Donal Lenihan: Munster need to look in the mirror
Munster's Tadhg Beirne and Niall Scannell dejected as Connacht's Jack Carty and Tom Daly celebrate winning the PRO14 Rainbow Cup clash. Picture: INPHO/James Crombie
Munster, once again, have to live with the consequences of bombing at the very moment when a PRO14 Rainbow Cup win at home would have all but guaranteed them a place in an enticing, first-ever club final between northern and southern hemisphere club sides.
With a decent-looking schedule of the Cardiff Blues at home and Zebre away, a win over Connacht last Friday night would have made it very difficult for others to close the gap. You can just imagine the reaction in the Leinster dressing room to the result from Limerick when news filtered through that Connacht, who they had filleted in Galway the previous weekend, had rocked up at Thomond Park and beaten Munster to offer Leo Cullen’s men a lifeline in advance of their game against Ulster.
Why do Munster continue to shoot themselves in the foot and make life so difficult for themselves?
The Rainbow Cup has proved a lot more enticing than anticipated. That has been facilitated by kick-starting its local derbies.
Ireland have Test matches against Japan and USA in July and with players away on Lions duty there are opportunities available for fringe players to capture the attention of Andy Farrell. The prospect of facing the Blue Bulls or the Sharks, in a unique decider, to be potentially hosted in Italy or Croatia on June 19, offers an enticing target for the Irish provinces.
On the very day the prospect of that showdown was announced, Munster fluffed their lines against a Connacht side who upped the physicality levels appreciably from that comprehensive home defeat to Leinster and refused to lie down in the face of Munster’s early superiority.
Munster will rue the fact that two tries were disallowed after the intervention of TMO Joy Neville, who was only doing her job. Captain Peter O’Mahony finished the evening in a very animated debate with Welsh referee Dan Jones, while CJ Stander didn’t disguise his frustration with some of the refereeing calls after the match.
However, Munster need to look in a mirror when identifying reasons why they lost this one.
As always, they must now do things the hard way.
