MUNSTER COACH ANTHONY Foley was furious with referee Romain Poite after last night’s 31-19 defeat to Leicester Tigers at Thomond Park, a result which means the province face a must-win return leg at Welford Road next weekend.
Foley’s anger centred around a decision by Poite to award a penalty against Munster in the 32nd minute of the game, when the scoreline was tied at 6-6. Leicester kicked the penalty to touch, mauled Munster 20 metres towards their own tryline and then scored a try as Niki Goneva went through some weak defence in the left corner.
It had initially appeared that Munster would be handed the penalty after Tigers lock Mike Fitzgerald appeared to deliberately obstruct Andrew Conway from chasing his own kick.
However, after some minutes of deliberation with television match official Gilles Cogne, Poite instead penalised Munster’s James Cronin for pushing Fitzgerald.
“The red player pushed the number six (sic), pushed the number six, and that’s enough, ok?” said Poite to Munster captain CJ Stander after making the decision. “He was imbalance and touched the players just over here, ok? First offence by red, pushing the players.”
Speaking afterwards, Foley said, “If you’re going to look at a picture, look at the whole picture.”
Indeed, the replay shows that Dan Cole’s shove on Cronin is what resulted in the Munster loosehead colliding with Fitzgerald, who in turn blocked Conway’s path.
Foley stated that Poite’s decision was “nothing short of a disgrace” and added that the French referee “needs to be accountable for it.”
He’s not as disappointed as some on relation to how far off they are? They are miles off. No offence to Munster but they are an average,though very gutsy and committed side,and they have hammers Leinster twice in a row now. I do agree that they haven’t had any continuity with combinations,especially from 9-13,and hopefully when the likes of OBrien, Healy, Moore, Teo, McFadden etc come back then there will be a big improvement.
I must take the opportunity to praise Matt O’Connor for the huge improvement in Guinness Pro12 teams. Ever since he arrived at Leinster, every other team has greatly improved. Teams, that two years ago were almost brushed aside by Leinster, have now reached the heights that Leinster once inhabited alone.
Treviso have improved, Munster have improved, Edinburgh have improved, Scarlets have improved, Dragons have improved, Zebra have improved, Connacht (brilliant tonight, by the way) have improved..
In fact, they have all improved so much that Leinster has great difficulty taking on any of them.
By extension, Wasps and Harlequins have shown just how brilliant they are too due to you Matt.
I can hardly wait to see how much Castres get better when they arrive at the RDS soon. They will build statues in your image all over the town.
Matt, you have done European rugby a great service. They have all reached and surpassed Leinster this season thanks to your input at Leinster and everywhere else.
Thank you Matt and Happy New year!.
(and also to Mr Caputo, the news paper seller. Your influence on all other teams has been exceptional)