'You've got belief and now you’ve evidence to back it up' - confident Munster set for second French test
RAIDERS: Munster interim head coach Ian Costello and Tadhg Beirne. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
Ian Costello believes Munster will travel back to France this weekend with confidence and belief enhanced following their dramatic one-point victory in La Rochelle.
Reaching the Champions Cup quarter-finals for the first time in three seasons and setting up a trip to top seeds Bordeaux-Begles with this win at Stade Marcel-Deflandre was no easy task but the boost Munster have got from crucial back-to-back successes on the road has given the interim head coach’s side invaluable momentum.
Munster’s quarter-final at Stade Chaban-Delmas, with a kick-off time of 3pm Irish time, follows UBB’s six tries to five, 43-31 win over a dogged Ulster on Sunday. With an attack spearheaded by Joey Carbery and his half-back partner Maxime Lucu, and blessed with the backline firepower of Damien Penaud, Romain Buros and Yoram Moefana, Bordeaux could afford to do without Six Nations player of the champions Louis BIelle-Biarrey and still run riot for long periods.
The evidence from their performance against Ulster showed the size of the challenge facing Munster this weekend, but rebounding from back-to-back URC defeats to first beat derby rivals Connacht in Mayo and then follow up to by edging a European thriller against pedigree opponents in France will do wonders for players’ confidence, he agreed.
“Yeah, it absolutely will,” Costello said. “You talk about belief and that's a huge part of every team and you put a bit of evidence to that and you’ve got conviction, you've got belief and now you’ve evidence to back it up, and you've got those milestones.
“We thought we were going really well up to the Edinburgh game, if I’m honest. We’d gone from 13th in the league back up to fifth and we messed up against Edinburgh, badly. And that hurt us because there's certain key things that you look at, your identity and your DNA, and we let ourselves and our supporters down.
“Then we went out against Glasgow and played far better and then just lost that in the last few minutes. So we knew that there was a good foundation there. So we never lost confidence in that and then to deliver in Connacht last week was very important.
“And then this is next level. It's to understand that we can go against a heavyweight team like that, when we're a full strength. That's the bit that’s frustrating… when we’re at full strength, and we have that depth, and you've guys like Jack O’Donoghue, Brian Gleeson, Ruadhan Quinn, who are playing out of their skin, not in the matchday 23 today and we’ve still got backs to come back - when we have a full squad that's robust and competitive, I think we're capable of beating teams like that, and that’s where we need to be towards the end of the season.”
The returns of Munster’s Ireland frontliners and comebacks from injury for Thaakir Abrahams, Craig Casey, Jean Kleyn, and Oli Jager have all been impactful these past two weeks.
It was full-back Abrahams’ electric pace which launched the counter-attack for Casey to to level the scores after Levani Botia had opened the scoring and Munster trailed only 10-7 at half-time.
Yet La Rochelle unravelled in the third quarter, the excellent Calvin Nash winning a ruck penalty from the restart, dispatched by Crowley and then Gavin Coombes charging down a West kick to score Munster’s second. Wing Andrew Smith marked his first European appearance for Munster with a second try inside four minutes but a penalty try and yellow card for Alex Kendellen put the contest back in the mixer. Step forward Crowley once more, the fly-half taking a leaf out of O’Gara’s book by sending over the drop goal that sealed a famous victory, though La Rochelle made it a nervous final four minutes for the visitors and their 3000-plus supporters with a Hoani Bosmorin try to make it a one-point game.
Centre Teddy Thomas butchered a further opportunity for the home side by ignoring a one on one against tighthead prop Oli Jager and instead turned into traffic but Muster were heroic in defence, and turnovers from Nash, Smith, Tom Ahern and captain Tadhg Beirne were worth as much as points.
“Over the next few weeks we will hopefully have more guys back, which you need if you're going to compete on two fronts,” Costello said.
“That's the difference now, we're talking about Champions Cup next week, and then a massive game against the Bulls and you can't keep your eye off that because we won't be in this competition (next season). But definitely for one week only we won’t focus on anything else for the moment.”
D Leyds; J Nowell (J Favre, 48), T Thomas, UJ Seuteni (A Hastoy, 52), H Bosmorin; I West (M Haddad, 64), T Kerr-Barlow; R Wardi (A Kaddouri, 54), P Bourgarit (Q Lespiaucq, 48), U Atonio (A Kuntelia, 52); T Lavault (U Dillane, 55), W Skelton; L Botia (J Cancoriet, 48), O Jegou, G Alldritt – captain Yellow card: I West 22-32, D Leyds 50-60
: T Abrahams (R Scannell, 54); C Nash, T Farrell, S O’Brien, A Smith; J Crowley, C Casey (C Murray, 66); J Loughman (J Wycherley, 12), D Barron (N Scannell, 56), O Jager (S Archer, 53); J Kleyn (F Wycherley, 53), T Beirne - captain; P O’Mahony (T Ahern, 53), J Hodnett (A Kendellen, 63), G Coombes.
Yellow card: A Smith 10-20, A Kendellen 65-75
Andrea Piardi (Italy).
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