouse, really deserved to be part of a winning performance. It was one of their great tries as Tadhg Beirne finished after a stunning, sweeping passage.
But it wasn’t to be as Munster were edged out by the French heavyweights, a yellow card for sub out-half Ben Healy proving damaging in the final 10 minutes, the game having hung in the balance until then.
Toulouse’s power was evident, most notably in a dominant opening quarter that left them 11-0 ahead, but Munster found a way to deal with it, build back into the contest, and score two tries. This was an excellent Champions Cup display yet they will leave Stade Ernest Wallon with regrets.
Their breakdown was poor as they repeatedly gave up turnovers and penalties there, while starting out-half Joey Carbery might wonder what might have been had he landed two conversions he would have expected to nail. Every blow counts in surroundings like this, where the home fans generated a racket in bitingly cold weather.
To his credit, Carbery ate some serious punishment from the big Toulouse forwards, taking hit after hit and always getting up to throw himself back into the mix. He played a key role in helping Munster back to trail just 11-8 at the break and then nudge their way in front in the second half before making way for Healy for the final half-hour.
Meanwhile, Dave Kilcoyne and John Ryan were superb in the front row – the latter will be badly missed when he leaves for the Chiefs in New Zealand – as the Munster pack recovered from their opening-quarter humbling to gain real parity. John Hodnett was everywhere in a try-scoring performance in the number seven shirt, one of many positives for Munster.
Toulouse deserve credit for steadying things to squeeze out the win, with fullback Melvyn Jaminet kicking 15 points and Juan Cruz Mallía crossing for a first-half try. Hooker Julien Marchand was player of the match as he destroyed Munster’s breakdown.
It all means that Toulouse get a home tie against the Bulls in the Round-of-16, while Munster will be away to one of the Sharks, Exeter, Edinburgh, or Saracens depending on how Sarries’ clash with Edinburgh this evening goes.
This battle ended in disappointment but Munster showed that they can cope with and cause problems for even one of the best teams in the competition. Graham Rowntree’s men can take heart from plenty of this. They are making genuine progress.
Things had looked ominous for Munster in the early exchanges. Captain Peter O’Mahony was penalised for side entry at a defensive breakdown to allow Jaminet to kick the home side into a 3-0 lead after just two minutes.
Munster soon botched a lineout in the Toulouse 22, gave up another breakdown penalty, and conceded the first try from the ensuing lineout attack. The Toulouse maul rumbled, Marchand made metres off the back of it, Dupont sniped, the big men carried powerfully, then Pita Ahki swung the ball wide right to wing Mallía, who beat Shane Daly’s tackle attempt and finished past Mike Haley.
Munster’s next visit to the Toulouse 22 ended up with the French side scoring three points, a wayward pass from Craig Casey resulting in an Antoine Frisch knock-on that Toulouse hacked ahead and won back in the scrumble. Niall Scannell was caught offside and, having missed the conversion attempt, Jaminet nailed his penalty for 11-0.
It was a tough opening quarter, but Munster managed to shift the momentum in the next 20 minutes, even if Toulouse continued to cause breakdown havoc through Marchand.
A backline reshuffle was required when Haley limped off, Malakai Fekitoa coming on in midfeld to make an impressive impact and Jack Crowley shifting to fullback, but Munster began to string positive moments together.
They finally built some pressure down in the Toulouse 22, with Kilcoyne’s carrying prominent, to earn a five-metre penalty that they tapped, sending Gavin Coombes charging at the line. They battered away until Hodnett powered over with a latch from lock Jean Kleyn.
Carbery was wide to the left with the kickable conversion but he did land a 35th-minute penalty to draw Munster to within three, that score coming off the back of a huge scrum penalty win, as well as a nice bit of attack that saw Carbery slip Scannell into a gap before Ahki was done for not rolling away from the tackle.
With two minutes left until the break, Toulouse made a big call to go into the right corner rather than kick at goal. Munster rose to the challenge. Their pack dealt with the initial maul effort, then they dug in against the power of carriers like the gigantic Emmanuel Meafou, allowing Ryan to pounce for a precious breakdown penalty.
