Munster succumb to dogged Castres in bruising Champions Cup clash
KNOCKED BACK: Munster’s Jack Crowley tackled by Leone Nakarawa of Castres. Pic: Dan Sheridan/Inpho
Munster’s hopes of putting a foot in the door of the Champions Cup knockout rounds at the earliest opportunity were dashed in France on Friday night as they narrowly succumbed to Castres at Stade Pierre Fabre.
Having beaten Stade Francais in round one six days earlier, a win on the road against the Top 14 side would have given Munster’s European qualification hopes a huge boost with just two more pool games to play but it was not to be, despite Castres losing three players to the yellow cards across 80 minutes.
Munster lost a string of players to injury, prop Dian Bleuler, scrum-half Craig Casey withdrawn during a first half that saw the home side take a 10-0 lead before John Hodnett’s try and Jack Crowley’s penalty made it 10-7 at half-time.
Peter O’Mahony, Thaakir Abrahams and replacements Dave Kilcyone and Diarmuid Barron were second-half casualties but a second Hodnett try on 69 minutes, again converted by Crowley, edged the visitors within 11 minutes of a famous victory at 14-13, only to concede a scrum penalty on 72 minutes.
Trailing 16-14 and with the 80 minutes up, Munster still had the opportunity to sneak victory, only for Crowley’s penalty from inside his own half to be batted back into play by a Castres player and the chance to evaporate.
Everything that could have gone wrong did just that for Munster in a challenging opening 40 minutes yet somehow they found themselves just three points in arrears at half-time, John Hodnett’s try off a lineout maul, converted by Crowley handed Costello’s side a lifeline at 10-7.
The game had started badly for the visitors as they failed to find any fluency through a series of poor skill executions, not least in terms of tactical kicking and poor discipline.
A high tackle by Stephen Archer led to a close-range lineout from which former Connacht No.8 Abraham Papali’I scored the opening try on 13 minutes, while it was the same player who created the second for Castre on the half-hour, his quickly taken penalty inside the Munster 22 clearing a path for prop Quentin Walcker to make it 10-0.
Crowley missed a penalty attempt on 18 minutes and then Munster lost loosehead prop Dian Bleuler to a Head Injury Assessment, pre-empting the early introduction of Dave Kilcoyne after almost 12 months sidelined by injury. And their woes were further compounded by the loss to injury of Ireland scrum-half Craig Casey in the sequence of play leading to the home side’s second try.
Yet as Casey was being carried down the tunnel for treatment, Walcker turned from hero to villain, guilty of head-on-head contact on Brian Gleeson, the No.8 making his first Champions Cup start for Munster.
It was a red-card offence from the upright tackler but Gleeson fell into the collision enough for English referee Christophe Ridley to downgrade the offence to a yellow card on 32 minutes.
It was the opportunity Munster needed at the end of a disjointed opening half and a scrum penalty provided the platform, the visitors kicking upfield and striking from their lineout drive, Hodnett breaking off the front from 10 metres out to score an excellent try and as the Castres fans jeered and whistled, Crowley cooly slotted over the conversion to set up the potential for a second-half upset.
Munster were gifted another window of opportunity shortly after Walcker’s return from the sin-bin on 42 minutes when right-wing Geoffrey Palis was handed a yellow card for a deliberate knock-on as Castres defended inside their 22.
Yet the resulting penalty did not produce the necessary response from Munster, the ball bobbling out of the lineout maul and Tadhg Beirne knocking on at the try line.
Castres won the ensuing scrum penalty and then another upfield to allow scrum-half Jeremy Fernandez to extend their lead to 13-7 with a penalty kick with Munster failing to score in the 10-minute sin-bin period and their scrum conceding another penalty to the delight of the home crowd.
Munster introduced hooker Diarmuid Barron and tighthead prop Oli Jager on 55 minutes in the hopes of shoring up their under-pressure set-piece, Jager making his return from nine weeks out with a neck injury. Yet there were fresh injury issues to deal with Munster losing both Peter O’Mahony and Thaakir Abrahams to knocks.
Castres had a chance to turn the screw further with a Julien Dumora penalty on 63 minutes, but the full-back screwed his kick wide and Munster gladly accepted both that gift and a third yellow card from the home side as tighthead replacement Nicolas Corato was next in the bin.
Now it was Munster’s turn to apply pressure, and they laid siege to the Castres try line, winning a penalty advantage at a ruck but scoring without needing it, Hodnett this time striking as play continued.
Crowley’s kick was nerveless to edge Munster in front at 14-13 with 10 minutes to play but then Munster handed the initiative straight back to 14-man Castres, conceding a scrum penalty from which fly-half Louis Le Brun regained the lead at 16-14 on 72 minutes.
Munster’s ill luck hit again as replacement front-rowers Barron and Kilcoyne were forced off in the final 10 minutes.
A penalty close to their own 10-metre line gave hope, only for Crowley’s kick for touch to be bundled back into play to the delight of a noisy home crowd.
J Dumora (T Chabouni, 66); G Palis, J Goodhue, A Cocagi (A Seguret, 63), R Baget; L le Brun, J Fernandez (S Arata, 51); Q Walcker (W de Benedittis, 63),G Barlot (L Zarantonello, 63), W Collier (N Corato, 66); G Maravat, L Nakarawa (P Jedrasiak, 63); M Babillot - captain, T Ardron, A Papalii (W de Benedittis (YC), 35-42; F Tukino, 63).
Q Walcker 32-42, G Palis 43-53, N Corato 67-77.
M Haley; C Nash, T Farrell, A Nankivell, T Abrahams (R Scannell, 58); J Crowley, C Casey (P Patterson, 31); D Bleuler (D Kilcoyne, 22 – HIA; S Archer 75), N Scannell (D Barron, 55; N Scannell, 76), S Archer (O Jager, 55); F Wycherley, T Beirne - captain; P O’Mahony (T Ahern, 51), J Hodnett (A Kendellen, 70), B Gleeson (J O’Donoghue, 49).
Christophe Ridley (England).
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