THE SENSE OF relief around Thomond Park last night was palpable. The province had to battle hard to get the better of Saracens, scoring only three points across a scrappy, error-ridden first half which suggested the home support might be in for another uncomfortable night.
Yet for all their frustrations Munster were doing enough to stay in the fight, and in the second period they changed the script. Tries from Dian Bleuler and John Hodnett in quick succession around the hour mark provided the knockout blows but the five-point victory was also built on a determined defensive effort.
It wasn’t the prettiest Munster performance but there was a resilience in the way they held in before finishing on top of their visitors, with their strong endgame powered by a momentum-changing effort from the Munster bench.
All that matters is they got the job done. The result sets Munster on course for the Champions Cup knockouts and it also means they’ll travel to Northampton Saints on Saturday with a shot at booking a home game in the round of 16.
As Tadhg Beirne put it, this was “a proper Munster game”, and it might just be the type of performance which injects some energy into their season after a challenging run of results. Munster started their European campaign with a home win over Stade Francais but have since fallen to Castres (away) and Leinster (home) either side of a frantic URC win in Belfast.
“I think it’s been a tough couple of weeks at times,” said Beirne.
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Tadhg Beirne and interim head coach Ian Costello. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
“The performances from the outside may not look like they’ve been the best, but in terms of what we said we were going to do and the opportunities we were creating, we knew we were actually doing well. We just had to stick with it and we were on the right side of one today thankfully, and hopefully we’ll do it again next week.
“Even the Leinster game, I know the scoreline wasn’t pretty for us but I thought, you know, we score one or two tries there it’s a different game, and it’s just about being a little bit more clinical. I know we talk about that all the time, it’s been an issue for us for a long time as well, being more clinical inside the opposition 22 and even today there were times we weren’t.
“So it’s still a massive work on for us and we’ll keep chasing it, but I think everything else we’re doing around the park, we’re doing it well and tactically the coaches have been spot on the last couple of weeks.
“We’ll keep pushing it and we’ll keep believing and buying into what they’re asking us to do.”
Beirne was immense for his team with a commanding display, and the Munster captain highlighted the impact made by the home bench – with Hodnett, Tom Ahern, Stephen Archer and Diarmuid Barron all introduced with half an hour remaining, before Brian Gleeson and John Ryan followed them into the action.
“We put a big emphasis on that throughout the week and credit to the coaches, they’ve been chatting to them as a group as well about the impact they can make when they come onto the field and I think you’ve seen that the performance lifted when they made those subs, for sure.”
In the end Saracens were held tryless, with all of their 12 points coming from penalties.
“Obviously that’s been a big work on for us as well considering how we started the season,” added Beirne. “Defensively we’ve been working hard on getting better there and I think we’ve seen that today.”
Saracens had travelled to Limerick targeting a statement win on the road but having led for 60 minutes, their efforts ultimately fell short.
“It’s tough,” said Saracens head of rugby Mark McCall.
“It’s a well-fought game. It’s greasy and slippery and the kicking game was very important to both teams. We controlled territory without getting many big chances, but 6-3 wasn’t maybe all that great for the control that we had.
“There was just a 10-minute period, we give them a couple of chances to score and they were clinical enough to take them to be honest. But I’m proud of a lot of what this new team managed. It’s a tough place to come. I thought we fought and scrapped really well. We gave the best that we could.
“It is not an easy place to come as an opposition player and there’s lots to learn for the whole team really. But at the basis of everything we’ve got to be a team who fights and scraps no matter where we are and I felt we did that.
“We made it a real contest,” he added. “We made it a real scrap and we were winning that scrap for a large part of the game up until the hour mark really, and then we had about seven minutes where they were able to take the chances they got.”
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'It's been a tough couple of weeks at times. We just had to stick with it'
THE SENSE OF relief around Thomond Park last night was palpable. The province had to battle hard to get the better of Saracens, scoring only three points across a scrappy, error-ridden first half which suggested the home support might be in for another uncomfortable night.
Yet for all their frustrations Munster were doing enough to stay in the fight, and in the second period they changed the script. Tries from Dian Bleuler and John Hodnett in quick succession around the hour mark provided the knockout blows but the five-point victory was also built on a determined defensive effort.
It wasn’t the prettiest Munster performance but there was a resilience in the way they held in before finishing on top of their visitors, with their strong endgame powered by a momentum-changing effort from the Munster bench.
All that matters is they got the job done. The result sets Munster on course for the Champions Cup knockouts and it also means they’ll travel to Northampton Saints on Saturday with a shot at booking a home game in the round of 16.
As Tadhg Beirne put it, this was “a proper Munster game”, and it might just be the type of performance which injects some energy into their season after a challenging run of results. Munster started their European campaign with a home win over Stade Francais but have since fallen to Castres (away) and Leinster (home) either side of a frantic URC win in Belfast.
“I think it’s been a tough couple of weeks at times,” said Beirne.
“The performances from the outside may not look like they’ve been the best, but in terms of what we said we were going to do and the opportunities we were creating, we knew we were actually doing well. We just had to stick with it and we were on the right side of one today thankfully, and hopefully we’ll do it again next week.
“Even the Leinster game, I know the scoreline wasn’t pretty for us but I thought, you know, we score one or two tries there it’s a different game, and it’s just about being a little bit more clinical. I know we talk about that all the time, it’s been an issue for us for a long time as well, being more clinical inside the opposition 22 and even today there were times we weren’t.
“So it’s still a massive work on for us and we’ll keep chasing it, but I think everything else we’re doing around the park, we’re doing it well and tactically the coaches have been spot on the last couple of weeks.
“We’ll keep pushing it and we’ll keep believing and buying into what they’re asking us to do.”
Beirne was immense for his team with a commanding display, and the Munster captain highlighted the impact made by the home bench – with Hodnett, Tom Ahern, Stephen Archer and Diarmuid Barron all introduced with half an hour remaining, before Brian Gleeson and John Ryan followed them into the action.
“We put a big emphasis on that throughout the week and credit to the coaches, they’ve been chatting to them as a group as well about the impact they can make when they come onto the field and I think you’ve seen that the performance lifted when they made those subs, for sure.”
In the end Saracens were held tryless, with all of their 12 points coming from penalties.
“Obviously that’s been a big work on for us as well considering how we started the season,” added Beirne. “Defensively we’ve been working hard on getting better there and I think we’ve seen that today.”
Saracens had travelled to Limerick targeting a statement win on the road but having led for 60 minutes, their efforts ultimately fell short.
“It’s tough,” said Saracens head of rugby Mark McCall.
“It’s a well-fought game. It’s greasy and slippery and the kicking game was very important to both teams. We controlled territory without getting many big chances, but 6-3 wasn’t maybe all that great for the control that we had.
“There was just a 10-minute period, we give them a couple of chances to score and they were clinical enough to take them to be honest. But I’m proud of a lot of what this new team managed. It’s a tough place to come. I thought we fought and scrapped really well. We gave the best that we could.
“It is not an easy place to come as an opposition player and there’s lots to learn for the whole team really. But at the basis of everything we’ve got to be a team who fights and scraps no matter where we are and I felt we did that.
“We made it a real contest,” he added. “We made it a real scrap and we were winning that scrap for a large part of the game up until the hour mark really, and then we had about seven minutes where they were able to take the chances they got.”
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Champions Cup Munster Rugby Tadhg Beirne