IN THE END, Munster barely even fired a shot as their European dreams died for another year.
Saracens were wholly convincing in their 33-10 win over Anthony Foley’s side at Allianz Park, scoring three tries when few would have argued they deserved a fourth to clinch a bonus point.
That said, it particularly aggrieved Munster that so much of Saracens’ scoring stemmed from the Irish province’s own errors. The likes of Chris Ashton and Chris Wyles took their opportunities stunningly, but Munster pinned the blame on themselves.
Not to even threaten an upset at Allianz Park, even without influential scrum-half Conor Murray, cut deep for Munster.
“Look, it’s just disappointing,” said captain Peter O’Mahony post-match at Allianz Park.
You’re not going to compete with a team like Saracens if you’re going to carry on like that. Knock-ons, missed calls, inaccuracies. You’re not going to compete.”
The back row admitted “there’s not much you can say” in the changing room after a performance like Munster’s, although he argued that his side had felt in a good position in the build-up to the make-or-break fixture.
Despite the loss of Murray, and the odds being in Sarries’ favour, O’Mahony said there was no sense of what was to come in North London.
“Not at all, we had a good week’s training. It went well on Thursday and guys knew what they were at, but it just didn’t come through today. There was no stage when we got a bit of momentum and built pressure. I don’t know if we’ve any excuses – I thought Saracens were very good.”
Munster have been an inconsistent force this season, hitting peaks against Leinster twice and in the home clash against Saracens back in October, but then stuttering in defeats to the likes of Edinburgh and Connacht.
Was Saturday afternoon at Allianz Park a result of those very inconsistencies?
“I don’t know about that,” said O’Mahony. “Look, we’d always pride ourselves on, when we come away from home in the Heineken Cup – especially against the English and French teams – that we’ll dig in for a performance, we find it from somewhere. We got to places where no one wants to go… I don’t think we did that today.
It’s not that we didn’t want it, not that the boys didn’t try hard, but we weren’t accurate enough today.”
It means Munster have failed to advance to the knock-out stages of the premier European competition for just the second time in 16 seasons, regardless of what happens at Thomond Park against the Sale Sharks in next weekend’s final Pool 1 game.
Attention will now turn to the Guinness Pro12 and the chances of silverware in the league. However, April may be a depressing month around Munster’s training bases in Limerick and Cork.
“We’ve got to bottle it up now and put in a performance next week,” said O’Mahony. “We’ve left our fans down who travelled, we’ve left our fans at home down, we’ve left our families down, we left ourselves down.
“We’ve got to have a good performance next week and the next few weeks in the Guinness Pro12. They’re non-negotiable, those performances.”
