ON THE MUNEY
Rowntree hails his Reds heroes
MUNSTER boss Graham Rowntree hailed the character of his men as they got their Champions Cup campaign firmly back on track at Stade Felix Mayol.
The bonus point win leaves them in control of their own destiny when they entertain Northampton Saints at Thomond Park next Saturday.
“This is a huge competition for us and we were able to come over here and get our game on the field, I’m immensely proud of the lads right from the get-go,” said Rowntree.
“We spoke this week about being ambitious. I’ve seen the body of work we’ve done all season. We had a challenging period over Christmas with weather, a lot of moving parts with injuries and everything but we’ve had a cracking training week.
“We changed our kicking game a bit at half-time but stuck to the plan, you know, under pressure. We knew if we could keep the ball in play, keep the ball on the field and move them around there’d be opportunities for us.”
Munster, not for the first time in Europe, did it the hard way and had to come from 10-0 behind in the opening half.
But by the interval they had got control and opened up a 17-13 lead against a Toulon side also looking for their first win. A Melvin Jaminet penalty and a try from deep by Duncan Paia’ava saw Toulon lead 10-0 after 23 minutes but Munster did not allow them to build on that foundation.
Jack Crowley got Munster off the mark with a penalty from 40 metres and they piled on the pressure after that. A patient build-up ended with Alex Nankivell get through to score, with Crowley converting to tie the game 10-10.
Jaminet edged Toulon back in front with a penalty but Munster finished the half strongly and Simon Zebo touched down (inset) after collecting a neat chip from Crowley.
Munster continued to boss matters after the restart and Crowley once more was the creator, flashing a chipped effort across for 6ft 9ins lock Tom Ahern to collect on the right sideline and power his way home to make it 22-13.
Toulon hit back and got an unconverted try from Cornell de Preez but it was Munster who finished in style and secured the try bonus point going into the final quarter.
Calvin Nash, fancied by many to make the Six Nations squad when it’s announced in midweek, scored when he collected a high kick from scrum-half Craig Casey. Crowley converted to make it 29-18.
Rowntree now hopes they complete the job against Northampton and knows exactly what they need to do.
“Basically stick to what we’ve been doing in training,” added Rowntree on a day when Joey Carbery made his return from injury off the bench after Peter O’mahony and Niall Scannell started.
TOULON: Tries: D Paia’aua, C de Preez. Pens: M Jaminet 2. Con: Jaminet
MUNSTER: Tries: A Nankivell, S Zebo, T Ahern, C Nash. Pen: J Crowley. Cons: Crowley 3