Tadhg Beirne demands Munster 'dust themselves off' for URC push

The southern province crashed out of the Champions Cup on Saturday. 

Munster's Tadhg Beirne dejected after the game on Saturday. Pic: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Tadhg Beirne has urged his Munster team to channel their Champions Cup disappointment to shake off a four-match losing streak and resurrect their URC campaign.

Saturday’s 31-29 Thomond Park defeat to Castres saw Munster eliminated at the pool stage as they failed to progress to knockout rounds for the first time since 2020. Clayton McMillan’s side now drop down to the second-tier Challenge Cup with an away draw at Exeter Chiefs in April’s Round of 16 after Gloucester’s failure to get a home win over Toulon in the final Pool 2 match on Saturday night leaving Munster in fifth place in the six-team group.

Revisiting Sandy Park will be a tricky challenge, not least having lost 32-24 there in 2024 having led 19-10 at half-time in that Champions Cup pool tie and by 24-13 with half an hour remaining. Exeter have rebounded from a difficult domestic campaign last season and currently sit third in the rebranded English PREM, two points behind defending champions Bath and four off top side Northampton Saints.

Munster, however, look a little in freefall right now, The back-to-back derby defeats over the festive season, at home to Leinster and at Ulster, have seen Munster drop from second to sixth after winning their first five URC games under the new head coach but club captain Beirne has demanded a positive reaction to elimination from Europe’s premier club competition, beginning in the league visit of Dragons to Cork’s Virgin Media Park this Friday night.

The Castres defeat made for a disappointing end to Beirne’s 100th Munster appearance following his return to Ireland from Scarlets in 2018. The Ireland and British & Irish Lions lock/flanker has been used to reaching the knockout stages in his time at the province and Champions Cup elimination has left a bitter taste in the skipper’s mouth.

“It doesn't sit well with me at all,” Beirne said on Saturday night, before the outcome of the Toulon-Gloucester game assured Munster of a Challenge Cup quarter-final appearance in April.

“That dressing room, you could certainly feel it in there. It's important we have to dust ourselves off.

“We're back to the URC next week. If we are lucky enough to get into the Challenge Cup, it's another opportunity at silverware. That's what we'll be striving towards.

“We'll have to look at this. We don't want to be in this situation ever again. If we make the Champions Cup next year, we'll definitely refer to this when we're in our group stage next year. For now, our focus will move on to the Dragons and the URC. 

“That's our opportunity right now towards silverware. Depending on results later today, we'll find out if we have another opportunity in the Challenge Cup.” 

Beirne acknowledged the level of competition in the Champions Cup was getting harder with each season that passed, with Munster losing heavily at Bath in round one of the pool stage, rebounding with a bonus-point win over Gloucester at Pairc ui Chaoimh before two narrow losses to French teams, 27-25 at Toulon and then the Castres reverse six days later.

“It's an incredibly difficult competition,” the captain said. “Our group in particular, you can see that. We've lost two games now by one score in the last two weeks. It's really nip and tuck, and we're out of the competition, just like that.

“It's incredibly disappointing, but it just shows how important it is to get your wins in this competition, particularly your home ones, and we weren't able to do that.

“It's incredibly disappointing, but the competition is still alive and well, for sure. The competition is there, for sure.”