Toony’s fighting his corner
Coach defends late penalty decisions as Warriors crash
WARRIORS coach Gregor Townsend defended the decision to go to the corner with a couple of late penalties rather than settle for a draw on Saturday night.
He said that they simply had to win to stay in contention for a semi-final spot and that a draw would not have been enough. But they were unable to get a share of the spoils as Munster defended their line to secure a win which leaves them poised for a home semifinal, while the Townsend era now looks like fizzling out in the coming weeks after a season which promised so much.
A Stuart Hogg try 12 minutes from time gave Warriors hope after being outplayed for most of the second-half.
But any hope of staving off a fourth loss to Munster this season evaporated when Warriors were unable to score after winning the lineouts following the penalties.
“We have to win games, so we had to go out and win that game,” said Townsend.
“We obviously had opportunities with the lineout drive and the sequence of phases that we went through there. We were probably a bit too far out.
“But we are sixth in the league so we needed a win to have any chance of getting into the top four.
“Maybe it would have given us an opportunity to go back down later. But we felt that with the momentum we had it was a good opportunity to go for that lineout drive.”
Warriors were fighting an uphill battle from the sixth minute when they were turned over fol- lowing a defensive five-metre scrum, with Munster prop James Cronin eventually squeezing over.
“It was a close one. Munster got off to a good start. They played some energetic rugby and they were very good in the contact area as well so we couldn’t get our game going in the first 20 minutes. We showed glimpses in the first half, getting down to their tryline a few times but didn’t score.
“If we had just got the try before half-time it might have just changed the momentum.
“In the second-half we played a lot of rugby in our half. Players put in the effort and created an opportunity in the last 10 minutes.We had most possession and territory bit fair play to Munster they defended outstandingly well.”
Munster led 7-0 at the break they dominated the secondhalf with the introduction of skipper Peter O’Mahony and Donnacha Ryan. But struggled to extend their lead with efforts from Jack O’Donoghue and Ronan O’Mahony being ruled out by the TMO.
Rory Scannell extended the lead with a 61st minute penalty but Warriors finished strongly with Hogg scoring after a chip and chase 12 minutes from time.
But Munster remained disciplined to the end and held out for a priceless win as they bid for glory on two fronts.
Warriors, already assured a Champions Cup spot, will now have little to play for before Townsend takes over the national side as this was a game they simply had to win to stay in contention.