THERE WAS MUCH to digest after watching Munster fall to an 18-13 defeat to Toulouse at Thomond Park today.

In many aspects of their play, Munster looked sharp and showed signs they are continuing to build under Graham Rowntree. Their attacking play was fluent and smooth across a lively opening period, before an experienced Toulouse side settled into the game and delivered a disciplined, clever performance which saw them leave Limerick with an opening round Champions Cup win. 

Munster will be frustrated with some of their accuracy across a second half in which they struggled to find access into the Toulouse 22, while the home crowd were also unhappy with a number of refereeing calls. 

After the game, Munster boss Rowntree kept his summary of the performance short and to the point.

“Disappointing, obviously,” Rowntree said.

“Tight. Poor conditions. We did lots of good things, particularly with ball in hand, but again it comes down to access, giving them access to our five metre line, they scored two tries from us doing that. We’ve got to do that better.

“And conversely, we’ve got to be better and more clinical when we get on their five-metre line and we get our maul opportunities. That’s the game when you play against huge teams like this. They’re top of the French league for a reason. You play huge teams like this, you’ve got to deal with their power.

“As much as you’re holding onto the ball and we’re looking good in attack – and we are – you’ve got to deal with their power. That’s what we didn’t do.

“(We) Just have to keep working on it. I said to the lads in there, nothing changes. We’ve just got to get better and keep working on what we’re doing.” 

After Matthis Lebel responded to Joey Carbery’s early try, added to one penalty each, Munster went in at the break with the scores level at 10-10.

Yet a disappointing start to the second 40, which saw Munster turn over the ball before Lucas Tauzin got over in the corner, set the tone for a frustrating half where Munster’s attack struggled to ignite against an impressive Toulouse defensive effort.

“It wasn’t deflating because you’ve got to recover from that but no, we’ll look at what we can do better,” Rowntree continued.

“We spoke at half-time about winning the next 10 minutes and then me made one error which is on us. We end up defending a maul on our tryline and we’ve got to do better than we were there in terms of how they break down the blindside.

“We’ll have a look at that but we’ll keep looking forward and we did. We did some good things thereafter.”

A thick fog which hung over Thomond Park before kick-off worsened over the course of the game, with the visibility becoming increasingly poor across the second half.

“Yeah, it was tough,” said Munster back row, Gavin Coombes. “Obviously for a back three in the fog, it’s tough to see the ball. But you know, I think it just goes back to our mistakes, giving them access. No matter what the weather conditions are, if you do that teams like Toulouse are going to punish you.

“As Wig was saying, we need to go out and improve on that during the week and bring it into next week.”

Rowntree will look to the brighter aspects of Munster play today and take encouragement ahead of next Sunday’s trip to play Northampton. The Saints have struggled for form in the Premiership this season and were thrashed 46-12 at La Rochelle on Saturday. It’s a winnable game for a Munster team who at least have a losing bonus point to show for their efforts today.

“We’ve got a huge game next week now,” Rowntree added. 

“We got out of this with a bonus point, that wasn’t the intention before the game but we got a bonus point and we’ll go to Northampton next week, have a good week, review this, lick our wounds and we’ll keep driving forward.”

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Originally published at 18.15