Golden chance skids out of Munster’s grasp

Racing Metro 22 Munster 17

There was little anyone could do in conditions so appalling that the players seemed to be running in slow motion at times, and Munster did their best to adjust their game to suit.

With a heavy irony though, it was two incidences of running the ball when they shouldn’t have that ultimately cost them victory over a distinctly average Racing Metro outfit.

It wasn’t all bad — that same willingness to have a cut produced a stunning long-range try for Simon Zebo that almost nicked the game from under Racing’s noses.

But when Conor Murray ran the ball into two tacklers deep inside his 22, with Munster protecting a one-point lead and only a few minutes to go, it gave Olly Barkley the penalty shot he needed to swing the momentum decisively back Racing’s way. That was one of a couple of incidents that proved to be the undoing of Rob Penney’s charges, leaving the New Zealander a frustrated figure afterwards.

“There wasn’t anything wrong with what we did today, but...” he said, trailing off. “We played some (good) rugby, I thought we got on the rough end of some decisions and in tight matches they are costly. The boys’ ability won’t be compromised through some inability not to finish because that (direction) is taking us the right way, and it is a direction that is going to be challenging as we go forward.”

Munster will be perplexed by this one when they hit play on the video review today. The easy option would be to point the finger of blame at scrum-half Murray for what can only be described as a rush of blood in the closing minutes. The scrum-half also offered Racing a simple penalty after a rash body charge, and was fortunate not to be carded in the first half when tackling Karim Ghezal off the ball.

But that would be too simplistic to accurately describe the outcome. This was really about a Munster team strangely not believing in themselves against a home side not up to the mark. The game was there for the taking; it was a game Munster won twice and lost twice and the frustration is that this capitulation, taken alongside Saracens’ 45-0 bonus point win in Edinburgh, may now kill off their hopes of making the knockout stages.

Penney noted that Paul O’Connell might well have scored a legitimate try before Racing got themselves back into the game, that English referee Greg Garner might have been fooled by a collapsed scrum and, of course, that his team contributed seriously to their own downfall.

“There were some pivotal moments in the first-half; Paulie not being able to get the seven or five pointer, then there was a scrum penalty not long after that where we had been dominating at scrum time and for some reason there was a penalty given against us which we were a bit dumfounded by. Then on the back of that we tried to run a ball when it wasn’t appropriate to run and they kicked through and got a try. That was a 14-point turnaround. We created opportunities (afterwards) and got close but didn’t quite get off the mark.”

Munster led 10-0 after the first quarter thanks to a Sean Dougall try and a conversion and penalty from Ronan O’Gara, and should have been further ahead as O’Connell dropped the ball as he tried to touch down following another O’Mahony surge in the 23rd minute. Referee Greg Garner actually awarded the try but then sought clarification from the TMO, who ruled out the score.

A few minutes later the referee had to go upstairs again before giving the green light to scrum-half Maxime Machenaud to score a breakaway try — after a poor O’Gara pass in midfield went to ground and was hacked on.

Barkley converted and hit penalties either side of half-time for a 16-10 lead, against the run of play but no real surprise given Munster’s propensity to self-destruct. O’Gara had gone off injured not long before the break too, adding to their woes.

Having not scored for the best part of an hour, Munster then fashioned a brilliant individual try through Zebo, as a quick lineout was worked across the pitch and the wing evaded three covering defenders to touch down.

Ian Keatley added a fine conversion to swing it back to 17-16 in Munster’s favour before they blew it — Murray’s decision to try to run from his ‘22 instead of clearing to touch offered Barkley the penalty opportunity to re-establish the lead, and Mirco Bergamasco kicked an injury time penalty to seal the deal.

RACING METRO: B Fall, J Jane, M Bergamasco, JM Hernandez, J Saubade, O Barkley, M Machenaud, A Lo Cicero, D Szarewski, L Ducalcon, K Ghezal, F van der Merwe, A Battut, J Cronje (captain), M Matadigo.

Replacements: F Metz for Ducalcon (55), B Lew Roux for Matadigo, C Gerondeau for Van der Merwe (both 60).

MUNSTER: I Keatley, D Howlett (captain), C Laulala, J Downey, S Downey, R O’Gara, C Murray, D Kilcoyne, D Varley, BJ Botha, B Holland, P O’Connell, D Ryan, S Dougall, P O’Mahony.

Replacements: D Hurley for O’Gara (33, injured), M Sherry for Varley (54), Dave O’Callaghan for O’Connell (63), M Horan for Kilcoyne, D Barnes for Downey (both 73).

Referee: G Garner (England).