What made Munster’s unlikely march to their first trophy in a dozen years last May so wonderful was not only that they did it away from their own famed fortress, but that they also shredded a sequence of imposing home records.
Whereas they went five games unbeaten in South Africa, Glasgow and Leinster’s home from home in the Aviva, this season they have drawn in Benetton and lost away to Ulster, Leinster and Exeter. They’re all fine sides, particularly at home, so there’s no shame in that, and Graham Rowntree is perhaps right not to regard it as especially alarming, or a repeat of their old travel sickness woes.
“I’d be concerned if they were all blowouts,” said the Munster coach in the aftermath of Sunday’s 32-24 loss in Sandy Park. “In all those games we were literally a score away. We were held up over the line in Ulster, Leinster we’re chasing the game at the end there but like today we’re giving teams presents. ‘Have another one. Merry Christmas. Have another present’.
“Those moments we’ve got to get better at. Yeah, we’ve had changes, everyone’s got injuries, yeah, there’s still some young men learning but we’ll look at how we can wrestle back control and look at our composure in the last quarter of the game.”
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Munster now need two wins from their concluding pool games in January to have any hope of a top-two finish and with it a home tie in the round of 16. First, they face a trek to Toulon, who surprisingly prop up the group on two losing bonus points, and the three-time champions and reigning Challenge Cup holders may therefore be fighting for their lives. A week later, Munster host a resurgent Northampton, who top the pool on nine points alongside Exeter.
“Am I confident?” responded Rowntree rhetorically when asked about Munster’s chances of advancing to the knockout stages. “It’s a strange format but I’ve learned to see how things are on the last night of the last pool game. We’ll see where we’re at and we’ll be gunning for it. You know what this tournament means to our club, we’ll be gunning for it.
“We’re gunning for every game. That’s all I can control.”
Rowntree had sardonically noted that Munster are “the world leaders in making life tough for ourselves” and they sure don’t like doing things the easy way. But as Tadhg Beirne intimated, with that comes unrivalled experience of digging themselves out of a hole.
“Yeah, look, we have been in tough positions before, and we will certainly back ourselves. Six points behind Northampton, we play Northampton, if we come away with a win, it’s a four-point turn there. If we come away with a bonus-point win, it’s a five-point turn there.
“So, there is obviously a lot of pressure on us to get victories in the last two games but that’s the situation we find ourselves in, and that’s the situation we are going to have to try get ourselves out of.”
Munster had played some magnificent rugby and scored four fine tries to leave themselves in a promising position at 24-13 ahead against Exeter, but two tries in the space of four minutes entering the final quarter turned the game on its head, and thereafter they could not retrieve the situation.
“We felt we were defending really well. We were just making errors but we said if we stick out their little purple patch, we’d be in control of the game,” said Beirne.
“Unfortunately, they got a try underneath the sticks and straight after they get a pretty lucky try, in my opinion, bounce of a ball.
“That’s the turning of the game for sure. So, we felt like we were in a good position. We were defending our half for long stages of that second half, but we never felt like we were under that much pressure.
“We felt like we were containing them but credit to them, they managed to get under our posts.”
The loss in Exeter compounds the costly draw at home against tournament debutants Bayonne, and Munster can’t afford to rest up over the festive season, all the more so with their catalogue of injuries. A dozen first team squad members remained sidelined of the Exeter game, plus academy lock Edwin Edogbo.
Prior to their two final Champions Cup pool games, Munster host Leinster next Tuesday before facing a New Year’s Day rendezvous with Connacht in the URC. But then again, their annual marquee St Stephen’s Day fixture with Leinster, just four weeks on from their 21-16 defeat against them in the Aviva, could be the best fixture for them.
“Yeah, for sure, it’s a great fixture for the fans and a great fixture for us as well,” said Beirne. “Full to capacity stadium in Thomond Park, unbelievable opportunity to bounce back from the last two weeks, which we were obviously pretty disappointed with.
“Even when we last played Leinster, we felt like we had opportunities there to beat them, so big week ahead. We will have to fix up a lot of things. We’re constantly saying we are learning from these games, but it’s probably time now we start showing it.”
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