Munster and their interim head coach Ian Costello were left to lament a seriously misfiring lineout and a lack of accuracy in possession after Bordeaux Bègles ended the province’s hopes of a first Champions Cup semi-final in six seasons at a throbbing Stade Chaban-Delmas.
Costello maintained that even when 29-10 down at the interval a comeback was not beyond his team, not least after Alex Nankivell’s try in added time at the first period.
“Prendy spoke about belief,” said Costello in reference to attack coach Mike Prendergast. “We’re a team that can score quickly if we can keep the ball. Our squad is really fit, very well-conditioned. It was about staying calm and composed. We looked to make some fixes around our lineout and we made sure we were more direct in terms of our handling. We forced a few passes that we didn’t need to when we felt they were under pressure so for the second half it was around addressing that – narrow the focus, stay calm and we could overturn that lead.”
Ultimately, Munster made more carries for more metres in matching the dozen line breaks by UBB but were outscored by six tries to four and their hopes of a comeback weren’t helped by their start to the second half.
“I think if we started the second half well we were capable of overturning a 19-point lead and we missed a couple of opportunities with a forward pass off a maul and an overthrown lineout in that 40-50 minute period when we had them under pressure and we needed to score early. But yeah, first 50, very disappointed with.
“I suppose [there were] two key areas. We struggled with lineout and turned over a lot of ball. Of all teams in European rugby, you turn over the ball against them, you get punished and we did.”
Munster lost nine of their own 21 throws under intense pressure from the UBB defensive lineout.
“We know they’re the best defensive lineout, that’s a real strength of theirs,” said Costello. “We’re disappointed. It’s something we have to look at in the cold light of day. As you said, in that last 15-20 minutes, when we got our game going – and I don’t mean just spirit and character. I never want to take that for granted. I think that was incredible, the way the lads fought back.
“There was so much quality in the way we put them under pressure. Just really disappointing not to get that last score to take us within seven with four or five minutes on the clock when they were down to 13. I would have loved to have seen what that looked like.”
Alex Codling, who had been Munster’s lineout coach on an interim basis, is back with the Ireland women’s teams but Costello would not attribute their difficulties to his absence.
“We’ve got world-class lineout forwards and Alex was in on Thursday with us, on his down day as well. We’ve got some other very capable staff – and we’ve got to problem-solve on the field. I don’t know the reasons why yet. We’ve got to analyse that closely. It’s been a real strength of ours for a while and it’s going to be really important for the rest of the URC season.”
A weary and deflated Tadhg Beirne, the Munster captain, commented: “I thought the fight by Munster was incredible at the end, and the scoreline probably doesn’t reflect that. I’d say towards the end there were a few nervous bodies in Bordeaux but they probably showed their class at the end in terms of how clinical they were, and I think their last try depicted that.
“In the first half, we just couldn’t hold on to the ball and I think that’s something that we’ll be really frustrated with because I think when we did hold on to the ball, we showed what we could do. Some forced offloads or knock-ons and then probably the thing that sticks out most is unfortunately our lineout didn’t function very well today and there’s lots of reasons for that, but you also have to give credit to Bordeaux in terms of how they defended it as well.
“They got in the air very well and we knew they were a big aerial threat. They mirror very well, but there was a lot of errors, whether it was poor calls for me or individual errors in the lineout as well and when you’re at this level of competition, if your lineout doesn’t function when you have as many lineouts as we did, you’re going to be fighting an uphill battle.
“Obviously, I call the lineout so that’s going to be a thing that sticks out for me particularly, but overall you’ve got to just say the class of Bordeaux was there. You saw it from a lot of very good tries on turnover ball and all that, but we just came up short.”
