McGahan vows Munster will respond

Tony McGahan vowed Munster would be back after they were dumped out of the Heineken Cup after an 18-7 defeat to Biarritz.

The Top 14 club set up an all-French final in Paris on May 22 after scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili kicked six penalties in a scrappy contest at Stade Anoeta.

Munster led 7-3 at half-time thanks to a Keith Earls try converted by Ronan O’Gara, but were demolished up front during the second half.

“It’s very difficult to put the feeling into words after losing two semi-finals in consecutive years,” said head coach McGahan.

“We really feel that they’re two wasted opportunities to get into the final.

“We’ve been written off all season but reached the semi-finals. To fall away while not too far from the final is very disappointing but this is a very strong group.

“We’ll respond to this in the right way and make sure we’re in contention next year.

“You have to get everything right on the day in big games. The last two years we haven’t delivered at the semi-final stage.”

Munster were missing Paul O’Connell and Doug Howlett to injury but McGahan refused to blame their absence for the defeat, instead focusing on the malfunctioning set-piece.

“Biarritz played very cleverly in the second half. Their set-piece was excellent and they kicked to the corners very well,” he said.

“They put us under a tremendous amount of pressure and shut up shop.

“We tried to defend our way back into their half which didn’t give us any platform whatsoever.

“Our set-piece was a concern all afternoon. They dominated that area of the game and we had no platform to play off at all.

“We needed to recognise that we were the ones in front and the ones who needed to get the field position.

“I thought we defended pretty well and didn’t give away many line breaks. We needed to continue with that platform.

“We prepared well without the players who were missing and were good enough to win.”

Biarritz coach Jean-Michel Gonzalez agreed his side’s superiority at the set-piece was decisive.

“This morning we asked the team to play with generosity and heart. Everything wasn’t perfect but we were very satisfied with the result,” he said.

“We were worried in the first couple of scrums when they surprised us but we were soon able to rectify that and our scrum got stronger as the game went on.

“One of Munster’s strengths is to play off the scrum and we neutralised them in that area.”