Ian Costello: 'Of all teams in European rugby, you turn over the ball against them, you get punished and we did'

TOO MANY ERRORS: A misfiring lineout and inaccuracy with ball in hand were chief regrets for Munster as they were eliminated from the Champions Cup with a 47-29 quarter-final defeat at Bordeaux-Begles on Saturday. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

A misfiring lineout and inaccuracy with ball in hand were chief regrets for Munster as they were eliminated from the Champions Cup with a 47-29 quarter-final defeat at Bordeaux-Begles on Saturday.

Both interim head coach Ian Costello and captain Tadhg Beirne were quick to pinpoint the cost of nine missed lineouts for a 57% success rate and sloppy handling as Bordeaux opened up a 29-3 lead inside 38 minutes. Munster rallied with a try from Alex Nankivell before the interval and one shortly after from Andrew Smith. 

A penalty try on 67 minutes and a second from loanee wing Smith made a game of it to the delight of more than 2,000 travelling supporters but the home side had to too much firepower available to absorb the pressure and their second-half tries from Maxime Lamothe and Louis Bielle-Biarrey were enough to see Bordeaux into their first Champions Cup semi-final, where they will meet the winners of Sunday’s all-French quarter between Toulon and defending champions Toulouse.

Munster had trailed 29-10 before Smith’s try on 51 minutes but Costello felt the damage had already been done.

“I think if we started the second half well we were capable of overturning a 19-point lead,” Costello said.

“We missed a couple of opportunities with a forward pass off a maul and an overthrown lineout in that 40-50 minute when we had them under pressure and we needed to score early. But yeah, first 50, very disappointed with.

“I suppose two key areas. We struggled with lineout and turned over a lot of ball. Of all teams in European rugby, you turn over the ball against them, you get punished and we did.” 

Beirne praised the spirit shown by his players to keep fighting in a second half that saw them lose back-five forward replacements Tom Ahern and Alex Kendellen to yellow cards, while Bordeaux had lock Cyril Cazeaux sent off on 74 minutes for his second yellow card after half-time. Yet the captain and lineout caller admitted Munster had been outclassed by their French hosts.

“I thought the fight by Munster was incredible at the end, and the scoreline probably doesn't reflect that. I'd say towards the end there were a few nervous bodies in Bordeaux but they probably showed their class at the end in terms of how clinical they were, and I think their last try depicted that.

“First half, we just couldn't hold on to the ball and I think that's something that we'll be really frustrated with because I think when we did hold on to the ball, we showed what we could do.

“Some forced offloads or knock-ons and then probably the thing that sticks out most is unfortunately our lineout didn't function very well today and there's lots of reasons for that, but you also have to give credit to Bordeaux in terms of how they defended it as well.

“They got in the air very well and we knew they were a big aerial threat. They mirror very well, but there was a lot of errors, whether it was poor calls for me or individual errors in the lineout as well and when you're at this level of competition, if your lineout doesn't function when you have as many lineouts as we did, you're going to be fighting an uphill battle.

“Obviously I call the lineout so that's going to be a thing that sticks out for me particularly, but overall you've got to just say the class of Bordeaux was there. You saw it from a lot of very good tries on turnover ball and all that, but we just came up short.”