PAUL O’CONNELL WAS left to pick through the bones of missed opportunities and wasted possession as Munster’s Heineken Cup dream died against Ulster.
A place-kicking masterclass from Ruan Pienaar and a wonderful Craig Gilroy try set Ulster on their way to a famous 22-16 victory and a “home” semi-final against Edinburgh in Dublin.
Despite huge amounts of territory in the second half, Munster couldn’t find a way through the white wall of Ulster’s defence and saw their comeback peter out with just two Ronan O’Gara penalties after the break.
“We probably had enough possession then to climb that hill, but we just didn’t do enough with it,” a devastated O’Connell told Sky Sports afterwards. “We weren’t accurate enough when we had the ball.”
I thought we had an awful lot of ball, a lot of possession particularly in the second half in and around their 22, but we just didn’t do enough with it.
Pienaar scored 14 of Ulster’s total from the tee, including three monster penalties from inside his own half which helped open up a 19-0 lead before Simon Zebo got Munster’s first points with a 34th-minute try.
That indiscipline and carelessness, pinged at every turn by referee Romain Poite, cost Munster but the captain refused to blame those younger players who were getting their first taste of the Heineken Cup knock-out stages.
“I think the quality of player is there, just maybe that Heineken Cup nous isn’t there with some players yet. We gave away penalties — I certainly gave away penalties — and you just can’t do that at this level of the competition. You can’t make mistakes.
You’ve got to be miserly with the ball and that means making less mistakes. We made a lot of mistakes today, and conceded territory and conceded momentum with it.
“They kicked really accurately. I think they knocked over two or three penalties from inside their own half. We conceded a soft try and gave ourselves a lot to do.”
