O’Driscoll so proud of Thomond tigers

HE was battered, he was bruised, but on a night when another slice of history was denied only by a harsh call from referee Roman Poite, Mick O’Driscoll couldn’t have been more proud of his men.

“It’s a very disappointed changing-room at the moment. We possibly deserved more out of the game, but to be beaten by two points by arguably the best side in the world, with a team that was missing ten or 11 guys, you’d probably take it. But it was very disappointing all the same.”

The penalty which led to the match winning try was the killer. Almost on the halfway line, the ball seemed to have eased out of a New Zealand ruck when the skipper got boot to ball, in behind the All-Black backs.

Cue a massive cheer from the home fans, cue a whistle-blast from the French official, cue boos.

New Zealand opted for the lineout, from which came that final decisive move. Mick’s view of the call?

“I’d like to see it from the far side, I know the ref was blindside but I was 100% the ball was out. I suppose I’m going to say that anyway but I’d admit it if I was wrong.

“We had fought our way back to that stage, but that’s what happens. It’s an 80-minute game, possibly one or two decisions went against us but I think that overall, the ref did a good job. But I’m very proud to be a Munsterman tonight.”

It was an inspired performance from the men in red which lifted the capacity crowd to new noise levels even for Thomond Park. But how much were they themselves inspired by the men of 78? “That was part of it, we met a few of them today, they were in for lunch, we had a good chat with them, but to be honest, when you’re playing New Zealand, you don’t need guys to tell you who you’re playing and how tough they’re going to be. For us it was a great honour to play against New Zealand tonight – unfortunately we came out the wrong side of the result.

“Obviously it’s very special to play an international team, and to play the All-Blacks, the best team in the world, you don’t need any extra inspiration for that. I suppose on paper we were massive underdogs but the heart and commitment that the boys showed on the pitch, the work done by the coaching staff for the last couple of weeks, was absolutely immense. We have come so close and yet so far, but we gave it everything we had and it wasn’t good enough on the night. Fair play to them, they were the better team, we’ve got to live with that.”

A bitter loss, then, but a moral victory, perhaps, Munster probably the better side on the night? “That’s irrelevant; I’m sorry to say that but all that will be remembered, at the end of the day, is the result and unfortunately we were beaten. What can I say? Very proud of the lads tonight, we have to be proud of ourselves, move on – beaten by a better side, that’s it.”