Expansive becomes expensive for Munster

It is not often you hear those sorts of com-plaints after a rollicking good rugby match and even rarer when the charge is levelled at Munster.

Yet the frustration was evident after an opening Heineken Cup defeat to English Premiership leaders London Irish at the Madejski Stadium, the concerns eased only by a late try from Sam Tuitupou that earned Munster a deserved losing bonus point that could well make a difference come January.

Before then, a lack of discipline in the first half coughed up four penalty kicks from the unerring boot of Exiles fly-half Ryan Lamb, there were lineout problems throughout and mistakes were ruthlessly punished, Irish wing Topsy Ojo pouncing on a stray Johne Murphy pass just after the interval to put the home side 20-6 ahead.

Throw in Tuitupou’s reckless and dangerous first-half tackle on Irish scrum-half Paul Hodgson that earned the centre a yellow card just seven days after midfield partner Lifeimi Mafi committed a similarly terrible tackle against Leinster. That earned Mafi a seven-week ban and Munster head coach Tony McGahan will be waiting anxiously to see if a similar fate befalls Tuitupou.

In the meantime, both the provincial boss and team captain Denis Leamy made it clear that expansive rugby in the wrong areas of the field against an adventurous London Irish side that was equally accomplished defensively was the wrong prescription for victory.

McGahan picked up from the immediate post-match analysis given by fly-half Ronan O’Gara that Munster did not deserve victory, “were not accurate enough”, that “discipline wasn’t good enough and we lacked ruthlessness”.

“I was disappointed going in at half-time,” the head coach said. “I thought our discipline was certainly an area we could improve on. There were actions out there that needed to be taken and where I thought we took a soft option and didn’t trust ourselves.

“I thought we probably tried to play too much rugby at times without gathering a platform to mount a challenge. We really ran up a lot of dead alleys at times in the first half and they played smart.

“We felt compelled to play in our bottom 30 up to our halfway to keep pushing the envelope at times and in Heineken Cup rugby with top forwards it’s like Test rugby and you need to make sure you have an opportunity and if it’s not there you need to make sure you’re less pressured and we didn’t do that well enough.”

Leamy was equally confounded by Munster’s break with type, particularly on the heels of last week’s forward-orientated, no-quarter given Magners League defeat to Leinster.

“It was a very open game, different to last week, which was a lot more attritional,” the skipper said. “There was a lot more in and around the ruck but this week there just seemed to be a lot of ball in play, it was being off-loaded and flung out in all different directions. Irish play a very expansive game and possibly we got caught up in it a little. But it was exciting. There were handling errors here and there but you’re going to have that in this sort of game.”

The intercept try from Ojo was the prime exhibit for the prosecution as Murphy attempted to find Denis Hurley on the left touchline but it was the general approach that was of more concern to Leamy.

“Did we force it a bit much? We went out to play. Our mindset was to go out and play and not to let them come at us. At times we felt we were probably a bit too defensive against Leinster and it was important that we went out pushed things a little bit.

“Sometimes you end up going wide and that’s just the way it developed. That’s where we saw the options were and we tried to get the metres.

“Unfortunately we probably came out the other side. The ref gave some decisions against us when we tried to play a little bit too much rugby and that reflected on the scoreboard with the penalties Ryan Lamb kicked.”

An extremely happy Irish head coach Toby Booth had dismissed Munster’s successful late push for a losing bonus point as “irrelevant” but in a tight group with four big-hitting teams those choice of words may come back to haunt the chirpy Exiles boss, who must bring his team to Thomond Park for the final group game next January.

For as London Irish celebrated their victory with the autumnal indulgence of a lap of honour, Munster were already squirrelling away that bonus point somewhere safe for the winter.

LONDON IRISH: D Armitage; T Ojo, E Seveali’i (D Allinson, 70th), S Mapusua, S Tagicakibau (J Joseph, 69th); R Lamb, P Hodgson; C Dermody – captain (D Paice, 55); J Buckland, F Rautenbach (A Corbisiero, 55th); N Kennedy, B Casey (M Garvey, 69); K Roche; D Danaher (C Hala’ufia, 53), G Stowers.

MUNSTER: J Murphy; D Howlett, K Earls (P Warwick, 69), S Tuitupou, D Hurley; R O’Gara, P Stringer (D Williams, 73); W du Preez (M Horan, 65th), D Varley, T Buckley (J Hayes, 65); D O’Callaghan, Donnacha Ryan (M O’Driscoll, 57); D Leamy (captain), N Ronan (D Wallace, 30), J Coughlan.

Referee: C Berdos (France).