NINE TRIES AND 65 points should be cause for celebration in any fixture, but as Munster finished off their Champions Cup campaign it soon dawned on them that this was a win without reward.
Nobody shone brighter in the 65 – 10 annihilation of Sale than Simon Zebo. The Corkman was at the heart of everything good about Munster, scoring two tries and playing a part in many more.
Just as today’s fullback was about to enthuse about his side’s attack, he felt the need to check himself.
“It was one of those days when we had license to spread the ball and go and enjoy ourselves,” he told Sky Sports post-match.
“We probably didn’t do that enough throughout the campaign, but it was a nice dry day.
“The backs were really motoring well. Keith Earls was on fire, Ronan O’Mahony and Andrew Conway – it’s easy to run off these kind of guys when you’ve a dry ball and a fast pitch.”
Asked by Alan Quinlan about the side’s lack of consistency, Zebo agreed, but issued a hope that the landslide win could provide Munster with a sense of momentum in the Guinness Pro12 – even if he is still in the habit of calling it by its former name.
“Consistency is something that’s been evading us now for a number of seasons and we just need to try and get momentum and win games regardless of the scoreline.
If you’re an inconsistent side you’re not going to be competing for trophies at the end of the year – we’ve the Rabo to focus on so it’s going to be massively important that we become a consistent side and build momentum that we started today.”
Though he acknowledged that the pool stage of the Champions Cup had been a disappointing experience, Zebo also suggested that much of the criticism directed at the team has been unfair.
“I think we haven’t played to the best of our ability, but we’ve been getting a bit too much [flack]. There were three semi-finalists in the group and Sale are no pushover either, It was always going to be a really hard group and we just have to make sure we get our consistency right because we know we can beat anyone on our day.
“If we get consistency I’m sure next year the European Champions Cup will be an achievable goal.”
