ONLY HALF-TIME INSISTS MUNSTER BOSS VAN GRAAN
Munster 33 Leicester Tigers 10
JOHANN VAN GRAAN refused to get too excited about his side’s convincing Champions Cup victory, holding fire instead until after next weekend’s return clash at Welford Road.
Two tries in each half and a brilliant display at the breakdown helped Munster to a five-point haul that saw them take a firm grip of Pool 4 but it was a game that threatened to boil over.
Tigers coach Matt O’connor suggested Munster were illegal at the ruck while he also implied that Andrew Conway failed to have the requisite duty of care in the collision that seemed to knock out the Munster man and left Telusa Veainu with a broken jaw.
“He smashed him in the face with his head. You saw it, I saw it. Duty of care isn’t there?,” said O’connor.
Twelve months ago Tigers were humiliated in
Limerick and backed up that embarrassment with victory at Welford Road. The sides meet there again on Sunday and the challenge for Munster is to repeat the dosage they delivered on Saturday.
Van Graan said: “If you put these two weeks in two halves, it’s well done on the first half – you dominated territory, created a lot of opportunities, defended well right at the end but this game is only half way.”
After a fortnight of contract rumours captain Peter O’mahony celebrated his first European try for nearly four years with a clenched fist to the 23,503 Munster fans while Chris Cloete finished the job late on.