'Proud' Rowntree looking forward to playoff showdown with Ospreys

The southern province earned top spot with a comeback win over Ulster.

Munster head coach Graham Rowntree at Thomond Park in Limerick. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Graham Rowntree cannot wait for the URC play-offs and a home quarter-final with Ospreys at Thomond Park next Friday night after seeing Munster finish top of the table with a ninth win in a row on Saturday evening.

Munster came from a 17-7 half-time deficit in Limerick to defeat interprovincial rivals Ulster 29-24 in the final round of the regular season, reclaiming first place in the standings and earning the top seeding for the knockout stages which potentially means a home draw all the way through to the Grand Final on June 22.

Ulster had to settle for a sixth-place finish and face a difficult last-eight trip to Dublin to face Leinster next Saturday at 5pm.

Defending champions Munster only had to wait a short while after full-time at Thomond Park to learn the identity of their eighth-seed opponents with Ospreys claiming a bonus-point derby win in Cardiff to jump from 11th to eighth in the table, ousting South Africa’s Lions from the final qualifying berth to earn a trip to Limerick.

The quarter-final meeting will come 11 weeks after the two side’s regular-season meeting in Swansea when Munster won 27-17 against Toby Booth’s side in West Wales, the third bonus-point victory of eight in their current nine-match winning streak since losing at Connacht on January 1.

Looking forward to knockout rugby on home turf in the league for the first time since Benetton visited Thomond Park in what was then the PRO14 in 2019, head coach Rowntree said of Ospreys: “We have a lot of respect for what Toby has done there. As a club what he's done, there, the challenges around availability and budget. They're a sticky team.

“We had a good battle with them in February or March, they're a tough team.

“That's the next game, we're at the play-offs and finished the league at the top. I'm immensely proud of that as a club. I think we were 11th on January 2, we had our injuries around Christmas, and picked up 44 of a possible 45 points since that Connacht game.

“We've been away in South Africa, I'm really pleased with how we've finished up. We don't get a trophy for it, but where we've got to, I'm immensely proud.

“We go to the play-offs now, can't wait.” 

Rowntree will be relieved to have seen off an Ulster side rejuvenated under new head coach Richie Murphy, who replaced Dan McFarland in February and almost made it five wins in a row on Saturday having taking a 17-7 half-time lead. The Munster boss swing momentum back in his side’s favour with four heavyweight substitutions on 49 minutes, sending on Oli Jager, Tom Ahern, John Hodnett and Gavin Coombes with almost instant dividends, man of the match Calvin Nash scoring the first of three second-half tries.

Shane Daly and Eoghan Clarke brought up the bonus point either side of a reply for Ulster from Matty Rea before Jack Crowley nailed a long-range penalty on 77 minutes as Munster just about got over the line.

“We don't do things easy, do we?,” Rowntree said. “Credit to them, they came to play and grew into the game. We made some individual errors there, they capitalised, they scored off them. Half time was about staying calm and they came back in the third quarter, a missed tackle from John Hodnett and they were through.

We found a way, it's an overused expression, but we found a way to win the game. The bench was big again. When you go 6/2 and lose a back in the first half, we were still brave around the 45 minute mark bringing four forwards on. I couldn't really bring Conor (Murray) on any earlier than we did (68 minutes), but overall, I think it worked, the punch that our bench gave us. It really stood to us. I'm happy with it.” Ulster boss Murphy was also proud of his team’s efforts despite the disappointment of a derby defeat eight days on from a home win over Leinster, whom his side must now meet again in the last eight.

“Performances are great, but at this level you’ve got to win games,” Murphy said. “We would have loved to come here and won and gone into that game next week, it would probably have been Glasgow, and gone in on the back of a win.

Obviously we haven’t done that but we’re very early on our journey as a team and the great thing is the signs of how we’re going to be, becoming a tough team to play against and a team that looks after the ball much better than what we were doing a couple of weeks back.”