Champions Cup: Munster 33 Stade Francais 7
There was quite a bit to unpack in Munster’s Champions Cup bonus point win; five tries, two red cards, a yellow card that was borderline, some outstanding individual performances, spearheaded by Peter O’Mahony’s contribution and that of the official man-of-the-match Thaakir Abrahams while the quality ran deep through the supporting cast.
Shane Daly’s try was a beauty of his own creation and a lovely way to celebrate his 100th cap, Alex Nankivell (apart from a heart-in-mouth moment with the tackle) was consistently excellent in a backline that all chipped in with cameos of quality. Craig Casey and Jack Crowley – who made light of the conditions with brilliant placekicking – controlled the game intelligently and with flair.
South African prop Dian Bleuler had a super game, so too John Ryan, Alex Kendellen and Fineen Wycherley, but the pack were excellent to a man with the imperious O’Mahony in the van. The lineout was flawless – chapeau tip to Alex Codling – the scrum unyielding and the breakdown work producing quick ball.
There was further good news in the aftermath with confirmation that props Dave Kilcoyne and Oli Jager will be available for next Friday’s game against Castres Olympique. A decision on Conor Murray’s injury issue and his availability will be confirmed on Tuesday.
Stade Francais travelled minus a glut of frontline players but played some decent rugby, enterprising if lacking a cutting edge, but that effort unravelled in four minutes of madness early in the second half when they lost Pierre-Henri Azagoh and Baptiste Pesenti, in that order, to red cards.
The first was bang to rights for a swinging arm to O’Mahony’s head, the second for turning Casey upside down before returning him to earth on his back. In arguing the semantics of Pesenti’s actions and the colour of the card it merited, it should first be stated that it is not a legitimate tackle motion or attempt. It was a reckless, dangerous act.
Stade head coach Paul Gustard said: “It’s difficult to watch. The first one, probably no complaints, the second one was one of those that looks a bit worse than it was. I can understand why it was a red card.”
The French side showed character when down to 13-men for the final 28 minutes and they managed to score a try and threaten another.
The first 20-minutes of the contest spun on an axis of mistakes at times, a helter-skelter exchange of possession that ramped up the excitement levels, but once the contest settled into a less frenetic rhythm it was Munster that played with the greater composure, and most importantly discipline.
There was plenty to admire in their work for the first 95-metres of the pitch, nice shape to underpin handling, offloading and lines of running, backs and forwards swapping roles with equal facility, but on a handful of occasions those final five metres proved troublesome, players struck down by white-line fever rather than appreciating the space; it cost them two or three tries and an easier afternoon.
Why can't Irish rugby produce players with genuine pace?
Munster’s interim head coach Ian Costello examined the micro and macro aspects. “Again, we don’t get too caught up in stats, but good data mixed with your own kind of feel for the game is pretty powerful.
“Mikey (Prendergast) would have had a strong sense that we were getting into that area of the field a lot and that was backed up, we’re in the top couple in the league. But then conversely, our conversion rate isn’t where we’d expect. So that has been a focus, and it will continue to be a focus.
“I think we convert two or three of those and that’s a completely different game in terms of the arm wrestle.”
Munster had established a 14-point cushion by the interval, Abrahams squeezing over in the corner after Casey’s sharp work and the second, while a man down with Nankivell in the bin, from Daly’s footballing artistry.
The home side exacted maximum retribution immediately after each of Stade’s red cards, Kendellen burrowing over from a lineout maul and then some fine team interplay creating space for the excellent Tom Farrell to canter over unopposed. Crowley converted all four tries; his only failure was in repeating the outcome to Gavin Coombes’ late effort.
Costello was asked for an overview of the afternoon. “Stade chose to play into the wind. We were comfortable with that, focusing on a fast start. We were able to lay some of those elements down in the first half, a step forward around pace (of play), I think our set piece went up a notch as well, we got a lot of turnovers, including a few choke tackles tonight which was ironic because it was something that we focused on them being very good at. So yeah, a step forward but plenty to go.”
He confirmed that New Zealander Chris Boyd, the former Hurricanes and Northampton Saints head coach who will work with Munster in a short-term consultative capacity, arrived on Thursday and met the coaching group and players.
Costello said: “His role is going to be around giving us support. We have talked about tapping into the knowledge and experience he has and squeezing every drop out of that. Everything that makes us better and he is going to offer us a huge amount in the next six or seven weeks, but it is business as usual for all the coaches in terms of our day-to-day function and our match day functions.”
Scoring sequence: 15 mins: Abrahams try, Crowley con 7-0; 29: Daly try, Crowley con, 14-0; Half-time: 14-0; 49: Kendellen try, Crowley con 21-0; 54: Farrell try, Crowley con 28-0; 58: Castets try, Henry con 28-7; 78: Coombes try 33-7.
MUNSTER: S Daly; C Nash, T Farrell, A Nankivell, T Abrahams; J Crowley, C Casey; D Bleuler, D Barron (capt), J Ryan; E O’Connell, F Wycherley; P O’Mahony, A Kendellen, G Coombes. Replacements: B Burns for Nash (HIA, 12-24 mins); N Scannell for Barron, T Beirne for O’Connell (both 50); S Archer for Ryan, J Hodnett for Kendellen (both 56); P Patterson for Casey, J O’Donoghue for O’Mahony (both 59); K Ryan for Bleuler, B Burns for Abrahams (both 69); Casey for Daly (HIA, 77 mins).
Yellow card: Nankivell (24 mins).
STADE FRANCAIS: J Jonas; C Laloi, J Marchant, P Boudehent, S Ezeala; Z Henry, T Motassi; C Castets, L Peyresblanques, F Gomez Kodela; P-H Azagoh, B Pesenti; P Huguet, R Chapuis (capt), Y Tanga. Replacements: L Petriashvili for Peyresblanques (24-34 and 59 mins); S Turagacoke for Tanga, J Martin Scelzo for Jonas (both 51); A Timo for Huguet (60); L Foursans-Bourdette for Motassi, L Carbonel for Ezelea (both 73).
Red cards: Azagoh (48 mins), Pesenti (52).
Referee: L Pearce (England).
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