Injuries finally catch up

WHAT could have happened against Toulon, did happen against Racing 92. An early sucker-punch set the tone for what was to follow.

In Limerick a combination of Simon Zebo and Nigel Owens saved Munster’s bacon, this time around there was no stopping the Red Army’s French foes. Under the blistering Bordeaux sun, Munster melted, making mistakes they’d avoided up until then.

The first half was a complete systems failure. Very little went according to plan. From the very first line-out – where Munster opted for something a little more off the cuff, presumably fearing what Donncha Ryan was capable of – to missed tackles, forward passes and balls knocked on, Munster just couldn’t get on an even keel.

Teddy Thomas went over the line after just five minutes and from then on Munster were chasing their tails. Not even a penalty from Ian Keatley – who started poorly – to bring the Reds back to within a single score on seventeen minutes could restore Munster’s equilibrium.

Sixty seconds after Keatley’s penalty, Thomas was again cutting the Munster defence asunder. Less then five minutes later Thomas was over a third time. Instead of touching down the French international rather insultingly passed to Maxime Machenaud for him to finish. Game over. Another semi-final set-back for Munster then after a season of real promise. Have they genuinely made progress or are they just spinning their wheels? Are Munster – for want of a better comparison – now the Tottenham of European rugby?

Since 2009 Munster have lost six European Cup semi-finals. Peter O’Mahony’s frustration at the situation is clearly summed up by him saying that he’s “tired of learning lessons” after semi-final defeats.

It’s an understandable reaction, but when you think about it Munster’s defeat wasn’t altogether that unsurprising. Think of all the injuries they’ve suffered. Think of the disjointed year they’ve had behind the scenes with Rassie Erasmus leaving and Johann van Graan coming on board midway through the campaign.

To do what they’ve done under those circumstances is a genuine achievement and that needs to be taken into account when assessing their defeat last weekend.

Munster are ahead of where we expected them to be at the start of the year. Instead of falling back because of the change behind the scenes they’ve held station. Yes it’s frustrating that they’ve not managed to push on, but you probably would have taken it before the season began.

If in twelve months time Munster have lost another semi-final heavily then that’s a different story, but for now we can cut them and the management team some slack.

Yes Zebo should have started (Copeland and maybe even Hanrahan too), but such were the scale of Munster’s problems that not even those tweaks would have made too much of a difference.

Injuries finally caught up with Munster. No great mystery there.