Munster’s late charge falls short in France

La Rochelle 19 Munster 14

Munster conceded three tries inside the opening 30 minutes, including one intercept score which effectively ruined their night. However, they will feel happy enough that some changes made at the interval, by which time they had pulled back a score, made a difference in the second period.

That optimism won’t extend to the scrum, though, because this was an area that faltered in the second half following the withdrawal of young Stephen Archer in particular.

But skipper James Coughlan was having no criticism after the match, insisting that it was a hugely useful exercise, particularly for the several young members of the side having to contend with a partisan 11,000 home crowd.

It was perhaps a tribute to Munster that so many came out, but La Rochelle do have a pretty impressive core support, with a regular 6,000 season tickets sold annually.

“We made too many soft errors but that will happen this time of the year; ultimately it will do the guys good, it’s been a good experience, these last few days and this match as well. We made some mistakes but at least we were looking to try stuff, so I think it was positive overall and our second half defence was very good,” he said.

Six minutes in, Benjamin Dambielle got the opening try in the left-hand corner, the product of a counterattack after Munster were stripped of possession in midfield. It took them just another six minutes to create and score a second try, this time a brilliant effort from centre Vincent Roux, with the main creation coming from his midfield partner Jerome Jacquet. Dambielle added the points to stretch the lead to 12 points as the home side threatened to cut loose.

They did that too courtesy of a loose attacking pass from Scott Deasy to home winger Maxime Lebourhis; that third try against the run of play for almost 10 minutes was converted by Dembielle to secure a 19-point lead.

Munster did get back into the game with a well deserved try three minutes from the break when Coughlan set up possession from a ruck after a brilliant incisive run.

Simon Zebo took play on and chipped through for Scott Deasy to score the try that Declan Cusack converted to pull back seven points before the break.

Tony McGahan, the Munster coach, made 10 changes at the break and the visitors did start the second half with a spring in their step; however, they were unable to make any dent on La Rochelle’s lead until a fortunate break in the 62nd minute.

Hanging on in the face of pressure, Munster won a penalty deep in their own territory. Peter Stringer reacted quickly, Sean Scanlan booted ahead and seconds later Ian Keatley was diving over for a try that he converted himself to pull the score back to 14-19.

Munster had a couple of chances immediately after that but also lived dangerously as their scrum went from solidity to weakness. As the minutes ticked by, Munster looked less and less likely to pull the game out of the fire; they huffed and puffed, struggled in the set pieces and ultimately made just too many mistakes for their own good.

The reintroduction of Mick O’Driscoll helped a tad but the mistakes kept on occurring and a late assault failed to yield dividends when Ian Keatley’s misfired pass to Simon Zebo went to ground and allowed an overworked La Rochelle defence to just the time they needed to hold out and see them to safety.

LA ROCHELLE: B Dambielle, M Lebourhis, V Roux, J Jacquet, F Ninard, S Fauque, D Neveu, P Toderasc, F Pani, G Guyon, F Jacob. R Sazy, R Carmignani, T Soucaze, P Som

Replacements: C Grobler for Jacob (30, injured), T Leupolu for Guyon (34), G Devade for Jacquet (42), B Ferrou for veu (44).

MUNSTER: J Murphy, D Hurley, D Barnes, S Deasy, S Zebo, Dcusack, G Hurley, W du Preez, D Varley, S Archer, B Holland, M O’Driscoll, D O’Callaghan, J Coughlan (captain), T O’Donnell.

Replacements: M Horan for Du Preez, D Fogarty for Varley, P Borleise for Archer, I Nagle for Holland, P O’Mahony for O’Callaghan, N Ronan for O’Donnell, P Butler for Coughlan, P Stringer for Hurley, I Keatley for Cusack, S Scanlan for Barnes (all 40), JJ Hanrahan for Deasy (52).

Referee: M Pomarede (France).