IT’S BEEN A tough week for Munster supporters so their mood was hardly helped when the handful of giddy Dragons supporters who made the trip from Newport to Cork regularly broke into song in the opening half, chanting ‘Can we play you every week, can we play you every week…’
By then, the Welsh side, trying to extend an unexpected four-match winning run, were leading 13-0, having been temporarily 20-0 in front before a try was scratched for a tackle infringement back up the field. You could sense the Cork home support, having turned out in impressive numbers despite the miserable conditions, were just waiting for a response to give a bucketload of it back to the Newport faithful in the main stand.
As it happened, they had little to shout about until they hit the front in the 75th minute. By then, any smart riposte would have been smothered by the gasps of relief after staving off a defeat which would have plunged them into further despair.
“Yeah, absolutely, absolutely relief,” admitted Munster head coach Clayton McMillan after being asked afterwards if it was the overriding emotion. “We had a lot of respect for the Dragons. They’re a team that is riding a bit of a confidence wave at the moment.
“They’ve beaten some good teams over the last month and are definitely trending in the right direction. They had what we believe is something close to their best side out there. So we were under no illusion around the challenge that was going to come.
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“Obviously, the conditions made it really, really tough for both sides. They did well with their aerial kicking game, I think. There were three tries, maybe two tries that were scored where we wouldn’t get a hand on the ball, you know, and that was a little disappointing.”
McMillan paid tribute to 21-year-old debutant Seán Edogbo and Gavin Coombes, the latter of whom was left out of Ireland’s Six Nations squad and ‘A’ squad during the week but came on and dug Munster out of a hole with two tries.
“One thing he has is a nose for the try-line,” said McMillan of Coombes. “He keeps stepping up in those moments. He was good tonight, but the thing with Gav is that he’s got a couple of other young fellas that are breathing down his neck now, and I actually think that’s going to be good for Gavin. We didn’t start him tonight because he’s one of those guys that’s played big minutes over the last 12-14 weeks.”
Edogbo, with a big crowd having crossed the water from Cobh Pirates, crowned a great week where his older brother Edwin was included in the Six Nations squad by producing a top-class display, not least in the lineout.
“He’s a kid with a big future. He was outstanding in the lineout, actually. In those sorts of conditions, you need that. He’s explosive, he’s got a fairly low error rate, high energy, good skill set. Both the Edogbo boys bring that physical presence,” added McMillan.
Most of the crowd of 8,422 were from Cork, the red, red supporters as they might claim. There might be a lot going wrong with Munster rugby at the moment but with a young lad from Cobh leading the way on his debut and a Skibbereen native coming off the bench to save the game with two tries, they might claim there is little wrong about Cork rugby, whatever about the rest.
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McMillan hails home-county Coombes and Edogbo as Munster breathe sigh of relief in Cork
IT’S BEEN A tough week for Munster supporters so their mood was hardly helped when the handful of giddy Dragons supporters who made the trip from Newport to Cork regularly broke into song in the opening half, chanting ‘Can we play you every week, can we play you every week…’
By then, the Welsh side, trying to extend an unexpected four-match winning run, were leading 13-0, having been temporarily 20-0 in front before a try was scratched for a tackle infringement back up the field. You could sense the Cork home support, having turned out in impressive numbers despite the miserable conditions, were just waiting for a response to give a bucketload of it back to the Newport faithful in the main stand.
As it happened, they had little to shout about until they hit the front in the 75th minute. By then, any smart riposte would have been smothered by the gasps of relief after staving off a defeat which would have plunged them into further despair.
“Yeah, absolutely, absolutely relief,” admitted Munster head coach Clayton McMillan after being asked afterwards if it was the overriding emotion. “We had a lot of respect for the Dragons. They’re a team that is riding a bit of a confidence wave at the moment.
“They’ve beaten some good teams over the last month and are definitely trending in the right direction. They had what we believe is something close to their best side out there. So we were under no illusion around the challenge that was going to come.
“Obviously, the conditions made it really, really tough for both sides. They did well with their aerial kicking game, I think. There were three tries, maybe two tries that were scored where we wouldn’t get a hand on the ball, you know, and that was a little disappointing.”
McMillan paid tribute to 21-year-old debutant Seán Edogbo and Gavin Coombes, the latter of whom was left out of Ireland’s Six Nations squad and ‘A’ squad during the week but came on and dug Munster out of a hole with two tries.
“One thing he has is a nose for the try-line,” said McMillan of Coombes. “He keeps stepping up in those moments. He was good tonight, but the thing with Gav is that he’s got a couple of other young fellas that are breathing down his neck now, and I actually think that’s going to be good for Gavin. We didn’t start him tonight because he’s one of those guys that’s played big minutes over the last 12-14 weeks.”
Edogbo, with a big crowd having crossed the water from Cobh Pirates, crowned a great week where his older brother Edwin was included in the Six Nations squad by producing a top-class display, not least in the lineout.
“He’s a kid with a big future. He was outstanding in the lineout, actually. In those sorts of conditions, you need that. He’s explosive, he’s got a fairly low error rate, high energy, good skill set. Both the Edogbo boys bring that physical presence,” added McMillan.
Most of the crowd of 8,422 were from Cork, the red, red supporters as they might claim. There might be a lot going wrong with Munster rugby at the moment but with a young lad from Cobh leading the way on his debut and a Skibbereen native coming off the bench to save the game with two tries, they might claim there is little wrong about Cork rugby, whatever about the rest.
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