Anxious wait for Munster on extent of injuries to Craig Casey and Thaakir Abrahams

Munster's injury list expanded after a battle against Castres in the Investec Champions Cup.

INJURY LIST: Munster’s Craig Casey receives treatment before going off with an injury. Picture:  ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Munster were left counting the physical cost of their 16-14 Champions Cup pool defeat to Castres with Craig Casey and Thaakir Abrahams facing potentially lengthy injury absences.

Friday night’s Stade Pierre Fabre defeat to the Top 14 side produced a litany of injuries for interim head coach Ian Costello as Castres extended their unbeaten home record this season to seven games and kept their hopes alive of reaching the knockout stages for the first time in 15 attempts.

Munster were set to leave southern France for home on Saturday morning with a losing bonus point for their troubles despite a poor performance. They must now target a home victory over Saracens in January’s round three pool game at Thomond Park to ensure their progress to the Round of 16 following an opening-round bonus-point victory against Stade Francais. Yet the prospects of Ireland scrum-half Casey and new wing signing Abrahams passing fit for the January 11 clash with the three-time champions is in doubt.

Casey caught his studs in the Castres turf as Munster conceded the home side’s second try to take a 10-0 lead on the half-hour and Costello said the Ireland international has sustained a serious knee injury.

Abrahams, meanwhile, dislocated a shoulder in contact while the attritional contest also saw Dian Bleuler, Peter O’Mahony, and replacement front rowers Diarmuid Barron and Dave Kilcoyne all leave the field ahead of schedule, leaving Munster’s temporary boss to assess the damage ahead of next Friday’s trip to interprovincial rivals Ulster.

"Thaakir, in that tackle, it dislocated his shoulder, or it certainly popped out,” Costello said.

"Killer was cramp at the end. Peter got a stud in the calf so hopefully that's okay.

"Craig's is pretty serious, he's on crutches. We don't know the extent of that yet but you could see he left the pitch in a bit of pain.

"As always, you come to a place like this, it's a punishing, attritional performance and a few guys we'll have to watch pretty closely over the next couple of days to see if they're good for next week."

Just as painful for Costello was his side’s performance against a Castres side that saw three players yellow-carded across 80 minutes. Munster were on the back foot for long periods of the opening period, failed to get their attack flowing and were let down by poor skill execution, a creaking scrum and ill-discipline in a game that saw referee Christophe Ridley award 17 penalties to each side. 

Yet against the run of play, Munster hit back before half-time through a John Hodnett try converted by an otherwise off-form Jack Crowley to trail just 10-7 at the break and then took a 14-13 lead in the 69th minute through a second converted try from Hodnett, only to concede a scrum penalty which allowed Louis Le Brun to kick the decisive three points.

Munster had the chance to snatch what would have been an extremely fortunate victory at the death only for Crowley to fail to find touch with a penalty from inside his own half as he tried to put his side inside the Castres 22 in the final play.

"Really disappointing, particularly the first half,” the interim head coach said. “We started really poorly and that's something we've been working really hard on. We probably overplayed in our half and uncharacteristically kicked away a bit of ball in their half. We had good opportunities so we were very lucky to be 10-7 down at half time.

"That gave us a lot of belief, a lot of trust. Ultimately, we had our chances but 17 penalties, some from their pressure and they obviously had a very strong scrum but some were within our control, I would say, where we chased a lot of breakdowns. Our discipline let us down at key times so we lost that footing to have a chance in that second half."

Even the losing bonus point was scant consolation.

"I know at the end of January that could be really important and going on the road in France and getting a point is important but right now, there's elements of the performance we're really disappointed with. We have a lot of good work done over the last five or six weeks, so we get a chance to reset and go out next week in the URC."