Daly and Munster searching for that 'moment' to rediscover momentum

'BOUNCE OF A BALL': Munster's Shane Daly is tackled by Mack Hansen of Connacht. Pic: ©INPHO/James Crombie

Munster may be struggling right now but Shane Daly believes the province has the experience and belief to play themselves out of trouble in the coming weeks.

The 22-9 New Year’s Day URC derby defeat to Connacht in Galway was Munster’s third in a row, following losses to Champions Cup pool opponents Exeter Chiefs and at home to Leinster on St Stephen’s Day. 

It leaves the defending champions outside the top eight of the URC table, and a point off the play-off places at the halfway stage of the league campaign while at a similar juncture in Pool 3 of the Champions Cup, the January 13 trip to Toulon and the following week’s visit of current English Premiership table toppers Northampton Saints to Thomond Park are vital to keeping the season alive on two fronts on the other side of the Six Nations.

It is not a rosy picture and head coach Graham Rowntree acknowledged his side was in a rut in terms of results having not won since December 1 and only twice in their last eight matches. 

Yet in the aftermath of rain-sodden Sportsground defeat to usher in 2024, Daly recalled last season’s desperately poor start to life under Rowntree and his new coaching ticket and being in an even worse position at the turn of the year 12 months ago.

Despite back-to-back derby defeats, Munster still have more league points from nine URC games this season than they did after 10 in 2022-23 ahead of their January 1 win at Ulster 367 days ago, an away victory the Ireland-capped wing pinpointed as the turning point in a campaign that ended with Peter O’Mahony and Keith Earls lifting the URC trophy as champions on May 27.

It is just a matter, Daly said, of the fine margins starting to fall in Munster’s favour, something that has not been a feature of their injury-hit season so far and underscored by an early try ruled out in Galway when Gavin Coombes brushed the dead-ball line as he attempted to touch down the Connacht box kick he had charged down seconds earlier.

“We’ve had these positions last year and the Ulster game was New Year’s Day last year and we were in a similar position and came out and won that game,” Daly said. “The momentum that gave us and the belief it gave us led to us winning those games as the weeks went by then.

“So we just need one result to go our way in those tight games. All it takes is one bounce of a ball, one moment. Like we saw with Gav at the start of the game, if we had converted that chance it would have been even closer so it’s small moments but once they start going your way they keep going your way.

“So that’s what we need to focus on.” 

Fresh injuries to Oli Jager and Jack O’Donoghue on top of the pre-game withdrawals of Eoghan Clarke and Fineen Wycherley were the latest setbacks for a squad becoming increasingly threadbare with each passing game, though Rowntree said post-match that the returns of fly-half Joey Carbery and talismanic flanker Peter O’Mahony were imminent while World Cup-winning lock Jean Kleyn is also scheduled for a return by the end of the month.

Even so, the rate of attrition on top of poor results has the potential to dent morale, it was put to Daly.

“It can be tough but we have a really good coaching staff that stay positive regardless of what has happened the week before,” he replied. 

“They’re incredibly honest on a Monday morning, there’s no shying away from some of the stuff that happens in the games but as soon as we put that to bed we’re looking forward to the next game and trying to really put a plan together to win our next match.

“So the Mondays are probably tough after these results but in fairness, the squad and the coaches are incredibly good at moving on from results like these.” 

With a journey to the French Mediterranean coast up next and a first return to Toulon’s Stade Felix Mayol since 2011 in nine days, Munster will reconvene tomorrow to begin preparations and begin to turn the page from the not-so-festive holiday matches. 

Daly sees no reason why Toulon away could provide the same kickstart to the season that last year’s victory in Belfast provided.

“Definitely. We’re looking at every game to be that game. We have what we need. We’ve won these tough games away on the road before so we really believe in what we’re doing.

“Tonight is obviously very frustrating again but a lot of the stuff we were doing was actually quite good, it was just losing balls and simple things so we need to just trust our own plan because we know it works, it won us the league last year.”