THEY HAVE CERTAINLY played better than this yet there was still a quiet sense of relief in Johann van Graan’s voice this evening as he reflected on the fact his side are now two from two in this year’s Champions Cup.
While Harlequins narrowly ahead of them in their pool by virtue of a better points differential, Munster’s position in second place pretty much guarantees them a place in the knockout stages even if van Graan said he ‘had yet to look at the table’.
“We are very happy with the win, happy to have the nine points, although it is not the performance that we wanted,” said their head coach.
“This was not easy on the eye, it was an ugly win, but it was the first game for a lot of guys for seven weeks. Yes we can certainly perform better but it has been a real mental battle the last few weeks. We hope to get everyone out of isolation in the next two days, and then we can be together as a squad for first time since the Ospreys week back in October. The thing I am glad about is that we have two wins out of two.
“When we spoke a few weeks ago, we certainly would have taken that.”
Quite where the rugby world will be in January is something we can only speculate on as this virus rips through the world yet again.
The various postponements in the Champions Cup this weekend have left the fixture schedulers with a nightmare to try and sort.
“The important thing to note is that every club is going through this,” said van Graan. “We were just thankful to be able to play in front of our home support, thankful we ground out a win.
“We had a sold out stadium in a week’s time; we are now down to being able to host just 5,000. That is currently the way the world works. The most important thing to note is that we are talking about people’s health. Currently our whole squad is in good health.”
Their position in second place also looks healthy although player of the match, Damian De Allende admitted it was a flawed display.
“We tried to do too much with the ball; it was just that final pass,” said the Springbok. “It was a bit frustrating on the field where we thought we should have scored and didn’t.
“We are still happy to get the win but we left a bit out there.
“It’s a very good win but I think the boys feel a bit disappointed.”
