Munster need to 'step up' for Castres challenge, says Beirne

It's do or die for the province at Thomond Park this weekend.

Ireland's Tadhg Beirne dejected after the match. Pic: INPHO/Billy Stickland

Forget the spreadsheets and ignore the pool permutations, Munster’s captain believes only a bonus-point victory at home to Castres this Saturday will ensure his side’s progress to the Champions Cup knockout rounds.

Tadhg Beirne’s team left Toulon on Sunday with a losing bonus point after a 27-25 defeat to the three-time champions at Stade Felix Mayol. It should have been more was the feeling within the Munster camp after a number of missed opportunities throughout a frenetic 80 minutes in the French sunshine and a harsh refereeing decision for a ruck penalty from which Toulon full-back Marius Domon slotted the three points five minutes from time to nudge his team in front for victory.

Regardless of the circumstances, Munster will go into the final round of pool matches needing victory to be sure of qualification for April’s knockout Round of 16. They are one of five teams in Pool 2 capable of advancing but with six match points from their opening three fixtures the mission for Thomond Park on Saturday evening is as clear as their captain outlined.

“Yeah, look, we have to win it,” Beirne said. “The reality is we probably need a bonus point as well to put ourselves into contention going forward.

“So it's going to be a huge game. It's a huge week for us, and we're going to have to really step up and the performance out there is going to have to take a couple of steps to make sure we get over the line.” 

With Glasgow Warriors and reigning champions Bordeaux-Begles all on the maximum 15 points in their respective pools and having all but secured home advantage for at least the last 16, Leinster and Bristol Bears go into round four with 14 points and have also already qualified, as have Sale Sharks, Harlequins and Northampton Saints on 11.

Pool 2 is the only group yet to have a team secure in the knockout rounds with Bath leading on 11 points, from Edinburgh on 10, Toulon on nine and then Munster ahead of Gloucester on points difference but level on six apiece. An away draw for the knockouts seems likely but if there is an edge for Munster to be found it is that Castres are the one team in the pool with no chance of qualification and are likely to send a weakened side to Limerick this weekend.

Even so, Beirne agreed that Munster never make it easy for themselves and added these situations tended to produce great performances.

“There's been some tight games, that's a very tight game, we'll be disappointed we didn't win it.

“If we had have won it we would have been in a much better position, but you're right, we don't make it easy for ourselves, but when our backs are against the wall you often see some of the best performances from this group.

“That's just part of Munster. Many Munster teams in the past, when their backs against the wall have turned up and performed, it'll be no different next week.

“We need to win badly, we need a bonus point in reality, so we're going to have to step up a huge amount.” 

Beirne watched Castres go down at home to Bath on Friday night in a 43-20 defeat at Stade Pierre Fabre and saw enough in their performance to suggest Munster will not have it all their own way at Thomond Park this Saturday in a European record 20th meeting between the old foes.

“They're a good team. Against Bath they showed lots of patches of good rugby. It's going to be a tough battle. They're coming to Thomond Park and we need to put our best foot forward.” 

Chief among the improvements required will be on Beirne and his lineout unit after a poor outing at the Mayol, when Munster delivered just a 63.64 per cent return on their own throws.

There were some mitigating circumstances with the loss of replacement lock/flanker Tom Ahern to a neck injury, which brought a shorter, more orthodox back-rower in Ruadhan Quinn onto the bench in his stead and Beirne was also impressed by Toulon’s lineout defence.

“They just they defended well towards the end there. It's just the way they defended and then some mix-up in one of the calls as well, like we had a late change there towards the end and probably, maybe, that had a little bit of effect, I don't know, but it shouldn't.

“We should be much better than that. Obviously frustrating that we lost one there towards the end when it was in a pretty pivotal point of the game as well.” 

Whatever the shortcomings in Munster’s performance at Toulon, the skipper was proud of the fight shown by his players to get themselves back in the game having gone 14-6 down shortly after half-time. Tries from Calvin Nash, Jack O’Donoghue and Tom Farrell put their team into a winning position at 25-24 with nine minutes remaining, only to lose the initiative and invite tryline pressure which led to the decisive penalty from Domon.

“And it was never in doubt to be honest,” Beirne said. “No-one panicked, no-one ever felt like they were panicking.

“So it felt like we were going to get back into it. We knew we were going to have a purple patch of our own, and we did, but unfortunately we just felt a little bit short in the end.”