Trailing 11-8 as the second half kicked off, Munster were eager for an early impact but their opening attack ended with yet another breakdown turnover to the prolific Marchand.
But they soon produced one of their best tries ever. It was a sensational team score that showed how much this team is developing.
Fekitoa offloaded to Coombes in the left-hand 15-metre channel near the halfway line with the number eight then offloading one-handed behind his back to Daly, who flicked a nonchalant one-handed pass back inside to Casey.
The scrum-half dummy-kicked to beat Mallia and race into the 22, where Carbery launched a cross-field kick out to Hodnett on the right. The openside calmly passed inside to Calvin Nash, who drew a defender and passed once more inside to Beirne, with the lock powering over through a double tackle to finish an astounding try.
Carbery was again wide with the kickable conversion effort but Munster led 13-11 heading into the final half-hour.
Their lead lasted until the 57th minute when Jaminet popped over three points after Hodnett was pinged at the breakdown, Toulouse not considering the corner this time.
Yet it seesawed back to Munster almost immediately as Nash won back the restart, Beirne almost surged through to score, and then just when it looked like the visitors had wasted their chance with some poor passing, Toulouse infringed at the breakdown.
Rowntree had sent Healy on in place of Carbery and the future Scotland international made no mistake for a 16-14 Munster lead.
Again, Toulouse worked their way into position to respond but this time, Coombes was neck-rolled as he jackaled and the siege was lifted, although only briefly. After a good kick down the right by Ntamack found touch over the head of Daly, the Munster maul was pinged for obstruction ahead of the ball. Again, Jaminet slotted the three for a one-point advantage.
And then came the huge blow of losing Healy to the sin bin in the 69th minute as a TMO intervention from Rowan Kitt resulted in referee Karl Dickson ruling that the replacement out-half had led with his forearm into the neck of Toulouse centre Pierre-Louis Barassi.
Toulouse marched into Munster territory in the next few minutes and won a scrum penalty against the Irish side’s replacement front row, with Jaminet tacking on another three points from the left of the posts for 20-16.
And that was that as Munster were unable to get down the other end of the pitch to find a dramatic late score. They will go on the road in the Round-of-16 on the weekend of 31 March/1/2 April, but they showed here that they can travel with some hope.
Toulouse scorers:
Tries: Juan Cruz Mallía
Conversions: Melvyn Jaminet [0 from 1]
Penalties: Melvyn Jaminet [5 from 5]
Munster scorers:
Tries: John Hodnett, Tadhg Beirne
Conversions: Joey Carbery [0 from 2]
Penalties: Joey Carbery [1 from 1], Ben Healy [1 from 1]
STADE TOULOUSAIN: Melvyn Jaminet; Juan Cruz Mallía, Pierre-Louis Barassi, Pita Ahki (Ange Capuozzo ’68), Dimitri Delibes; Romain Ntamack, Antoine Dupont (captain); Cyril Baille (Rodrigue Neti ’50), Julien Marchand (Guillaume Cramont ’75), Dorian Aldegheri (David Ainu’u ’63); Richie Arnold (Joshua Brennan ’70), Emmanuel Meafou (Francois Cros ’60); Anthony Jelonch, Jack Willis, Alexandre Roumat (Thibaud Flament ’50) .
Replacement not used: Arthur Retière
MUNSTER: Mike Haley (Malakai Fekitoa ’27); Calvin Nash, Antoine Frisch, Jack Crowley, Shane Daly; Joey Carbery (Ben Healy ’50 (yellow card ’69)), Craig Casey (Conor Murray ’62); Dave Kilcoyne (Josh Wycherley ’61), Niall Scannell (Diarmuid Barron ’61), John Ryan (Roman Salanoa ’61); Jean Kleyn, Tadhg Beirne; Peter O’Mahony (captain), John Hodnett (Alex Kendellen ’64), Gavin Coombes.
Replacement not used: Jack O’Sullivan
Referee: Karl Dickson [RFU].
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