'We’re a club that doesn’t know how to give up' - van Graan philosophical about draw with Racing 92

Munster missed a chance to snatch victory over Racing 92 at the death tonight but Johann van Graan praised his side’s resilience to fight back for a 21-21 draw at Thomond Park.

Two points apiece from this absorbing Heineken Champions Cup Pool 4 round two encounter puts both sides at the top of the table on six points with defending champions Saracens, who visit Limerick in a fortnight, only a point behind and four rounds to go to decide who reaches the knockout stages.

Having earned a bonus-point victory at Ospreys in round one last weekend, head coach van Graan was philosophical about Munster’s chances of getting out of a group labelled this season’s pool of death.

“You’ve got to take history into consideration. The last two years we drew our first game and won the second one,” van Graan said, having led Munster to semi-finals in each of those seasons.

“This time around we won our first one and drew our second one. That bonus point away last week was a big moment and the fact that we leave here with two points (each), top of the group jointly with Racing with four rounds to go and the double-header with Saracens is the next step in terms of Europe.

“What we’ve learned in this competition is you take the points on offer. We got ourselves in the winning position and unfortunately it didn’t go over and that’s just rugby.

“I said to the players afterwards, as a coach all you can ask is they gave everything they got and the players most certainly did.”

Despite the lion’s share of possession, Munster were behind on the scoreboard for much the game once Finn Russell had scored the opening try of the game on 18 minutes, Teddy Iribaren’s conversion pushing the Parisians into a 7-3 lead. Teddy Thomas added a second on the half-hour but JJ Hanrahan’s three penalties and a Keith Earls try on the stroke of half-time left Munster trailing just 14-11 at the interval.

A Hanrahan penalty just after the break drew the teams level only for Munster to concede a Juan Imhoff try a minute later. Iribaren’s conversion opened up a 21-14 lead for Racing that held until six minutes from time when Andrew Conway grabbed a try for Munster, a sixth in as many games for the Ireland wing carrying over from the World Cup.

Hanrahan’s superb and nerveless touchline conversion levelled the scores with only four minutes remaining and though Munster worked their way back into the Racing 22, the fly-half pulled his drop goal attempt wide with time almost up, missing the chance to snatch victory.

Munster boss van Graan likened the contest to “two heavyweight boxers that went at each other literally to the last second of the game”.

“Kept punching in a drop-goal position and unfortunately it went to the left.

If that goes over it’s a different ball game but all credit to Racing as well. I thought both teams came to play positive rugby.

"Like last year’s draw in round one, you could have lost and you most certainly could have won it there right at the death. We’ll take our points and move on.”

Yet van Graan admired Munster’s stirring fightback.

“That’s what Munster is about,” he said. “A lot of teams in Europe would have given up at that stage and we just kept fighting. All 23 involved, these players don’t know how to give up.

"We’re a club that doesn’t know how to give up. Even though the odds are against you, you just keep fighting. The players gave it their all and the crowd played a massive part and that’s just the way rugby goes, you’ve just got to keep hanging in there.

“We made a few big calls in the first half to go for the corner and it paid off with Earlsy’s try and JJ’s conversion.

“In the big matches like we just saw out there today, it’s inches right through the game and we held on and held on and we got some momentum and scored that try and got ourselves within one kick of winning this game.”