Munster will carry plenty signs of progress into South African assignment

MAKING A BREAK FOR IT: Craig Casey of Munster makes a break. Pic: INPHO/Dave Winter

European Champions Cup: Toulouse 20 Munster 16 

In the end it was all for nought, on paper at least. Qualification for the Heineken Champions Cup Round of 16 was already assured before kick-off and Munster’s finished their Pool B campaign in sixth, the same position they started the weekend in.

Yet for Graham Rowntree, this was a performance from his side that had much in it to applaud at the home of this European powerhouse and served as a further example of just how far he feels his players have developed, individually and collectively since he ripped up the playbook last summer and started afresh.

That Munster came up just short at Stade Ernest-Wallon yesterday does not matter in the grand scheme of things. They have advanced to the knockout stages to meet South Africa’s Sharks in Durban on the first weekend in April.

Only a bonus-point Munster victory would have improved their position but if Rowntree’s men keep improving at the rate they have kicked on these past 10 weeks they will not fear travelling to any opposition on what is now a cross-hemisphere stage.

Yesterday’s performance certainly had its flaws, not least the slow start to the game that saw them unable to cope with Toulouse’s powerful opening and an early 11-0 lead on the back of a penalty from Melvyn Jaminet and try from Juan Cruz Mallia. There was also a wobble towards the end when having twice taken the lead in the second half of this absorbing contest a drop off in accuracy saw replacement fly-half Ben Healy yellow carded for 10 of the last 12 minutes after a high contact with an elbow to the neck of Pierre-Louis Barrasi, and which also allowed Jaminet to kick three penalties to secure a victory that handed Toulouse second place in Pool B.

In between those bookends came plenty for Rowntree to reflect favourably on when he sits down to review this game. A 30th-minute try from John Hodnett was reward for surviving the early onslaught, a third try in the last two games from a close-range tap penalty following two against Northampton in Limerick eight days earlier.

A scrum penalty on a Toulouse put-in outside the Munster 22 came against a mighty French international front row and led to three points from the boot of Joey Carbery on an otherwise poor day off the tee for the discarded Ireland fly-half. And the crowning glory of a day that would end in narrow defeat came from the try of the game, a cracking team attack sparked by a Gavin Coombes offload on halfway that was finished by Tadhg Beirne as Munster completed a run of scoring 13 unanswered points to take the lead for the first time on 48 minutes.

“Not bad that, was it?” head coach Rowntree said of the try which saw Shane Daly receive Coombes’ offload and then send Craig Casey haring upfield, halted only by a stretching fingertip tap tackle by Mallia, the wing he had just cruised past. A penalty advantage for Munster soon followed, Carbery given the freedom to switch gears and send a crossfield kick to the right wing where Hodnett gathered on the touchline and immediately sent the ball back infield for Calvin Nash, whose jinking run to the five-metre line set up Beirne to finish from there.

“It's not off the training ground, it's just rugby smarts, that's skill level,” Rowntree said. “I'm proud of the lads for doing that."

The Munster boss was disappointed, though.

“Gutted really. We could have won that,” he reflected. “We did some good things. Not many teams come here and do what we did, recover from an early setback and find a way to stay in the game. We did some good things around our set-piece, stopping their power game.

“We’ll have a look in the cold light of day… I have learned very early in my coaching career to go home and look at things calmly and review them the next morning without making some snap judgements now.

“We’ll have a look some things we can do better, particularly with Ben Healy in the bin in that last 10 minutes there, in terms of relieving pressure. Some of the stuff we were being a bit ambitious where we were playing on the field but we’ll look at that. It’s part of our learning but our game’s growing.

“I’m really proud of the lads. We spoke before the game, it’s a nine-game block, actually a 10-game block from the end of the autumn to before the Six Nations but I get the internationals for the nine games because they go into camp this week. It’s a nine-game block and we’ve done some good things.

“If we lose a game you just beat us. We lost by five points to these last time, lost by a point Stephen’s Day, we lost by four points tonight. We’re tough to beat. That’s the bedrock of what I want us to be in terms of our DNA.

“I’m really pleased with how we’re going. But then you come here and we could have won that. So gutted.” 

TOULOUSE: M Jaminet; J C Mallia, P L Barrasi, P Akhi (A Capuozzo, 67), D Delibes; R Ntamack, A Dupont – captain; C Baille (R Neti, 50), J Marchand (G Cramont, 75), D Aldegheri (D Ainu’u, 63); R Arnold (J Brennan, 69), E Meafou (F Cros, 60); A Jelonch, J Willis, A Roumat (T Flament, 53) 

Replacement not used: A Retiere 

MUNSTER: M Haley (M Fekitoa, 27); C Nash, A Frisch, J Crowley, S Daly; J Carbery (B Healy, 50), C Casey (C Murray, 60); D Kilcoyne (J Wycherley, 58), N Scannell (D Barron, 58), J Ryan (R Salanoa, 58); J Kleyn, T Beirne; P O’Mahony - captain, J Hodnett (A Kendellen, 63), G Coombes.

Yellow card: B Healy 68-78 

Replacement not used: J O’Sullivan 

Referee: Karl Dickson (England)