Stephen Larkham: Munster and Leinster ‘were evenly matched’ in PRO14 final

Head coach Johann van Graan said after the 16-6 PRO14 final defeat that “they are just too good for us”

Munster senior coach Stephen Larkham. Picture: INPHO/Morgan Treacy

Stephen Larkham has insisted Munster were evenly matched with Leinster despite head coach Johann van Graan’s assertion after the 16-6 PRO14 final defeat that “they are just too good for us”.

Saturday’s derby loss was Munster’s sixth in succession and by general consensus van Graan’s side were outclassed. Yet senior coach Larkham said — “We were evenly matched. They just got us on the night.

“It’s one try between us really that sort of broke our back in that second half... Leinster are ahead of us at the moment but we’re fairly evenly matched. If you look at a two-horse race, the odds are not 100/1 against us.”

Larkham was pleased with elements of Munster’s performance. “There were a couple of passages where we got what we wanted and there were a couple of individual errors at the end of those.

“Defensively, outstanding scramble. We let a couple of clear and obvious line breaks go through the middle of us, but the back-three scrambled exceptionally well.

“If you look at some of those defensive passages, Leinster are the best team in the competition clearly and they couldn’t get across our tryline a number of times.

“We had zero significant passages inside their 22. They did a great job of keeping us out of their 22. Whereas they had significant ball time inside our 22 and our defensive kept pushing them back. There are lots of pleasing things there (but) a couple of individual errors.

“There are a couple of fundamentals we want to get back to this week.”