MUNSTER HEAD COACH Graham Rowntree hailed Munster’s “beautiful” attacking play in a 40-29 victory over Glasgow Warriors but says it was “tainted” by a struggling maul defence.
The men in red had the bonus point secured by half time but leaked five pushover tries, four in the second half, against the URC leaders’ potent pack.
“We had momentum in our attack last week (against Leinster), even though the scoreline didn’t reflect it, and we took it through to this week,” said Rowntree.
“It’s tainted for me with those maul tries.
“We’ll look at how we’re giving them mauls at our own tryline and we have to be better there.
“I said to the lads, we have some work to do as a forward pack, otherwise we’ll be defending mauls all season. All season.
“We’ve got some work to do there but it stems back to our discipline around the middle of the field.
“We’ve got to be better. We’ll fix it. We’ve done it before. It’s a technical issue and we’ll get it right.”
Tom Ahern, relocated from the second row to blindside flanker, scored two tries in the corner and Rowntree hailed the Ardmore native’s versatility.
“We’d spoken about him, even when he was in the second row, about using him on the edge of the field more. Then we made the decision last week before the Leinster game to put him back to six.
“I remember telling him the morning of training, ‘How about six?’, and he just lit up.
“Tom’s not that expressive as a person but I was impressed by how he’s taken to the position.
“It’s good, he’s not perfect, but he’s showing to be a very versatile back-five player.
“He was a full-back not long ago. It does play into his strengths and you can see he’s enjoying his game.”
Those full-back skills were evident in his high take for the second try.
“He was tackled in the air, got up, and did well,” added Rowntree. “I’m chuffed with how he’s going. We’ve got some serious competition in that back-five now.”
A further positive was a debut off the bench for Crusaders recruit Oli Jager, who arrived just last Thursday week.
“He was blowing a bit but he was still getting up to speed in terms of how we’re doing things,” said Rowntree.
“Good man, very diligent; a huge, huge human being. I was delighted we could get him on the pitch and get some minutes down him fairly soon after he arrived in the country.
“He’s a good kid.”
The maul tries would not have been so easily scored if Klyne had been playing. He is invaluable to Munster an absolute brick wall in defence.
Didn’t look good now. Should never have Glasgow come away with bonus point. As for Jager, there’s a reason he’s at munster and not at La Rochelle or Toulouse. Let’s not get carried away with this guy folks.
@Ray Ridge: is it that he has ambitions of playing international rugby? Or that he values player welfare?
@Ray Ridge: easy does it Ray. He might not tech the heights of your interprovincial career or international prospects but give him a little time before cutting the legs from him.
@David O’Flynn: Time?? 6 years at the Crusaders and failed to make it as an all black. I doubt a year or two at munster will make a difference. No harm or offence.
@Ray Ridge: Was that last sentence a pun there Ray? This lads father is Harm Jager.
Harm Jager is a Dutch strength and conditioning coach who worked (works?) in Ireland but I can’t remember who for, Football? Rugby?
I remember him in connection with Niall Quinn I think.
@Ray Ridge: Neither did Aki, JGP or Lowe make it to the ABs but they made it into the Irish side.
You seem to be very quick to judge. Judge as you wish to be judged is a good philosophy, irrespective of any religious connotations.
They seemed to try and drop it (lineout) a few times, but Loughman wasn’t able to pull the man down and so gave away momentum and never got behind it, and they only contested once (from 5m). Jager seems a little off the fitness level but looks like a bouncer at Mullingars 3 best nightclub which is exactly what’s needed. Hope he goes well. No need for that reverse scrum penalty for one of the maul tries.
I have to agree with Matt Williams article last week about how the proliferation of maul tries. I agree it is ruining the game. They have to think of a way of Dix our aging it and encouraging the running option.
@John dunne: discouraging!
@John dunne: Ugh. Matt Williams is awful, Ray Ridge is even better.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see the match but it is a great result. The fact that there’s areas to improve upon means Munster will get even stronger. The return match with Leinster will be a tough one, I can’t see Munster losing it.
Remember, Glasgow have a very strong team this year, so no mean result overall! That’s in spite of their BP, which needs to be looked at in terms of the overall scoring by Munster. If Munster had lost, yeah I’d complain but it’s a great score to put on a strong team.