Ciarán Kennedy Reports from Thomond Park

RELIEF. THAT WAS the first word that came to mind as Graham Rowntree attempted to sum his emotions following Munster’s 35-33 defeat of Connacht at Thomond Park today.

On the opening weekend of the new URC season the two provinces scored five tries each across a breathless encounter in Limerick, with Munster trailing by five points at half-time before fighting back to claim the second 40 and secure a hard-earned two-point win. 

It was a game the home side could easily have lost but Rowntree was delighted in how his team responded to some early setbacks before seeing out the contest across a tense end-game.

“Relief. We had to win that,” Rowntree said.

“The resolve we showed to stick in that game… Crikey, they were good. I just said to Pete [Wilkins] there, how physical they were in their carry, their ruck, their shapes in attack out the back and they get to the edge of the field. Crikey, they were good. We had to be good then. Look at the tries they scored early on, Craig Casey getting done off the side of the scrum, you don’t see that very often.

Munster’s Gavin Coombes celebrates with try-scorer John Hodnett. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO

“But relief, I’m chuffed with how we stuck in the game. Half time was calm. You know, there’s elements of that first 20 [minutes] where the last little pass didn’t go to hand. Mike Haley could have just put Abrahams down the wing there, next thing we know we’re back defending a scrum, give a daft lineout penalty away.

“We’re just snatching at things a bit, but we wrestle control again at the end there and Tony Butler, a real clutch kick from the edge of the field. He got a good workout defensively. Plenty to work on, but delighted with the win.

“We stuck at it. We conceded two tries in the second half, got a bit narrow on the goalline, got picked off on the edge of the field where we didn’t fold well and Tony [Butler] got bumped.

I thought we came back, and ironically played come cracking rugby as well  some of the tries we scores were cracking. We were brilliant or average throughout the game and got there in the end.”

Munster lost out-half Billy Burns to injury in the second half and Rowntree confirmed it appears to be a shoulder AC joint problem, with the player set for a scan on Monday.

Connacht, for their part, played some excellent rugby but left with just two losing bonus points despite notching up 33 points at Thomond.

“It’s a bitter pill because we gave ourselves a terrific opportunity and I think the excitement, physicality and intent we played with around all aspects of our game, it didn’t surprise us,” said head coach Pete Wilkins.

Connacht’s Piers O’Conor and Josh Ioane after the game. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO

“That’s what we were preparing for and that’s the growth we’ve seen in the team over the last 10 weeks.

“We gave ourselves an opportunity and it’s very disappointing not to have taken it. There will be lessons to be learned out of it but also important things that we acknowledge that we’re doing really well and that have given us momentum at this stage of the season.

“I think there was a robustness and a physicality in our defence that was a little inconsistent at times last year, I thought that was an important aspect to it, in phase play at least.

“You saw our new players, Josh Ioane, Ben Murphy, Piers O’Conor, I thought they were standouts.

“And then the fact that we went toe-to-toe with Munster at Thomond Park, we don’t want to just settle for being gallant losers, we want something a bit more than that, particularly this season.

“Certainly the foundations of our game, there’s enough to get excited about and enough to build on.”