Alex Codling has made immediate impact on Munster line-outs

Munster hit 90% of their lineouts against the Lions.

Sat, 30 Nov, 2024 - 23:30

John Keogh, Thomond Park

Munster were pushed all the way at Thomond Park in their URC clash with the Emirates Lions and earned a 17-10 victory.

Tries from Thaakir Abrahams, Shane Daly and Alex Kendellan proved to be enough to get their third win of the league campaign.

Head of rugby operations, Ian Costello, was happy with large parts of the victorious performance but admitted that there is still plenty to work on ahead of their Champions Cup opener with Stade Francais next week.

“There’s aspects of the performance that we have to tidy up, Costello said following the full time whistle.

“Our game management wasn’t where it needed to be. We started really well in the first 20, got one score and never capitalised to get another.

“We made a couple of mistakes that I thought rattled us and that second quarter was poor. We had focused on a fast start and set the same in the second half.

“If I’m honest, the second half performance - what it said about us. Our identity. What we stood for. What we represent. I thought it was outstanding. Probably summed up by that goal line set when we went the length of the field.

“What I saw was real intent. Real work rate to get off the ground. The physical side was impressive and just how hard we worked. That’s what we looked for tonight.

“When you see the conditions, that’s going to give you a good chance to win the game. We put that up as the highest value. Especially tonight with the team we had out.”

One area where Munster have struggled this season has been at set piece but there were shoots of improvements in that area against the Lions, with the lineout in particular hitting the mark.

New forwards coach consultant, Alex Codling, has made an immediate impact in that area and Munster hit 90% of their lineouts against the Lions.

“He came in last week with a huge amount of energy,” Costello said about Codling. “A real technical coach and the lads have responded really well to him.

“We lost one lineout tonight. The way he has engaged the lads and the way they have bought in. A couple of the key lineout forwards in Fineen (Wycherley) and Evan (O’Connell) have been driving that with him. A really good start on the back of a good 10 days for him and the pack.”

Costello added that he was delighted with how short term signing Dian Blueler and Evan O’Connel fared on their full debuts.

“I thought Dian was outstanding. I don’t know how many times he carried. We will see the stats tomorrow. A couple of times we were thinking about taking him off but he would pull out another big tackle or another big carry.

“We went as deep as we could with him and then Kieran Ryan, an Academy player, came on and did really well.

“We have known for a long time that it was a question of when and not if Evan would come through. He has been so impressive at U20s level. We have given him time to physically develop as well. He is stronger and more powerful and I think that allowed him to dominate a bit more tonight. Really pleased with him.”