McGahan positive after heat of battle
Munster’s normally water-tight defence was unlocked by Brive thrice in Saturday’s thrill-a-minute European quarter final and video analysis will surely eat into the players’ work time this week.
In the aftermath of an exciting but difficult day at baking Brive, McGahan bit his tongue on the defensive lapses: “Our defence has been a strong point of our season so far, and I’m sure it will be (again) for the next few weeks. We needed to be more clinical in our defence.”
McGahan was also disturbed at Munster coughing up possession from set pieces: “We gave away four of five set pieces at crucial times when we had the momentum to put another dent in them.”
Yet, the overriding response was one of satisfaction on a job done against a team that has taken some big French scalps at home this season.
“They are a very good side who displayed that by turning over some very big names here this year, so we knew what they were capable of. You do your homework before the game on how much they fill their back field and how they fill the space on the edges; we were clearly set up to take advantage of that in the first ten minutes.
“We recognised playing French sides that you have to be ahead on the score board to not give them any hope and we saw how the game ebbed and flowed.
A home game against Harlequins beckons; Munster are 80 minutes away from another big European decider. It’s not the Heineken Cup, but McGahan is happy to be that close to taking more silverware against quality opposition.
“You have some quality sides in there; with (teams) dropping down from the Heineken Cup into this competition it gives it added credibility.”
An exhausted Denis Leamy described Saturday’s tie as one of the toughest experiences of his professional career.
“It certainly was a different experience, it was hot out there; to their credit, they have a lot of strong runners in that team and they managed to find holes where usually there aren’t any. We fell off too many tackles and put a bit of pressure on ourselves as a result.
“The pleasing thing was we created a lot of scoring opportunities and took a good few of them, and our experience told in the latter stages of the game.
“It’s always tough playing in France and it should be remembered that this side have beaten some of the best teams domestically this season; they’re certainly a team that play with passion and pride and that was evident even when we were up by 19 points. We worked hard to build up that lead in the second half but they made it very difficult.”
Harlequins, he said, would pose different questions in the semi-final and Leamy smiled as he suggested: “For starters, it will be played in temperatures of at least ten degrees less!”
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