POWER FAILURE
We lost our way, says Rowntree as Munster are outmuscled at home by 14-man Northampton
MUNSTER limped into the last 16 of the European Champions Cup last night despite a second-half implosion against a 14-man Northampton side at Thomond Park.
A losing bonus point in their 23-26 defeat was enough to secure fourth place in Pool 3 and safe passage into the knockout stages but Graham Rowntree’s side will be on the road again as they gear up for another gruelling assignment against an English or French heavyweight when the competition resumes in April.
After patchy displays against Bayonne and Exeter Chiefs earlier in the tournament, Munster failed to fire again as a rampant Saints side sealed a famous comeback win in Limerick.
Alex Mitchell struck early with a brilliant individual try but a yellow card for Saints skipper George Furbank and then a red card for hooker Curtis Langdon – after he struck Tom Ahern’s head with his knee – had seemingly swung the game back in Munster’s favour. And a big win looked on the cards when Antoine Frisch, Peter O’Mahony and Gavin Coombes all crossed for tries. But Northampton finished the stronger with the prolific boot of promising young out-half Fin Smith and a late try from replacement flanker Sam Graham securing a statement win on Irish soil.
And Rowntree was left to lament another second-half shambles in this tournament.
‘We spoke at half-time about how it wasn’t just going to happen against 14 men,’ said the Munster head coach.
‘Second half we came out and immediately gave some soft penalties away. And then we were doing things that we had spoken about not doing with the ball, running when we meant to kick and kicking when we meant to run.
‘The game just got away from us a bit, we were playing into the wind, and they grew a leg, didn’t they? We just lost our way.
‘Credit to them for managing the conditions and that. No, we will look at how we managed the game, little moments, key penalties that we gave away, that maul was disappointing to concede (the try).
‘We seemed to evacuate at the wrong time and they just broke away and scored and that brought them back in. Hugely frustrating.’
After watching his young side blow a winning position in three of their four pool games, Rowntree admitted that his players needed to get better at negotiating their way through tight games.
‘We have got to be better at managing the conditions.
‘That’s been proven over the last few weeks. A week ago we were in the sun (against Toulon), high ball in play and look at the conditions today against 14 men in the second half and we just lost our way, what we were doing with the ball, we lost our way.
‘I’ve nothing more technical than that at
the moment,’ continued Rowntree.
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell (right) was in attendance at Munster HQ but the sight of Ahern, who left the action on a motorised stretcher, will be a major concern while O’Mahony was withdrawn in the second half with what appeared to be a hip issue.
Ahern was included in Farrell’s Six Nations squad as a ‘training panellist’ while O’Mahony was appointed as the squad’s new captain earlier this week. And Farrell will be eagerly anticipating injury updates on the pair in the coming days.
‘Tom, we’ll see tomorrow, he’s going to spend the night in hospital. We’ll get a report on him tomorrow,’ Rowntree added.
‘Same with Pete, we’ll get an injury report tomorrow. Pete’s got a couple of little bangs there, we’ll see what tomorrow brings.’
Meanwhile, Harry Byrne’s injury scare was the black mark on Leinster’s bonus-point win in Leicester – and it leaves Farrell sweating on the fitness of two of the three out-halves named in the Six Nations squad.
Byrne had an outstanding match for the province in Welford Road, but limped off in the 63rd minute, a week after an ankle injury kept him on the sidelines for the win over Stade Francais.
His return to fitness for this weekend saw him take the place of Ciarán Frawley, who was injured in the win against Stade, and it means that 12 days out from the Six Nations opener in Marseille against France, Jack Crowley is the only fit out-half in Farrell’s main squad.
Sam Prendergast came on for Byrne yesterday and is one of three uncapped players who will train with the championship squad, but Farrell will be anxious to receive a fitness update on Byrne, with Frawley recovering from the rib injury that kept him out of yesterday’s game.
The Ireland squad are set to depart for Portugal for their warm weather training camp on Wednesday.