Young Munster coach Brian Hickey emerged from the dressing-room after Saturday's victory to a cacophony of approval from supporters making their way to either the bar or the gates of Clifford Park. A fleeting smile passed his lips to be replaced by a slightly bemused expression. The sigh of relief was audible.
Quantifying the importance of this match is best left to the Cork-man: "I found the whole week leading up to this match mentally draining. I knew that my job was on the line. We had just come off two galling defeats and this game was vital. Psychologically we had everything to lose."
If not already blighted by ulcers then Hickey's charges will eventually provide him with several. Munsters had huffed and puffed for 44 minutes in the first half, backed by a strong wind, yet had managed only seven points, against a second string Ballymena team shorn of nine first-team regulars. Young Munster out-half Michael Lynch had missed three relatively straight-forward penalties and there was a growing unease on the terraces.
Sixty seconds effectively decided the outcome. Ballymena out-half Derek McAleese tried to run the ball out of his own 22 on the short side, was tackled and carelessly flung the ball away. Young Munster centre Noel O'Meara was quickest to react, twice hacking on the ball before gratefully plunging on it for an opportunist try. Lynch's fine conversion made the error all the more galling for the visitors.
Ballymena's South African coach Andre Bester maintained that the try was the turning point of the afternoon. "Up until then we had been competing reasonably well, outside of the scrums, and had enjoyed one or two good field positions of our own. Conceding that try posed a huge psychological hurdle for the players. After that basic errors, the lack of cohesion that you would expect from a scratch side and gifting a couple of tries all conspired to seal our fate."
So was he right to turn down the IRFU's offer of a postponement? "I still believe that we made the right decision. If we go on to win the championship then I guarantee that match will have helped us to achieve that in an indirect way. A lot of lessons were there to be learned."
Hickey concurred that the score-line was perhaps a little harsh on the visitors. "I thought they gave us a much tougher game than that. Certainly if you took three players out of my team, let alone nine, I wouldn't be able to compete the way that they did."
His graciousness should not deflect from that fact that it was Munsters themselves - and particularly the wasted penalty opportunities - and not Ballymena who contrived to make the afternoon more difficult.
Utterly dominant in the scrums, to the extent that Ballymena were driven off their own ball on five occasions, Munsters were initially guilty of over-elaboration, bemused by the breadth of options open to them. They were also handicapped by unforced errors, turning over possession six times in the opening 15 minutes. After the interval a more simplistic approach of pick and drive from the pack produced greater success. In this respect Des Clohessy, Matt Webber and Ger Earls were superb in a pack which responded wholeheartedly to them.
The pick of their five tries came in the 66th minute when Earls intercepted Alex McCloy's pass, Des Clohessy made significant yardage and when the Munsters pack had finished, scrum-half Derek Tobin provided right wing Denis O'Dowd with an easy score.
Ballymena could not match the physical intensity and several of their number appeared a little overawed and unsure. However, Chris McCarey, Andy Graham, Steven Ritchie and Stanley McDowell showed they clearly had the stomach for the battle. Having resigned themselves to losing the two points, there was never going to be any acrimony about team performance. But restored to rude good health in personnel terms, Ballymena will provide a much more daunting prospect.
Scoring sequence: 22 mins: D Tobin try, Lynch con, 7-0; 45: N O'Meara try, Lynch con, 14-0. 44: Lynch pen, 17-0; 53: P Clohessy try, Lynch con, 24-0; 66: O'Dowd try, 29-0; O'Dowd try, Lynch con, 36-0.
Young Munster: P Boland; D O'Dowd, N O'Meara, S McCahill, R Larkin; M Lynch, D Tobin; D Clohessy, M Hayes, P Clohessy (capt); M O'Halloran, D O'Meara; B Buckley, M Webber, G Earls. Replacements: D Edwards for O'Halloran (69 mins), M Fitzgerald for D Clohessy (74 mins), F Cusack for N O'Meara (76 mins).
Ballymena: S Stewart; M Boyd, J Wells, S McDowell, D Macartney (capt); D McAleese, A McCloy; N McKernan, S Ritchie, R Lorimer; P McBride, R West; A Graham, J Andrews, C McCarey. Replacements: W McAllister for Lorimer (55 mins), A Stewart for Ritchie (68 mins), N Robson for McCloy (68 mins), A Robinson for West (73 mins), D O'Kane for McCarey (72 mins).
Referee: J Dume (France).
