Gaffney says game plan went to pieces
However, reaching the last eight for the seventh successive year, a new tournament record, was surely cause to pull some chins up from the floor.
Coach Alan Gaffney reminded the vultures: “A win is a win. We’ll be hard on ourselves in the clear light of day, obviously we didn’t perform to our capabilities, but if anyone offered us a guaranteed spot in the quarter-finals before the competition began we would have taken it.”
The soul searching began as soon as Munster closed the changing room door, with Anthony Foley admitting: “It’s about the standards we have set for ourselves. We beat Neath/Swansea Ospreys last week and Harlequins this week, yet the players weren’t happy.
“A few years back they would probably have been delighted, which goes to prove that this team expects high standards of itself.”
Gaffney’s biggest disappointment was that Munster strayed from, or were unable to adhere to, the game plan he figured would make Munster’s passage to victory much easier.
“We pushed our attacks a bit too much and the consequence of that was mistakes,” he said.
“We turned over too much ball and weren’t aggressive enough at the breakdown. We had plenty of first phase possession but didn’t recycle the ball quickly enough to punish Harlequins where we felt they were weak.
“We probably tried to rush moves when we should have been more patient and we needed to be more clinical at the breakdown.
“We had a fair amount of territory in the first-half but turned possession over too often in either the first or second phase. We just never built multi-phase movements. That was the main problem but we also fell off some first-up tackles.
“We haven’t been doing that and it was a bit disturbing. We’ll have to look at that and find ways of making sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Turnovers have been Munster’s biggest concern of late. On Saturday they handed Harlequins back possession on 18 occasions, more than twice the norm.
It was frustrating for the 20,000-plus Munster supporters who watched their side annihilate Harlequins in the lineouts and give them a bit of a pasting in the scrums to boot.
Out of touch, Donncha O’Callaghan, Paul O’Connell and Alan Quinlan, totally eclipsed the opposition.
Pity it didn’t lead to productivity out wide, because with the little daylight they had, Payne and Anthony Horgan looked dangerous.
Defensively, the coach had every reason to be indebted to Christian Cullen for two marvellous tackles, a first-half effort on Dafydd James and another minutes from the end on Harlequins flyer, Ugo Monye.
The second drew praise from Harlequins rugby director Mark Evans who remarked: “That was a classic, I’ve rarely seen anything like it. It was a one-on-one situation with the winger going at full pace and the fullback static. Cullen stalked his man and timed it to perfection. With four or five minutes to go, it would have made for a very interesting scenario had we scored. It might have been a match-winning tackle.”
But as Munster march on, Evans is left to reflect on a poor return from the season and is now under pressure to retain his job at the helm.
He will be disappointed at his side’s inability to snatch a sensational victory rather than produce a praiseworthy display.
Andy Dunne kicked Harlequins into an early lead but they were rocked when Anthony Horgan flew in at the corner off a timely pass from Alan Quinlan. Burke converted.
Munster were relieved when Dunne missed the proverbial sitter in front of the posts and he sent a third penalty wide a couple of minutes later.
Everything appeared to be going according to plan for Munster but Monye’s 27th minute breakaway try, converted by Dunne, off Denis Leamy’s ambitious cross-field toss, put the pressure back on the Irish side.
Munster regained the lead when Leamy ploughed over for an unconverted try in first-half injury time and Burke gave them breathing space with a pair of second-half penalties.
: G. Duffy, S. Keogh, D. James, M. Deane, U. Monye, A. Dunne, S. So’oialo, C. Jones, A. Tiatia, J. Dawson, K. Rudzki, S. Miall, N. Easter, T. Diprose (captain), L. Sherriff.
: J. Staunton for Dunne (54), T. Williams for Duffy (60), R. Winters for Rudzki (62).
: C. Cullen, S. Payne, M. Mullins, R. Henderson, A. Horgan, P. Burke, P. Stringer, M. Horan, F. Sheahan, J. Hayes, D. O’Callaghan, P. O’Connell, A. Quinlan, A. Foley (captain), D. Leamy.
: J. Williams for Foley (72), J. Holland for Henderson (83). Temporary, G. McIlwham for Horan (29-32)
: J. Jutge (France).
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