With Toulouse defeat, Munster’s wait for silverware has now passed the decade mark

Munster's Gavin Coombes, CJ Stander and JJ Hanrahan dejected after the defeat to Toulouse at Thomond Park on Saturday. Picture: INPHO/Billy Stickland

With their season over on two fronts, Munster are hoping RG Snyman can prove to be a pot of gold by the end of the Rainbow Cup.

Back-to-back knockout defeats in the last eight days have extended a decade-long wait for silverware, Munster’s woes continuing on Saturday as a Heineken Champions Cup Round of 16 exit at the hands of Toulouse followed the previous weekend’s Guinness PRO14 final loss to Leinster.

It leaves just the Rainbow Cup to play for, a hastily-arranged tournament designed to welcome South Africa’s four Super franchises to the family in an extended PRO16, though their participation in cross-border competition this season remains in some doubt due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

If Bulls, Lions, Sharks and Stormers travel north it will not be until the later stages of the one-off competition next month, leaving the Irish teams with three interprovincial derbies on consecutive weekends starting on April 23.

Head coach Johann van Graan gave an inkling of hope that Springbok World Cup winner Snyman may finally be part of his plans this season following the serious knee injury the lock suffered on his debut last August. Speaking after the 40-33 defeat to Toulouse he was asked when Munster might we see Snyman back in Rainbow Cup.

“I think it’s a good word, ‘might’,” came the reply. “We will take him week on week, I don’t want to speculate on his return date. It will be great to have him back on the pitch, but I don’t want to speculate on a return date.”

Munster captain Peter O’Mahony will remain a doubt for the Rainbow Cup opener against old foes Leinster, against whom he suffered the deep laceration to his right thigh that forced him out of the Toulouse game.

"It might be a week, it might be three weeks, it might be longer. There is no specific timeline on it.”

In the wake of their European exit, van Graan said he would rotate his squad for the final leg of the campaign.

“It has not been on our radar at all but we are going to keep using our squad. We have used 53 players this season. 

We had two massive games in two weeks, going back to the Benetton game, we played a totally different team. We will definitely rotate our squad in the Rainbow Cup, we will look forward to that now.

While Munster have a three-week break to their next engagement, Leinster have learned their Champions Cup quarter-final opponents for next weekend. The four-time champions were handed a walkover into the last eight following the cancellation of Friday’s home clash with Toulon after a positive Covid test in the French club’s squad took out all six of their travelling front-rowers as close contacts.

They now face a trip to reigning champions Exeter Chiefs, who ran in seven tries in a 47-25 trouncing of Lyon at Sandy Park on Saturday.

Toulouse must travel to Clermont Auvergne, who snatched a 27-25 win at Wasps.