Is there one last push left in Munster?

Munster 17 Ulster 19

Losing to a second-string, albeit hugely-committed and adept Ulster side in your own backyard at Thomond Park was bad enough, regardless of conditions. It meant back-to-back league defeats in their Limerick stronghold for the first time in four years and saw the red flag lowered home and away by Ulster in a season for the first time since 2008/09.

Worse still was the manner of Munster’s defeat in the final league outing of the campaign and just six days before an extremely difficult trip to Scotstoun, where in-form and free-scoring Glasgow lie in wait for Friday night’s RaboDirect Pro12 semi-final.

What the Scots will have made of this display, two parts comedy, one part horror show, is anybody’s guess but if Munster are to upset the odds and win a knockout game on the road on Friday, the error count is going to have to come right down, the game management improve and the decision-making ratchet up several notches.

Munster were awful, and all the more so for having raced into a 10-0 lead in the first quarter-hour. With Ulster coach Mark Anscombe resting his heavy artillery, save for match-day captain Dan Tuohy and No.8 Nick Williams, the 14th-minute try from Munster scrum-half Duncan Williams looked to be the start of a mismatch. It was a good try, too, Dave Foley making a nuisance of himself yet again at an Ulster lineout deep inside the Munster half, Casey Laulala making another break and then Williams, James Coughlan and James Downey exchanging passes crisply and at speed down the left wing before the scrum-half finished the move, Keatley converting to add to his 10th-minute penalty.

Strangely, the rot then set in, Ulster scrum-half Michael Heaney catching the home side napping on halfway, linking with the impressive Michael Allen down the blind side for a rebound try on 16 minutes, fly-half James McKinney sending over the first of five kicks that would ultimately seal Munster’s fate.

Ulster lost Nick Williams to a knee ligament injury on the half hour but a penalty either side of the interval from McKinney briefly sent the visitors in front at 13-10 before a converted Sean Dougall try gave Munster a platform to seal the points from 17-13 after 48 minutes.

Yet, the mistakes that crept into Munster’s game after the opening try; the dropped balls, misguided passes and knock-ons that destroy confidence came back to haunt Penney’s men, as a bewildered home coaching staff looked on in dismay.

McKinney took advantage with two more penalties, making it a 100% return with the boot and Penney’s likely final home game in charge of Munster had all the hallmarks of some of the darker moments in his opening campaign. Was he shocked by what he saw?

“No, it wasn’t shock,” Penney said. “A couple of crucial people had bad days at the office and it just compounded things and that can happen at times, just really disappointing it happened right now.”

For a team that had put Toulouse to the sword on the same pitch a month previously and players who had contributed to a 55-12 mauling of Edinburgh the week before, the loss of momentum should also be deeply worrying.

Penney, who has every right to feel terribly let down by his squad, insisted: “Disappointed, that’s my overlying emotion and we’ve all seen what the guys are capable of when they prepare well and are up for an occasion.

“There was half a dozen lads you could see working really hard, trying and putting in good performances and you need everybody to have good games and a few standouts and we had some who didn’t go well and really let everyone else down.”

Penney identified their “emotional attachment to the game” as key to work on.

“There’s nothing technically or tactically or even physically really we can do in five days, six days to get the turnaround. All that work has been and should have been done before now so that will the key thing, making sure of an emotional attachment with clarity and that will even give us our best opportunity to get close to Glasgow, who are on fire at the moment.”

MUNSTER: F Jones; G van den Heever, C Laulala, J Downey, S Zebo (K Earls, 53); I Keatley (JJ Hanrahan, 50), D Williams (C Murray, 56); D Kilcoyne (J Cronin, 61), D Varley — captain, J Ryan; D Foley (B Holland, 77), P O’Connell; P Butler, S Dougall, J Coughlan (T O’Donnell, 53).

Replacements not used: Q MacDonald, A Cotter

ULSTER: C Gilroy; D McIlwaine, M Allen, S McCloskey, R Scholes (P Nelson, 79); J McKinney, M Heaney (D Shanahan, 74); C Black, R Herring (K McCall, 74), A Warwick (A Macklin, 58); L Stevenson, D Tuohy – captain (N McComb, 52); M McComish, S Doyle, N Williams (C Joyce, 33).

Replacements not used: B Ross, R Andrew.

Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)