Kidney laments costly mistakes and turnovers

QUIETLY but emphatically, Munster coach Declan Kidney made no secret of his disappointment at losing yesterday’s Heineken Cup game in Clermont. His only consolation was that the side did enough to claim a bonus point, their third in five matches, a point that leaves them very much in contention for a quarter-final place after Saturday’s visit of London Wasps to Thomond Park.

“The bonus point is obviously welcome but it was still a loss and that’s how we judge ourselves,” he maintained.

“For the first 30 minutes, it looked like we were going to be rightly opened up but we managed to stay in it somehow. The bonus might be beneficial tomorrow but today we’ve lost a game and we have to take a serious look as to how it happened.

“We made a lot of turnovers and a lot of mistakes and seemed to cough up an awful of ball in that first 32 minutes. Credit to Clermont, I thought they showed a lot of composure and experience when they were down to 13 players. It was impossible to get the ball off them in those mauling situations and if you don’t have the ball, you can’t score. We were just staying courageous in the hope of getting a bonus point.”

Kidney remained non-committal about the cut to Ronan O’Gara’s ear that necessitated 20 stitches, claiming mischievously that he was too high up in the stand to see anything.

“I went over to Ronan at half time and he told me to tell the forwards to run with the ball and I told him I’ll do that. It’s a measure of his strength that he was there being stitched and still had a word for his forwards.”

While Clermont were more than a little unhappy with referee Rob Debney, Kidney also had a quibble or two. Kidney said: “He (Debney) was put in a very tough situation and was brave and was his own man.”

Losing Heineken Cup or indeed any games doesn’t sit very easily with Kidney: “If you want to pile on the negatives, we’ve lost two pool games. There’s a touch of reality saying that we’ve lost while at the same time we’ve given ourselves a chance. That’s what this pool was all about and we’re going into round six with something to play for and a lot of teams would like to be in that position. That said, we’re meeting the European champions when they have something to play for and it doesn’t come any harder than that, even playing at home.”

Kidney was happy at the contributions made by Tony Buckley and Alan Quinlan when they came into the game but has a concern about the knock to the shoulder sustained by the John Hayes, who had another outstanding game. While Doug Howlett had some less than impressive moments in his first game for Munster, the coach is happy that this, his first match since October, will stand to him on Saturday and over the coming weeks.

“I think it’s very unfair to ask any human being, no matter what he has done in the past, to come in and slot into a team,” Kidney maintained. “He’s probably disappointed at going down and giving them three points in the second half but that game is worth four training sessions to him. I don’t think there’s any question of Paul O’Connell playing next weekend. He had a bit of a setback during the week and we now have to take a look at the best form of rehab for him. I’m not a medic but it will probably be two weeks at least before he can play.”

Meanwhile Clermont coach Vern Cotter is reconciled to missing out on the quarter-finals having failed to take a bonus point yesterday. Even if they pick up five points away to Llanelli on Saturday, it is virtually mathematically impossible for them to progress, making the decision to send an under-strength side to Thomond Park in November all the more difficult to understand. “It was very early in the season and we had a longer term game plan,” Cotter argued.

He is a very pragmatic individual, very similar in many ways to Kidney, and wasn’t going to be trapped into having a go at referee Rob Debney, something which the vast majority of his team’s supporters had no difficulty in doing!

“It’s never nice to see a referee having to be escorted off the field but I can understand the frustration of the players and supporters. Some of the decisions weren’t consistent but that’s part of the game. We knew Munster had the quality to come back at us. I was impressed with their resolve while at the same time pleased with our own guys as well. This game could have gone either way.”