Frustrated Lions flop against well-organised Munster

Defending United Rugby Championship (URC) champions Munster squeezed the life out of the Lions and dealt what could be a fatal blow to their play-off hopes after a 33-13 win at Ellis Park on Saturday.

The Lions were firmly in the top eight battle after their thumping win over an understrength Leinster the previous week, but after this weekend’s result they are now 11th on the log, five points off Benetton in eighth and will need to win their remaining games and hope results go their way to reach the knockouts.

Munster was always going to be a tough battle, but the Lions will be disappointed with the manner of their defeat, after the Irish side did very little playing but still managed to score four tries and seal a 20 point win in a game that should have been much closer.

“I think that was part of the squeeze. They barely played in their half, they didn’t allow us any counter (attacking) opportunities. We knew that they were going to give the ball a lot of air, that’s the way they play and they do that well,” explained Lions coach Ivan van Rooyen.

“From there you have to generate quick ball and play. Initially that’s where we made some errors and we just couldn’t get going. They disrupted our setpiece really well, and at the lineout we couldn’t get going. They scored two maul tries which kind of sealed it for them.”

The Lions also had their chances, earning a number of mauls in both halves, but unable to convert a single one, while they also made some exciting breaks and spent more time in the Munster half than their opposition did in theirs.

In all the hosts absolutely dominated the stats, having 60% possession and 62% territory, made seven line breaks to two, made 11 offloads to three, made 423 metres to 176 from the visitors and had to make 56 tackles while Munster were forced to make 183, but somehow only scored one try.

“To be honest I think we created more than they did. Just off the top of my head we couldn’t execute those three rolling mauls, Erich’s (Cronje) chip and chase bounced over his head and Sanele’s (Nohamba) crosskick kept rolling left,” said Van Rooyen.

“The ball fell on the ground, Willem (Alberts) wanted to kick it through, missed it, and Simon Zebo kicked it through and that incident (penalty try) happened from there. So just nothing bounced our way.

“I think we created enough. Once we got going (a bit) we looked dangerous. But we just didn’t manage to finish it off. We maybe needed one more pass or one or two more phases.”