Sean Farrell reports from Stade Pierre Fabre
MUNSTER HEAD COACH Johann van Graan cut a frustrated figure in the depths of Castres’ Stade Pierre Fabre, having watched his side lose 13-12 to the reigning French champions.
The match-turning try, by Faea Fa’anunu, arrived with a bad-tempered post-script as Peter O’Mahony sought out referee Wayne Barnes to complain that openside Chris Cloete had suffered contact around the eye.
The influential South African sustained further off the ball treatment before the first-half was out and Sam Arnold appeared extremely agitated in the second period amidst incessant foul play.
Barnes’ officiating and the non-calls made were not touched on by Van Graan until he was pressed, but he couldn’t help a wry thought of a meeting with referee boss Joel Jutge after the hosts were given the benefit of the doubt.
“The values of rugby are pretty important,” said the young South African coach, after tasting his third loss in European competition.
“We got spoken to about the values of rugby in the week and I thought we stayed within the values of rugby tonight. We just hope that due process will be followed.”
Van Graan may have further complaints at the non-sanction of Benjamin Urdapilleta — whose feet-first slide tackle forced Andrew Conway to knock on rather than cleanly collect his own kick to score – and a breakdown that often descended into a free-for-all.
However, Castres did see two yellow cards during the contest and ultimately the head coach pointed to missed opportunities – off the tee and in phaseplay – as the decisive factor in the one-point loss.
“We’ve got to be more clinical. We certainly created enough opportunities tonight,” he said with a nod to Conway’s close-run-thing and Conor Murray’s break on advantage late in the first half.
“We just weren’t good enough to win away. If you don’t convert all the opportunities into points then you won’t win.”
Murray Kinsella, Gavan Casey and Eddie O’Sullivan preview another big weekend of Heineken Cup action and dissect the week’s main talking points.
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Carty had a great game. The Connacht players looked absolutely gutted coming off at the end. It was a massive shift to put in. The RDS in the final 10mins was LOUD, seemed louder than the All Black’s game, in the terrace anyways. Heaving so it was. Frawley took some huge hits, especially that one from Aki (Ouch) but had a good game i thought, don’t think I seen him at full back before. Dave Kearney had a mixed game but I felt he stood up as a bit of a leader in the final quarter. Max Deegan did a good job when he came on.
@SPQH: I think the whole of the RDS felt that hit by Aki on Frawley, fair play to him for just jumping straight back up. He can also play centre so a great guy to have on the team.
Jaysus they deserved the win but what a game.
As a connacht fan, we only have ourselves to blame. Our defence I thought was too passive on the gainline. Its been the same all season, with a lack of agression, you give away allot of linebreaks and you’re always scrambling. Thats three we’ve lost in the last ten with poor defending when we should be closing it out. Glasgow, Ospreys and now Leinster. A 6-5 record should be a 9-2, and defeats will probably cost us a play off spot. Amazingly, for a team.who won the pro12, we lack the certainty of confidence that Leinster, Scarlets and Glasgow have.
But fair play to Leinster, their handling was exceptional in the last ten, and they took it from us, rather than us throwing it away even though our composure was awful. Thought Adam Byrne was awesome all game. Connacht have to learn to play for 80, similar to Ireland after the 2013 to the all blacks.
I thought Adam Byrne had a savage game. He always looks for the offload.
Underrated player.
Gutted 4 Connaught they just seemed to run out of petrol.
@Gerald Long: Diesel in the wesht lad
Subs made the difference.
its a f*****g hard one to take!!
Once Leinster brought out the 2nds to replace the 3rds it was all over.