NORTHAMP’... 24 MUNSTER ....... 14
GRAHAM ROWNTREE refused to reach for the handily available excuse and brushed aside the bugs and ballyhoo.
Yes, his players had been hit by a debilitating virus late the previous week that refused to go away all through last week and left them coughing and spluttering through game day and the match itself at Franklin’s Gardens.
But no, he wasn’t going to blame the bug following a brave, brave performance but one that would have been more worthy of a Christmas fixture, he suggested, such was the nature of the gifts being handed out.
The Reds had actually mustered a blistering opening first forty and were 14-7 ahead at one point in the first-half thanks to tries from Sean O’Brien and Mike Haley.
But, worn thin, barely mounted a coherent attack in the secondhalf and the game only remained competitive on the back of some terrific jackaling and turnovers deep inside their own half.
Saints were, by the close, good value for their two second-half George Hendy tries, both unconverted, which came on the hour and with eight minutes remaining.
“I spoke to the lads afterwards about it, I keep using this expression ‘giving them presents, giving them freebies,’ said Rowntree, “there were some big moments where they were that good on transition when we dropped the ball or made an error and they were gone.
Swings
“There were some big swings in the game where we could have scored a try if someone held a pass, we would have scored, but they won the ball back and a few phases later, they scored - so those were errors, I thought we gifted them. “I’m proud of our effort. We stuck in there, a proper game of rugby. It’s not been a straightforward week in terms of availability and illness.
“It’s not been the most straightforward but we rolled our sleeves up and got on with it for a big game against a great team. I’m proud of our effort but we’ll sit down and look at how we don’t give away those presents.
“We will regroup this week and have a look at what we’re doing. We’ll dust ourselves down, see what we can fix, and drive on.” Second-row Beirbe put in a terrific shift, he was easily Munster’s best player but was clearly distressed and ill after the game.
“Look, people get sick, that’s part of life, you just get on with it,”he said in between bouts of coughing.
“As Wig (Graham Rowntree) alluded to, there was a bit of sickness going around. That happens in team environments where we’re scrumming down against each other and all that kind of stuff.
Bugs
“Lads are going to pick up bugs but that’s not the reason we lost today. We went out there, went toe-to-toe with Saints, they just got the upper hand. We’ll have to take that on the chin.”
“It was a battle, you saw in the first half how tight it was and even in the second half, the game was on a knife edge for the majority of it.
“We go from having them in their 22 to all of a sudden they’re scoring. It’s moments like that we’ll look back on and be very frustrated with. But I can’t fault the lads’ effort. It was certainly a battle but we came out on the wrong side of it.”
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