Champions Cup Group A: Castres Olympique 16 Munster 14
Once again Munster came up short against modest French opposition in the Champions Cup with a distracted, disconnected, ill-disciplined and error-prone performance. Although Castres maintained their unbeaten home record, this was a missed opportunity for Munster.
A scrappy contest was dominated by the whistle of pernickety English referee Christophe Ridley, who penalised each side a whopping 17 times, but Munster could not avail of the three yellow cards for a Castres side that played on the edge and were more physical and direct.
With that in mind, the Munster think tank must privately question their decision to rest Gavin Coombes for the first time since the season before last season, and one lost count of the handling errors in Munster’s stilted running game.
Right from the off it was hard to keep up with the elementary errors which Munster were making in addition to some over-elaborate and laboured handling. A lack of intent in the collisions and at the breakdown was evident.
Jack Crowley missed a penalty to touch and Munster conceded soft penalties, leading to a narrow escape when hooker Gaetan Barlot just failed to complete the grounding to his own chip with an advantage play The former Connacht number eight Abraham Papalii was then prevented from grounding over the line by his opposite number and Champions Cup debutant Brian Gleeson.
[ Castres 16 Munster 14 as it happenedOpens in new window ]
But the warnings were not heeded. When Munster attempted to reach the edge well inside their own 10-metre line Tom Farrell’s intended pass to Thaakir Abrahams was forward and a second high tackle by Stephen Archer led to Castres going to the corner again.
Jeremy Davidson and co had done their homework, the heavily involved Tyler Ardron popping the ball down at the front of the lineout for Papali’I to target the blindside defence of Craig Casey and Abrahams to crash over.
Calvin Nash’s aerial abilities earned some momentum but a 42-metre penalty by Jack Crowley, who didn’t seem to be striking the ball well, fell short.
Short-term signing Dian Bleuler then copped Jack Goodhue’s knee on the head due to his own no-arms tackle, which meant Dave Kilcoyne coming on barely 20 minutes in for his first game in almost exactly a year. And he had a tough night.
Crowley kicked out on the full, Peter O’Mahony was pinged for side entry and Papali’i tapped and charged before Quentin Walcker crashed through Kilcoyne’s tackle to score.
The only plus for Munster at this stage was that Jeremy Fernandez again missed the kickable conversion, albeit Casey had to be carried off with what looked a problematic knee injury. There were also injuries for David Kilcoyne, Peter O’Mahony and Craig Casey.
So, when Walcker was binned for a high shot on Gleeson and Crowley kicked toward the corner, Niall Scannell’s throw hit Tadgh Beirne and John Hodnett peeled infield and ploughed through three tackles with a combination of footwork and strength for a fine try.
What’s more, Crowley landed a good conversion, although even then Mike Haley kicked out on the full to invite some additional and unnecessary pressure before trotting off grateful to be 10-7 down.
Munster looked well-placed when Geoffrey Palis was rightly binned on the resumption for a cynical deliberate knock-on to prevent Crowley’s pass reaching Farrell. But Munster made an absolute mess of the lineout – again being over-elaborate. Instead, a couple of scrum penalties led to Fernandez making it 13-7 before Palis returned without Munster troubling the scoreboard.
They also had a fortunate reprieve after Tadhg Beirne had conceded a daft penalty when flying off his feet when Julien Dumora somehow missed a penalty from almost straight in front of the posts.
Munster responded by going to their catch-and-drive, which earned a couple more close-range penalties and a yellow card for the Castres replacement prop Nicolas Corato for blatantly pulling down the maul.
Even then, the next lineout malfunctioned, but was retried by Beirne, and Munster went through the phases. Diarmuid Barron, Jack O’Donoghue and Beirne again made inroads before Hodnett burrowed over his second try, which was awarded on review despite Santiago Arata seeming to force a knock-on from Paddy Patterson.
Crowley converted for the lead, but Munster’s weakened scrum was again pinged for Louis le Brun to kick Castres 16-14 ahead.
Despite Archer returning for Kilcoyne, with Oli Jager moving to loosehead, the scrum coughed up another penalty. They had one final shot from just inside halfway, and understandably opted to go up the line, but much like the performance, Crowley’s kick fell short of that target too.
Scoring sequence: 13 mins Papali’I try 5-0; 30 mins Walcker try 10-0; 37 mins Hodnett try, Crowley con 10-7; (half-time 10-7); 49 Fernandez pen 13-7; 69 mins Hodnett try, Crowley con 13-14; 73 mins le Brun pen 16-14.
Castres Olympique: Julien Dumora; Geoffrey Palis, Jack Goodhue, Andrea Cocagi, Rémy Baget; Louis le Brun, Jeremy Fernandez; Quentin Walcker, Gaetan Barlot, Will Collier, Gauthier Maravat, Leone Nakarawa, Mathieu Babillot (capt), Tyler Ardron, Abraham Papalii.
Replacements: Wayan de Benedittis for Papali’I (36-43 mins) and for Walcker (63 mins), Santiago Arata for Fernandez (52 mins), Loris Zarantonello for Barlot, Paul Jedrasiak for Nakarawa, Feibyan Tukino for Papali’i, Adrien Seguret for Cocagi (all 63 mins), Nicolas Corato for Collier, Theo Chabouni for Dumora (both 67 mins), Collier for Babillot (71 mins).
Sinbinned: Walcker (33-43 mins), Palis (44-54 mins), Corato (68-78 mins).
Munster: Mike Haley; Calvin Nash, Tom Farrell, Alex Nankivell, Thaakir Abrahams; Jack Crowley, Craig Casey; Dian Bleuler, Niall Scannell, Stephen Archer; Fineen Wycherley, Tadhg Beirne (capt); Peter O’Mahony, John Hodnett, Brian Gleeson.
Replacements: Dave Kilcoyne for Bleuler (22 mins), Paddy Patterson for Casey (32 mins), Jack O’Donoghue for Gleeson (50 mins), Tom Ahern for O’Mahony (52 mins), Diarmuid Barron for N Scannell, Oli Jager for Archer (both 55 mins), Rory Scannell for Abrahams (59 mins), Alex Kendellen for Hodnett (71 mins), Archer for Kilcoyne (75 mins).
Referee: Christophe Ridley (Eng)
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