Munster can't afford slips to sour into another slump
Munster's Alex Kendellen dejected after the game. Pic: Ben Brady/Inpho
Go back 12 months and Munster were turning towards the club game’s long November pause with five wins from five and 23 points on the board. Flying high. Saturday’s loss to the Sharks leaves them 12th in the URC table and with just one win to their name.
Head coach Clayton McMillan isn’t alone in pointing out the quality of the opposition they have faced so far. The province has faced sides that now sit first, second, fourth and sixth, as well as Ulster who are floundering two rungs below them on the ladder.
Their largest losing margin before Saturday was just six points.
These are all valid points but there are still obvious concerns as they hunker down for the next five weeks, digest everything that has transpired thus far and a second block to come and that starts with a trip to Zebre at the start of December.
“We know we're there or thereabouts,” said McMillan after the weekend’s damp squib loss in Limerick. “But we will have to find some solutions around a wet-weather game, because it's not something that we were overly good at last year.
“We're coming to the point of the season where conditions are generally only going to get worse. So we've got to be clear around how we want to adapt our game in those type of conditions against teams that have the ability to strangle you through a power game.”
Lest we forget, it was on the restart late last November that Munster’s season started to sour with that careless home loss to the Bulls. They played seven times through the months of November, December, January and February winning only three and earning 12 points.
They simply can’t afford another run like that this time around. In the Sharks, who added Limerick to recent notable cities sacked after tour wins in Lyon and Cardiff, they do at least have a decent template to work off in playing to imperfect winter conditions.
JP Pietersen’s side had far less of the ball and of territory – 43% and 39% respectively – they kicked more often and for over 200 metres more than the hosts, they made more tackles, and they had game-breaking talent to capitalise on the crumbs.
Their 19-year old-full back Zekethelo Siyaya was absolutely blistering from opening play.
Munster? They lost lineouts, botched exits, even botched a mark, had kicks blocked, kicked loose, had an attacking maul stolen. Mostly, though, it was a litany of knock-ons that let slip any hope of momentum and gain.
One Ox Nche superman shove aside, the scrum actually held up its side of the bargain again, but the power the Sharks brought to the game was more apparent as the evening wore on and Munster found themselves smothered as they struggled to secure that wet ball.
Other good news? Not much. There was the return to action after injury of both Edwin Edogbo and Lee Barron. They came off the bench just before and after Nche had been sent to the bin for a high, off-the-ball hit on Jeremy Loughman that might have been red.
The Sharks had 14 players unavailable here, some of them major Springbok stars, so it’s not like Munster could play the poor mouth on that one, but the fact is that they will have a good number of their own wounded patched up come that next Zebre game.
Good news for McMillan who said the squad has been “operating on the smell of an oily rag” of late.
The hope has to be that some of the pain suffered in recent weeks will turn into long-term gain given the manner in which they have had to lean on youth. Ten of the squad on Saturday were aged between 20 and 23.
“I’d prefer that we didn't have to be exposing them probably as often as we have but that's our reality. What you saw out there today, particularly in the backs, is what we have left available to us at this stage of the season.
“But they've made every post a winner, and they've taken their opportunity when they've been given them. They'll learn more lessons from tonight, and as I said, it will stand to us moving forward. There’s lots to get excited about around some of those young guys.”
Mark Sexton clearly agrees. The Ireland XVs coach has named a handful of them – Sean and Edwin Edogbo, Brian Gleeson and Shay McCarthy - in his squad ahead of their meeting with Fiji in Cork in three weeks’ time.
Older faces have been included with them with Dan Kelly hoping for a run at centre and being joined by some experienced forwards in Tom Aherne, Jack Aungier, Kieran Brookes and Michael Milne. McMillan is looking for them to make their marks.
“They want to have a have a good look at them, and so I'd be asking them to put their best foot forward. Yeah, to enjoy being in a different environment, open your ears, open your eyes, learn something new, bring something back to us, be better for the experience.”
B O’Connor; S McCarthy, G Wood, A Nankivell, R Russell; JJ Hanrahan, B O’Donovan; J Wycherley, M van der Merwe, K Brookes; E O’Connell, F Wycherley; S Edogbo, J O’Donoghue, B Gleeson.
J Loughman for J Wycherley, E Edogbo for O’Connell, G Coombes for Gleeson and A Kendellen for S Edogbo (all 47); J O’Riordan for O’Donovan (54-58 and 71); M Ala’alatoa for Brookes (56); L Barron for van der Merwe (60); C O’Shea for Hanrahan (62).
: Z Siyaya, E van der Merwe, S Hartzenberg, E Hooker, J Williams, G Lombard, J Hendrikse; Ox Nche, E Bester, H Jacobs; J Jenkins, E van Heerden, T Maversere, M Tshituka, N Hatton.
T Du Toit for Jacobs (50); S Lewies for Jenkins and V Tshituka for Maversere (both 53); I Van Zyl for Hendriske (59); C Dawson for Lewies, D Landsberg for Heerden and L Mnebelele for Bester (all 63).
B O’Connor (WRU).
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