Munster morale boost as Toulon test looms large

Connacht 23 Munster 32

For Munster’s Rob Penney, the horizon is considerably less distant than the one Connacht’s Pat Lam has fixed his gaze on and the performance levels in Galway on Saturday evening reflected those outlooks as the southern province, stung by the previous week’s home defeat by Glasgow, ran out bonus-point winners to reclaim second place in the RaboDirect Pro12 table.

The victors returned home with mission accomplished and at very little cost as their thoughts turned immediately to Sunday’s daunting Heineken Cup semi-final against champions Toulon in Marseille’s Stade Vélodrome.

Penney’s squad emerged with all the points and a “100%” clean bill of health as they bounced back from their surprise home loss at Thomond Park.

“Those that needed a bit more footy got that, those who needed a rest have got that and we couldn’t have asked for a better performance or a better outcome given the distractions of next week,” the Munster boss said.

“No injuries, five points, we’re pretty pleased.”

For Lam, though, there were signs that he is getting a much clearer picture at the end of his first season since succeeding Eric Elwood of just what sort of a future lies ahead for Connacht. This may have been a defeat but his young players made this a decent contest save for a 15-minute spell before half-time that proved fatal to their hopes of averting a clean sweep against them by their fellow Irish provinces.

With the game nip and tuck thanks to tit for tat tries from Munster’s Andrew Conway and Connacht’s Matt Healy, both borne of poor restarts following an opening penalty from home fly-half Miah Nikora in the 16th minute, Lam’s side effectively lost the game in the last six minutes of the opening period.

Ian Keatley had stretched Munster’s lead to 13-8 with a couple of penalties when his wing Gerhard van den Heever shot out of the defensive line and intercepted a pass from centre Robbie Henshaw to full-back Darragh Leader — both otherwise very impressive — on halfway to score a try the fly-half converted. That was followed three minutes later by full-back Denis Hurley as Munster capitalised on turnover ball on their five-metre line, Eoin McKeon coughing it up and the impressive Duncan Williams breaking upfield with a neat chip and chase before sending Hurley clear from the Connacht 10-metre line.

It gave Munster a 27-8 half-time lead and knocked the stuffing out of Connacht and their supporters in a sell-out 6,227 crowd but Lam was looking at the bigger picture.

“When I was asked to come here, if they said to me ‘we need you to win every game and to be winning this competition’ I wouldn’t have come here,” the former Blues boss said.

“They gave me a clear vision of where they want to be in four or five years, and that was great. That’s why I came here. These sort of games are part of that process we need to go through.

“Our whole season has been about that, the way we want players having the skills and being able to execute. There’s times when we ran from our own line and I know there’ll be some people will say ‘what are they running it for?’ It’s because there’s three people back.

“So we try to look and see what are the defence giving us, and we put some pressure on, but then we turned the ball over. I make no apology for it. For me the style of play we want to play is all about what the opposition do and we were able to put them under pressure. So we’re just gutted as a team because it does seem like we gifted them points, and I said it before the game, a team like Munster will punish you. Some of the stuff was pretty basic stuff, and there’s guys kicking themselves because of it.”

Lam got a response from his players at the interval as heads lifted for the second half and Munster faced a much tighter defensive unit on their return as they searched for the bonus point that would return them to second place in the table. The visitors made plenty of forays into the Connacht 22 but failed to convert their chances until the 72nd minute, when Paddy Butler darted over from the base of a ruck, Munster’s bonus point arriving sandwiched between home scores for No.8 McKeon and wing Danie Poolman.

There will be plenty for Munster to work on as a result, not least restoring some more clinical execution ahead of the trip to France but Penney was exuding his usual positivity as he praised a team of which only six or seven could be retained to face Toulon.

Of the players who may have forced their way into the reckoning, Penney was happy to name names.

“I thought John Ryan had a really good game at tighthead. He is really maturing after a difficult couple of moments last week in defence. There were no holes around him today and he also scrummaged beautifully. Sean Dougall again, really putting pressure on Tommy (O’Donnell, at openside flanker) and I thought (inside centre) James Downey was outstanding. We had a really big game from him today that we needed. Andrew Conway was one of the standouts and Duncan Williams had one of his best games in the jersey. He really got us on the front foot and played smart rugby and set up a beautiful try. For once he was lucky enough to get a bounce of a ball. Normally those balls don’t bounce for Duncan but today he got that.”

With Keatley’s fly-half back-up JJ Hanrahan an unlikely participant, Conor Murray’s chance to flex his play-making skills as a standby out-half was limited to the final six minutes against Connacht, a short cameo which saw Penney give an assessment that initially displayed a hint of tongue in cheek.

“Really good,” he declared with a smile. “Gifted player. Nearly set up a try and certainly there is potential to go there if we are desperate.”

The smile remained but desperate is the last place Munster will want to be in Marseille next Sunday.

CONNACHT: D Leader (D McSharry, 51); D Poolman, R Henshaw, E Griffin, M Healy; M Nikora (D Parks, 69), K Marmion (F Murphy, 76); R Loughney (D Buckley, 57), J Harris-Wright (J Dinneen, 73), R Ah You (F Bealham, 73); M Kearney, A Browne; J Muldoon — captain, W Faloon (C Gilsenan, 49), E McKeon (A Muldowney, 53).

MUNSTER: D Hurley (R O’Mahony, 73); G van den Heever, J Murphy, J Downey, A Conway; I Keatley (C Murray, 74), D Williams; D Kilcoyne (A Cotter, 75), D Varley – captain (Q MacDonald, 69), J Ryan; D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell (B Holland, 73); CJ Stander, S Dougall (T O’Donnell, 59), P Butler.

Referee: M Mitrea (Italy).