Gibbes: Clermont warned by Munster’s strong finish

Clermont Auvergne will have to improve if they are to score back-to-back Champions Cup victories over Munster on Sunday, their forwards coach Jono Gibbes has warned his players.

The New Zealander, who left a similar role at Leinster for the Top 14 club during the summer, saw his Clermont pack beat Munster up on Saturday as they became the first French club to win at Thomond Park after 19 seasons of European competition.

It puts Clermont in pole position in Pool 1, relegating Munster to third behind Saracens, with the Irish province having to travel to both clubs over the next two rounds.

The first date comes this weekend as Anthony Foley’s side goes to Stade Marcel Michelin aiming to become the first visiting side to win there in Europe since 2008.

Despite being heavy favourites to notch another home win, Gibbes said that while Clermont were proud of their 16-9 victory, they had been sufficiently warned by Munster’s strong finish in Limerick last weekend, derailed only by a brilliant lineout steal at the death by Damien Chouly, for him to demand improvements.

“I would say right now it is good that we achieved what we set out to achieve,” Gibbes said. “Unfortunately we have to play the same guys next week.

“They have seen us, we have seen them at close quarters. They have looked in our eyes, we have looked in their eyes and now we have to go back and evolve something, maybe better tactics, maybe at the lineout options.

“We have to go at it again. It is the same technique but a completely different game.”

Gibbes said his motivation to succeed at Thomond Park had been borne of a fear of humiliation at Munster’s hands.

“I wanted to make sure we had good preparation and we didn’t get embarrassed here. I think it was pride was my main motivation to start with it to make sure we gave a good account of ourselves here because it is a difficult environment. We targeted our defence, made sure we weren’t staying on our line on our heels, making sure we were going forward to them and as a consequence a couple of times we did get to Conor (Murray) but to be fair he wasn’t a specific target, it was probably just a whole mindset. I am not sure we were quite tested there (in midfield) as we were in areas around the fringes, them getting around the corner, a ball carrier and a support player attached can be pretty difficult to stop there so I can’t say it was an inspired strategy. I’d say overall we accounted for ourselves well in defence.”

If Murray hadn’t been a target, Gibbes admitted Clermont went after Munster’s forward strengths and would do so again this weekend.

“I think we had to meet them, we had to go forward to them, that was probably our whole mindset. Peter O’Mahony is a massive carrier, Paul O’Connell is a massive workhorse, those guys are inevitably going to get the ball in their hands. The whole thing was ‘going forward’, we had to get off the line, but I think for large parts of that we were pretty good at it. I would want to do that for whole parts of next week and be on the defence again. It would be better if the momentum that we created in the first half continued but Munster adjusted and probably had more ball and initiative for the second half than we did.”

Despite Munster’s failure to convert that final lineout in the corner into a game-saving converted try, Gibbes remains a big fan of the province’s set-piece, with the scrum improving after half-time and the lineout let down by handling errors rather than systems failures.

“Munster were just a little bit sharper at the lineout then we were for our ball, I think Dave Foley did well. Naturally we were talking about Paulie anyway but I think the work that BJ Botha does in that hinge position can’t be underestimated. You know we talked about having small margins on our lineouts and the small margins are pretty much what they are good at and they showed that tonight.

“Wayne Barnes (the referee) started to interpret (scrums) a little differently in the second half but that is all it was, an interpretation and we have to adjust to that. A couple of times we did well, a couple of times not so well. I don’t feel our scrum would have been under pressure if they got field position. I felt their carrying direct was what was making me feeling uneasy because I know how good they are.”