MUNSTER BOSS JOHANN van Graan has expressed his anger at two late tackles on 21-year-old out-half Ben Healy during his side’s 21-7 Champions Cup win over Harlequins.
Tipperary man Healy came off the bench to kick a long-range penalty and add a conversion in Munster’s victory but also picked up an injury due to the late tackles on him.
Quins captain Alex Dombrandt was yellow-carded for the first but referee Pascal Gaüzère opted to only give a penalty for the second late tackle on Healy by Joe Marler, who had earlier been penalised for an off-the-ball challenge on CJ Stander.
Van Graan opted against going into detail on the nature of Healy’s injury, but he is now a doubt for next weekend’s visit to Clermont.
“We’re very worried about him, he took two late hits there,” said van Graan after a game that saw three Quins players sin binned.
“We’re going to get him checked out now. It was quite clearly a tactic from the opposition to hit him late and certain things in the game are just unacceptable. He’s now got injured because of that.
“It was a tough game for the referee, I thought he did really well. We also gave away one cynical penalty [for Stephen Archer's yellow card] but certainly from a foul play point of view, there were one or two cards out there.”
Van Graan felt that Healy “did really well” off the bench for Munster after replacing JJ Hanrahan in the second half and hailed the academy out-half’s “magnificent” penalty from inside his own half after Dombrandt’s late tackle.
While the Munster boss was frustrated at Munster missing out on a few chances to notch a bonus-point, he was pleased to start the European season with a victory.
“We’re very glad of the win,” said van Graan. “It was difficult conditions, opponents who didn’t go away. We would have loved to use more of our opportunities but any win in Europe is a good win.”
“We knew it was going to be a real 23-man effort and we created chances that we didn’t use, but we’re very happy with our impact players.”
Munster face a tougher task next Saturday as they visit Clermont, who opened their own European campaign with a 51-38 victory away to Bristol.
“It’s the first time I’ll personally be going to Clermont,” said van Graan of the clash at Stade Marcel Michelin.
“They’re one of the European powerhouses if you look historically, some big tussles between Munster and Clermont. If you looked at them yesterday, they were excellent the way they started against Bristol.
“It’s a massive challenge ahead for us and that’s what this competition is about, to challenge yourself against the best teams. It’s great that Munster and Clermont will go out with their top teams because this is what the competition is about. You always want to play your top teams in this competition.”