O’Connell: loss of momentum cost us dearly
“If we had continued playing like we had been playing in the first-half, we would have been in with a great chance,” he said. “We conceded momentum too many times in the first 15 minutes of the second half, left them get a bit of a rumble on in the maul and they were getting over the gain-line. It doesn’t matter what you do at the breakdown after that, you’re going to be chasing your tail. That’s what happened at the start of the second half, and it turned the momentum in their favour.”
Munster had been going so well in that first half, and were giving a masterclass in how to contain a difficult opponent in their home fortress.
“We did some things very well, at times we defended exactly as we wanted to defend, said O’Connell. “But it’s a simple game, you concede the gain-line in rugby and you’re going to be chasing your tail – we did that once or twice and they punished us.”
Munster were also punished by a certain Mr Wayne Barnes, a referee who can’t seem to avoid controversy.
In the final quarter especially, it seemed like every time Munster made it into the Clermont half they were penalised, O’Connell himself was pinged on one occasion for going off his feet in the ruck when he was still clearly on his feet. Frustrating? Were they refereed perhaps a bit harshly?
“A bit at times, yes, but Wayne is a good referee. We pride ourselves on our discipline, it’s one of the strongest parts of our game; it was probably a bit of our own fault, but one or two decisions also went against us.”
Thankfully for Munster, however, there was one decision near the end that didn’t go against them, a penalty about five metres inside their own half that was probably not kickable, but then moved forward ten metres when a Clermont player threw the ball away – into O’Gara range.
“Yeah, and Rog kicked it, solid as a rock – it’s a pleasure to play with him. I thought then we were going to win it, we got good ball, executed the phases very well, but when we were getting to the third or fourth phase we were pinged a lot and it cost us. The final pass was also going astray on occasions and that’s disappointing. Our skill levels have improved a lot this year, that’s something we’ve worked very hard on. We need to correct that, but it’s only our second game together after the internationals and we’re looking forward to playing in Thomond Park next week.”
Munster can expect another huge physical challenge. This was as hard a game as he has ever played in, reckoned hooker Frankie Sheahan.
“It was as tough as you’re ever going to come across, these guys were really going for it, you could feel every hit and tackle. They really turned it around after the break, put a lot of high balls down on us, had some great kick-chases, some fantastic hits, and they piled into the rucks, got turnovers, won penalties. There are points in games where the momentum changes, and I’d be more for giving them credit than knocking ourselves.”
The real turning-point came with the Clermont try, and what set that up was a very rare strike against the head.
“It was a perfect scrum, perfect strike (by me), but it just happens that sometimes the ball can hit off the legs of your own second-row, and that’s what happened, it rebounded to their side.
“It’s cup rugby from now on, we’ve just got to win every game. I don’t think we’ve ever won all six games in the pool, maybe we need to lose one to focus. They had to win today, they did. We had to get something out of it, we did. Now we have to win next week, get our four points, which should effectively knock them out. If we win our games, it doesn’t matter what anyone else does.”
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