CJ Stander says Munster didn’t pitch up at all

Munster’s regular man-of-the-match award winner CJ Stander was never in the running for that accolade at Thomond Park on Saturday evening.

Like many around him, he had a quiet game by his high standards and admitted as much later when also admiring the quality of Connacht’s performance.

“We gave them the game in the first five minutes”, he admitted. “We wanted to start well and didn’t do so. We couldn’t get our hands on the ball in the first half . We just had to defend and put in a lot of tackles and it took a physical toll. You can’t do that against them, they showed that last year and again pre-season. We didn’t pitch up at all tonight.”