O’Gara irritated by defensive slip-ups and ‘suicidal passing’

HE had another fine day with the boot — six successful kicks from seven for a total haul of 15 points — yet Ronan O’Gara wasn’t exactly jumping out of his skin with excitement: “It was looking hairy there for a while,” he admitted, “But we managed to regroup. The scores we gave away were disappointing; it was nothing they did, really, it was down to our errors.

“To gift them 21 points, that’s disappointing, left us a bit of work to do. We mixed the very good with the very bad. Tough finish, but I didn’t think we were going to lose the game at any stage. I was probably a bit more confident than ye were, though it felt on the pitch that we were holding a small bit back; it’s disappointing to have to say that, but anytime they came back to us we raised it again and got a score ourselves.

“We should have got a score there at the end for the bonus point, that was frustrating. The thing about this team is we never make things easy for ourselves, do we? It was a great pitch out there, great conditions. We’re trying to develop our game, make it a 15-man game, and at times it looked good, at times it looked terrible. We must rule out those errors — some suicidal passing going on, I don’t know where that’s coming from.”

Could have been because Munster were forcing the game yesterday, looked like they were trying to get the four-try bonus point in the first half alone.

Not so, says O’Gara, that wasn’t in the game plan: “The bonus point was never an issue; we came out here to win. If we win all our games we’ll get a home quarter-final, and that’s our target.”

This was one that could have got away, however. Munster were probably 20 points the better side, but they conceded four tries yesterday, and all four will make for particularly harrowing viewing this week on the team laptops.

Add in the two ‘disallowed’ touchdowns for Bourgoin, and the picture is even more alarming. “Suicidal passing,” Ronan called it, and it was, made this an unnecessarily heart-stopping 90 minutes or so for the massive travelling support in the 16,255 attendance.

Mind you, credit has to go also the ‘home’ side. On and off the field in this competition so far, Bourgoin have been getting a pasting, adding to a reputation as non-triers shamefully earned a few seasons ago, embellished just a few weeks ago when they went to Leicester and took yet another European hammering.

With no hope of winning their way out of this group, the Munster hope — for the fans at least — was that Bourgoin would come to Geneva and die. That wasn’t the case, however, as explained by Bourgoin’s Kiwi second row, Bryce Williams. “We played to win, the guys were all fired up after last week especially (their shock win over Biarritz in the French League); we’ve got a new focus now, and I think we’ve proved we can compete at H-Cup level.”

One aspect of the game that really stood out — the penalty count. Referee Malcolm Changleng of Scotland didn’t win too many French friends on this unique trip to Geneva, was roundly and soundly booed off the pitch at half-time by the noisy Bourgoin support, booed again when he re-emerged.

While wishing to remain diplomatic Bryce too felt a little aggrieved, all the close calls going Munster’s way.

“It did feel like that out there on the field, a few calls at scrum time that could have gone either way but the ref kept on giving them to Munster.”

So, Bourgoin emerge with credit, emerge also with not one, but two bonus points — four tries, and just a seven-point margin of defeat.

In the process, they also denied Munster any bonus, no fourth try, which leaves the Reds needing victory this Saturday over Leicester, to top the group and guarantee a home quarter-final.

Bryce’s bet, on the likely outcome of that one? “That’s a hard one,” he says, “But Munster at home, always.”