AT TIMES CONNACHT’S attacking play was irresistible at Thomond Park on Saturday, yet Pete Wilkins’ team boarded the bus back to Galway feeling frustrated by a handful of defensive lapses which resulted in them ending up on the wrong side of a 35-33 shootout with Munster.
Connacht tore their hosts open repeatedly in the first half, running in three superb tries through half-backs Josh Ioane and Ben Murphy, who crossed twice.
Yet after leading by five points at half-time Connacht couldn’t see the game out. While there was much to admire in their physicality and workrate against Graham Rowntree’s men, Wilkins was disappointed with moments of discipline that invited Munster to attack, while individual defensive errors also proved costly.
“We did create opportunities,” Wilkins said. “And I think we’ll look back at that second half where maybe there were just a couple of cheap penalties, a couple of cheap turnovers that gave Munster their opportunities.
“And, you know, other than that it was probably becoming a bit of a war attrition and you’re just really waiting for someone to break and unfortunately, we were a bit leaky there.
“We gave them [some] chances but at the same time I thought our scramble defence was magnificent and the number of times, not just working back in the 22 to make the tackle, but that second and third phase after that to actually find some shape out of it and win a turnover.
We just kept digging in and there’s so much to be proud of, but it’s balanced with that feeling of a missed opportunity.”
Cian Prendergast, who led Connacht for the first time since being named the province’s new captain, felt Munster did a better job of dealing with the pressure moments as the game opened up across the second half.
“Incredibly disappointing. Like, we didn’t come here to get that result,” said Prendergast.
“Look, we’ll build on this. We’ve just got to continue to become a better side off the back of it. Yeah, an incredibly proud day for me and my family, but I would have liked to start it off with a win.
“Munster are an incredible side and they’ve been a good side for the last three years and you can see they were probably a little bit more… a little calmer in crucial moments of the game, whereas we probably got a little bit frantic, which led to small errors.
“And it wasn’t due to a lack of trying to do the right thing. Everyone’s trying to do the right thing, we’ve just got to stay a little bit calmer in those crucial scenarios.”
Connacht did pick up two match points for their efforts and will hope to build on their performance in next weekend’s meeting with the Sharks. The province lost Shayne Bolton to injury towards the end of the first half yesterday, with Wilkins confirming the winger was removed with a knee problem.
“He’s OK. It was a laceration to his knee, and the hope was that they could just stitch him up and get him out there, but where it was on the knee it was just going to keep opening up so we just had to keep him off, which is unfortunate because he’s an X-factor player that might have made a difference today.”
