Funereal would perhaps be a strong term to describe Saturday night’s atmosphere in Bridgend. Given it was the weekend before Christmas, though, festive cheer wasn’t exactly in strong supply either.
You can’t really blame Ospreys fans in attendance. For one, it was a game low on quality, both sides combining to concede 27 turnovers as neither attack took hold. Munster still found four tries on their way to a 26-10 bonus-point victory, the manner in which they managed to cross the line while nowhere near their best a demoralising fact for a home support devoid of good news stories at the moment.
The match week started with confirmation of what had already been reported, the departure of Ospreys’ two best players: Wales internationals Dewi Lake and Jac Morgan. This did little to assuage growing fears that Ospreys will be the Welsh region to get the chop next season. Local media reports have suggested their owners have bid to buy Cardiff, a move which would seemingly make the Welsh Rugby Union’s mind up for them should one of their teams be left without a hand at the tiller.
Once on-field matters returned to focus on Saturday, the Welsh side showed a near complete inability to work through Munster’s rearguard. Not for a lack of trying, the province coughed up plenty of possession while playing too lateral in attack, working into the teeth of Ospreys’ line speed and surviving from a handful of line breaks in the midst of chaos, rather than well-structured play.
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It took Clayton McMillan’s side 17 minutes to break their duck, fullback Max Nagy gifting an opportunity when needlessly tripping Shane Daly on his way through to chasing a kick. Clear yellow card.
Off the resulting penalty kicked to the corner, the understaffed Ospreys line conceded a simple score when Gavin Coombes cleverly feigned a carry, drawing in the last defender close to the ruck before popping from the base for Daly to dive over in the corner.
Ill-discipline and errors prevented Munster from building on that momentum, the rest of Nagy’s sinbin period elapsing unpunished on the scoreboard.
A five-minute span just before half-time killed the contest off, Ospreys unable to capitalise on a blocked Mike Haley kick which saw the ball dribble over the Munster line. The resulting scrum, coming from Daly winning a foot race to boot the ball dead, saw player of the match Alex Nankivell swoop for a breakdown turnover to kill the best Ospreys chance of the half.
Down the other end, Lee Barron got on the end of a rolling maul before Jack Crowley dotted down after Paddy Patterson’s effective swipe.
Just shy of 10 minutes into the second half, Nankivell’s bust and offload set up Haley for the bonus-point score. It was to be Munster’s last contribution to the scoreboard, the Ospreys finding one try for their troubles when penalties allowed a platform inside the 22, Morgan Morris finishing from close range. Jack O’Donoghue was binned as the try came under advantage.
“Our set piece functioned well, I thought our maul was particularly good today,” said McMillan with a nod to Barron’s catch-drive score, not to mention the hooker missing out on a second when held up over the line.
“We had a couple of attacking opportunities, some long defensive sets, what put us under the most pressure was our ill-discipline. In the first half, we gave away way too many penalties. On another day, that’s going to hurt you. Something we have to look at.
“The Ospreys are a team that are fighting for everything at the moment, including their existence. That makes them dangerous, coming off the back of a couple of wins, that would put wind in their sales. I thought they were tenacious, they fought for everything. They didn’t give us anything for free. We’re happy to travel over here and go away with a bonus-point win.”
Scoring sequence – 11 mins: Edwards pen 3-0; 17: Daly try, 3-5; 36: Barron try, Crowley con 3-12; 40: Crowley try & con 3-19; Half-time 3-19; 48: Haley try, Crowley con 3-26; 54: Morris try, Edwards con 10-26;
OSPREYS: Max Nagy; Daniel Kasende, Evradi Boshoff, Owen Watkin, Keelan Giles; Dan Edwards, Reuben Morgan-Williams; Steff Thomas, Dewi Lake, Rhys Henry; Rhys Davies, Ryan Smith; James Ratti, Harri Deaves, Morgan Morris.
Replacements: Morgan Morse for Morris (5-18 mins, blood), Kieran Hardy for Morgan-Williams (HT), Tom Botha for Henry, Keiran Williams for Watkin (both 55), Morse for Deaves (57), Sam Parry for Lake (58), Jack Walsh for Boshoff, Cameron Jones for Thomas (both 63), Huw Sutton for Smith (77).
Yellow card: Nagy (16-26).
MUNSTER: Mike Haley; Calvin Nash, Tom Farrell, Alex Nankivell, Shane Daly; Jack Crowley, Paddy Patterson; Jeremy Loughman, Niall Scannell, Michael Ala’alatoa; Jean Kleyn, Fineen Wycherley; Jack O’Donoghue (capt), Alex Kendellen, Gavin Coombes.
Replacements: Lee Barron for Scannell (31 mins), Conor Bartley for Ala’alatoa and Edwin Edogbo for Kleyn (both 56), Michael Milne for Loughman, JJ Hanrahan for Crowley, John Hodnett for Coombes (all 65), Ethan Coughlan for Patterson (70), Tom Ahern for Wycherley (73).
Yellow card: O’Donoghue (53-63).
Referee: Sam Grove-White (Scotland)
