Munster ‘started scoring tries left, right and centre’
They were a throw-back to his days at NPC sides Otago and Auckland, but the comparison goes back further to teenage years at Kelston Boys’ High, where he first learnt of Munster’s win over All Blacks in 1978.
What he heard then is that they had a ferocious pack and, almost 30 years later, he adds that “not much has changed around here, mate.
“I never experienced anything like that out there,” adds Meeuws, who is of Dutch and Maori descent.
“What a club match, and no wonder this Thomond Park is a temple to Munster rugby. We couldn’t control your mauls. We tried damn hard but the more players that joined it made our task harder.
“Munster are very physical side. We felt it up front today and it’s not often you see a French pack and a few of us Kiwis out-fought and out-muscled. If Munster play like this for the rest of the competition, they are going to do really well.”
Meeuws was remarkably upbeat despite such a heavy defeat. In his book Le Rugbyman he talks about the French club rugby mentality where home games are seen as win certainties. That may border on arrogance but, he writes, French teams are not too bothered about losing away from home.
He said coach Laurent Seigne took it upon himself to experiment against Munster on Saturday. But Thomond is no place for boys.
“We’re a young side rebuilding and that’s the difference,” said the 45
-times capped All Black. “This is an experienced Munster team and they took it up a notch. We had a few injuries coming into this game.
“Last week we said we’d give the younger guys a crack at the Heineken Cup and on Saturday we probably fielded our youngest ever line-up. But that didn’t seem to help matters either. We turned over ball at crucial times and that’s what crucified us.
“We can’t get down on ourselves. For many of them it’s their first time playing at this level. We have to restructure the team. Many players left last season and many came in during the summer, so we’re rebuilding.
“If we become too critical of these young guys, they are going to become disillusioned. Definitely we’ll assess where everything went wrong and carry on from there.”
Meeuws feels Castres did their best to win and at the interval he felt confident of overcoming Munster.
“We came over here and gave it a good crack but we just weren’t good enough on the day,” he added.
“The same thing happened to us last week. We started off really well, the confidence was there and then we dropped off towards the end. We did win but the performance was inconsistent against Dragons.
“We had our No. 15 playing at out half and we weren’t getting the ball over the advantage line. Our back line could not break through. The Munster defence was shutting us down over the advantage line and it made it really hard for our forwards to get back and try and get forward again.
“That’s one of the areas we will have to work on for the next game.
“Munster are a classy side and definitely when you have to play them in their backyard, it’s a hard task. We thought we were in with a chance at half time, but they took it up another level. They also got quick turnover ball and we didn’t react quickly enough. Then they started scoring tries left, right and centre.”
Still, Munster will enter Stade Pierre Antoine in January knowing a win is a must, and Castres will be a different animal at home.
“It’s obviously going to be a different matter in the south of France. We’ve got to take the positives out of this match, look at the negatives and work from that. If Munster play like this for the rest of the competition, they’re going to do really well in the pool.
“It’s going to be really tight at the end. Sale had a big win on Friday night and they look like favourites now to top it. So it’s probably between Munster and us for second place, if that will be good enough to help us qualify. There are going to be some really tough battles in the remaining fixtures.”
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