Munster in need of some soul searching

THE postmortems were under way from an early hour throughout Munster yesterday and continued long into the night as people reflected on the failure of their team to reach the knock-out stages of the Heineken Cup for the first time in 13 years.

The age profile of the side, inevitably, was one of the chief topics of conversation but the backroom team, led by head coach Tony McGahan, didn’t escape criticism. The malaise afflicting the Munster set piece and especially the scrum over the past number of years came in for particular attention.

Laurie Fisher is the forwards coach and he along with Paul McCarthy have been trying desperately to put right the failings that have dogged the side and which were significant factors in the Heineken Cup defeats to London Irish, Ospreys and Toulon on Sunday.