We’re on path to something special, says Rob

Rob Penney admitted he was ready to don a flak jacket had Munster failed to earn a Heineken Cup quarter-final slot at Thomond Park yesterday.

The Munster coach was both delighted and relieved to see his charges produce arguably their most rounded display of the tricky pool stages to secure a winning bonus point and earn a place at the top table in April.

“Look, if we hadn’t, obviously people would be in the long grass and there would be a lot of bullets being fired,” he said.

Penney said had the outcome not been what it was with regard qualification, he’d still have been happy with the team and how they’ve progressed. “I would still be very proud of the progress and the areas of growth that we’re getting, but I would have had to put on the flak jacket and the hard hat probably (if we lost). I really believe in this team and the direction in which it is going.”

Whilst admitting the win just takes the heat off, Penney is convinced Munster are moving forward.

“That’s why I’m sitting in this chair and I love it because we’re on a wee pathway to something pretty special. If I can’t have faith in it then I don’t deserve to be sitting here and if I get criticism and I can’t defend myself, then I shouldn’t be sitting here.”

Reflecting on the campaign so far Penney figures Munster fully deserve their place in the knock-out stages.

“We had Racing [in round one] done and dusted. We had a try and it went to the TMO and the ball was lost and the game sort of turned on its head at that point for some reason.

“We got ourselves back and I think we could have ripped that game away from them. Then I think we had an incident with two minutes to go when we were in front but conceded two penalties and we didn’t win.

“However, I think the seeds were set in terms of the potential of the group.

“What I’ve tried to explain is that we’ve seen a massive growth in some of the guys that haven’t had a lot of exposure every week, even when the results haven’t gone for us there are great things happening within the group. We’re seeing this as a management group. You could say it has set the seed but it’s still only germinating. We’ve only been at this for six months and we’re really proud of where we’re getting to.”

On that score Penney described yesterday’s display as one that was coming for a while, even allowing for the unfortunate circumstances Racing found themselves in after just five minutes when flanker Antoine Batut was sent off.

“Anytime you lose a player and you are down to 14, you are up against it. It wouldn’t matter when it is though, it makes a massive amount of workload for the other 14 guys on the park, very difficult to manage.

“I was delighted though to get this win on this stage against a team like Racing, playing at home and in front of the red army which was superb today and helped get us through. We turned up against some very resilient opposition and the boys put in a telling performance.”

If the crowd favourite was hat-trick hero Simon Zebo, Penney took a more measured approach in assessing individual displays. He drew particular inspiration from the “resilient” Ian Keatley and the overall contribution of Donnacha Ryan, Peter O’Mahony as well as Tommy O’Donnell and David Kilcoyne. Indeed, he gave special mention of Kilcoyne as a personal favourite for inclusion in Warren Gatland’s British and Irish Lions squad along with Leinster’s Cian Healy.