Kelleher: Don’t blame Munster tactics - we blew this ourselves
Afterwards Kelleher admitted to bawling his eyes out as the evening and the loss marked the end of his All Black adventure before he set about beginning a new life in the south west of France.
Tears were absent this time round, but he said he had left behind a very emotional Toulouse dressing-room.
The scrum-half praised his opposite number, Tomás O’Leary, attributed Munster’s success to a solid and consistent set of forwards and the fleet-footedness of his Kiwi friends.
But egged on by a group of English journalists, who seemed narked that Munster’s modus operandi in the last 10 minutes was bad for the competition, Kelleher reckoned Munster won ugly because that is what Cup rugby has become, citing the Rugby World Cup as an example.
“It was similar to the RWC,” he explained. “The RWC is played in a similar style where teams will go into a nutshell and just play quite safe and boring rugby to win the game.
“I don’t think it’s bad for the competition though. I think 60 minutes of the game was pretty enjoyable and I’m sure most of the fans enjoyed it, which is great. Finals are about winning and you do what it takes to win.
“We’ve got the experience here. The French certainly know how to win important games, especially Toulouse. So we talked about the fact that if we had a man 10 minutes in the bin we’d try to slow the game down, hold onto position of the ball. Just to make sure that we play winning rugby rather than expansive flair rugby with 14 men on the field. Ironically when we were down to 14 men, we saw our best piece of rugby. I think we have a well-balanced team and know how to grind a game out. But it didn’t happen today.”
He added: “We lost the game today because I felt they were more physical at the breakdown which slowed our ball down. It is very difficult to attack off slow ball. It gave us one way of playing which was the kicking opportunity. But when we did create opportunities, I think we took the wrong option by kicking.”
He said they were prepared for every eventuality.
“We certainly knew what they were going to get up to because we discussed it at player review work. They know how to shut down a game and close it off and I’m sure we would have done the same. It’s frustrating but we got a couple of chances our way. We wanted to retain possession, get a penalty and go into extra time.”
The appointment of referee, Nigel Owens, became a bigger talking point after the match than before it, but Kelleher wasn’t going to get into a slagging match. “Around the ruck time, I thought we were unfortunate with a couple of the decisions. He is a good referee. He does know their game, certainly if he has refereed for them for five games. But let’s not suck on a lemon — that’s the way it goes and I’m sure I gave him enough noise out there to try give us an advantage!”
Kelleher was magnanimous in defeat, but probably feels he will bounce back with Toulouse next season and challenge for the title again in a rugby culture he has grown to love. He also had words of praise for Munster and his counterpart, O’Leary.
“Munster have a great pack, solid and consistent were the words to describe them all season.
“The New Zealand style of rugby certainly helps Munster — they like to fight for the ball on the ground, to close down the opportunity for the attacking team.
“As for Tomas, he’s a good young half-back and took some good opportunities today, and he’s also able to work the forwards quite nicely. I heard O’Gara outside him screaming all day for direction. He’s got some good class outside him as well.”
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