REACTION: MUNSTER WEREN'T doing cartwheels after another defeat on English soil on opening weekend but psychologically, their 80th-minute bonus point gives them some reward for their daring approach from first whistle to last and something to bite on in the build-up to the visit of Toulon next Saturday. As an aside, it also keeps them level with the Ospreys.
“Yeah, we got a bonus point but we’re disappointed with the result,” admitted captain Denis Leamy. “We came here to win and we didn’t do that, and that’s a hugely disappointing thing. As ever, we dug really deep out of a massive hole we created for ourselves, and we got a bonus point. It’s a positive thing but look, it’s four points lost really, so it is disappointing.
“We were probably creators of our own downfall in many ways,” he admitted. “Our discipline wasn’t what it needed to be. We obviously gave away an intercept try – it was unfortunate but these things happen. The positive thing is that we got that bonus point, and at the end of the day, it’s something to take out of here.”
The assertion by Toby Booth that London Irish had controlled all bar the first and last five minutes prompted an incredulous Leamy to remark: “I don’t know what game he was watching. I have a different perspective on that. We certainly put ourselves in a position which we wouldn’t want to be doing regularly. We gave away a lot of penalties in the first half, and we come out then and give away an intercept try. We’re suddenly 20-6 points down, and it’s obviously very difficult from there. But I was delighted with the attitude – the lads came off the bench and put in a great shift.”
Mindful that they had been “a little bit too defensive against Leinster”, Leamy conceded: “We’ve got to be a bit more direct, definitely. We’ve got to go forward more rather than going a little bit lateral, but it’s still early days.”
Looking ahead to the must-win game at home to Toulon, Leamy also pinpointed discipline and “we need to tighten up our lineout a little bit more. We need to be winning ball in our lineout, and that gives us a big platform to play off. It’s a huge thing for us, it always has been a huge thing for us. If we could iron out those little things it would go a long way to rectifying what went wrong tonight.”
That it took Munster all of 80 minutes to eventually prevent two try-less outings in succession was in large part down to the Dave Ellis-drilled London Irish defence. “Munster surprised us a little bit,” admitted Ryan Lamb. “I thought, especially away from home, they were going to kick us down to the corners, but Munster are a good side and Johne Murphy had a good game at fullback and their back three are very dangerous so we had to switch on to that.
“Our defence was very good. We were under the cosh a little bit especially at one time when we were on our five-metre line but we held them out, so it is great credit to our defence. It is definitely up there with one of our best defensive performances of the season.”
