Kidney thinks positive despite error-ridden Munster win

IGNORE the scoreline; this Magners League game could have finished 50-7, such was the dominance of the home side.

The reason it didn’t is simple, a host of unforced errors with the try-line in sight by a succession of Munster players.

The Dragons only score — a converted try by out-half Aled Thomas — even came off a Munster error, a rare bobbled pass by Ronan O’Gara that fell into the wrong hands.

It was typical mid-table end-of-season fare from two sides with nothing left to play for.

There was an edge, at the breakdown particularly, but then any time you have Alan Quinlan on the park you’re going to have edge. Never less than a hundred-percenter anyway, throw in the fact that the abrasive Tipp flanker still has a point to prove to Ireland coach Eddie O’ Sullivan with a World Cup places up for grabs, and it was understandable why Quinny was putting himself about.

Put himself about he did, he ended up doing a sterling job in the second-row alongside man-of-the-match Mick O’Driscoll, after Donncha O’Callaghan went off with a shoulder injury in the 51st minute.

Having played with the strong breeze, the visitors led 7-3 at the break, that try gifted to Thomas.

Dragons could have had two more but for the ineptitude of Aled Brew, who kicked the ball dead in the first instance with the line at his mercy and dropped the pass in the second.

Munster had opportunities of their own, none better than the outstanding O’Driscoll, who lost the ball within inches of the line after one of a host of superb driving mauls by Munster.

“Kind of stupid,” he candidly admitted. “I knew I wouldn’t make it but I was still reaching out to try and touch it down; I had to try and whip it back, lost control of it. I should never have gone for it — if I hadn’t, we’d probably have scored in the next phase.”

The irony was that at that stage Munster were a man down, Marcus Horan having incurred the displeasure of a very poor referee, one Andrew MacPherson of Scotland. O’Gara had Munster’s only score of the half, a penalty after a high tackle on Barry Murphy.

Munster really should have put a very poor Dragons to the sword after the break. Within minutes of the restart they had a one-man advantage, openside James Ringer given a 10-minute break after taking Quinlan out at the side of a maul, sparking a brief bout of fisticuffs; two minutes later Munster were two men up, Dragons number 8 and captain joining Ringer in the bin after taking O’Driscoll out at a lineout.

At least twice in the next five minutes Munster should have made that advantage tell; twice failed. They did eventually manage to make their extra power tell, a pushover try in the 55th minute, Leamy emerging with the ball but O’Callaghan was credited with the try. With both sides back to full strength they managed the same trick again in the 63rd minute, Leamy definitely the man with the final touch on this occasion, O’Gara hitting the conversion, to end the scoring.

A win, but not at all what Munster were looking for, as admitted by coach Declan Kidney. “We made an awful lot of turnovers, no doubt about that. I’ve seen these lads train during the week and their approach is the same throughout the season, they’re very hard on themselves. It’s not on purpose (that we knock-on) but we have to have a look at why it’s happening, not let it be an excuse, try and improve for the next day. It wasn’t the way we wanted to play but how much of that goes down to the way the Dragons defended against us, how much goes down to our own stuff? We’ll have to look at the video.”

Mick O’Driscoll epitomised the honest effort referred to by Kidney, reflected also that what the coach said was true, these players are indeed very self-critical. “We’re making a lot of mistakes recently, it’s a thing we’re trying to get out of our game. It’s been the story of our season really, and it’s not making things easy. Certainly in the long run it’s something (to work on).”

Kidney probably summed it up best. “Occasionally, you have to go through days like this to know what it’s like to win ugly, and this was a new definition of that.”

Mind you, for the coach and for the Munster faithful there were also some positives. “I know they got some experience last year, but Ian (Dowling), Barry (Murphy) and Lifeimi (Mafi) are all getting more games, as is Brian Carney.

“Tomás (O’ Leary) is getting a lot of time at scrum-half, John O’Sullivan had an excellent first-half. That experience is going to be vital to us going forward, instead of relying on the same bunch of eight or nine.”

MUNSTER: C. Cullen; I. Dowling, B. Murphy, L. Mafi, B. Carney; R. O’Gara, T. O’Leary; M. Horan, F. Sheehan, J. Hayes; D. O’Callaghan, M. O’Driscoll; A. Quinlan, J. O’Sullivan, D. Leamy.

Replacements: F. Pucciariello (temp. O’Sullivan 21-31, permanent Horan 62); M. Lawlor (Carney inj. 37); D. Wallace (O’Callaghan inj. 59); B. O’Meara (Lawlor inj. 80+1).

DRAGONS: M. Thomas; R. Fussell, P. Emerick, P. Dollman, A. Brew; A. Thomas, A. Walker; A. Black, B. Daly, R. Thomas; A. Hall, P. Sidoli; J. Bearman, J. Ringer, M. Owen (c).

Replacements: I. Gough (Hall 69); S. Jones (Daly 69); K. Morgan (Brew inj. 80+3).

Referee: A. MacPherson (SRU).