Rugby

Rassie Erasmus ‘happy enough’ with Munster after hard-fought win

‘It was more who had the most guts out there. It definitely wasn’t perfect’

Racing 92 wing Joe Rokocoko is tackled by Keith Earls and Ian Keatley during the Champions Cup game at Thomond Park. Photograph: Paul Faith/AFP/Getty Images

Sat Oct 21 2017 - 21:29

Munster director of rugby Rassie Erasmus was “happy enough” after his side battled to a 14-7 Champions Cup triumph over Racing 92 at a wet and windy Thomond Park on Saturday.

Two tries in the final quarter – from Lions scrumhalf Conor Murray and replacement Andrew Conway – steered the hosts to their maiden European win of the season.

The French side had defeated Leicester in their opening fixture, while Munster played out a nailbiting draw away to Castres last Sunday.

Erasmus said Racing had "showed guts" throughout an arm-wrestle of a contest, with a late Leone Nakarawa try earning them a losing bonus point.

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“I am happy enough with the result,” he said. “It is tough to play a certain way in the game, tough to get the ball wider than your flyhalf. You could see with [Dan] Carter playing in their team, they even struggled to get it right.

“Racing would have come here with confidence and we had a little bit of a confidence-dent not winning last week, so it was really a tough game to control tactically.

“It was more who had the most guts out there. It definitely wasn’t perfect. I think in the conditions it may have been perfect, but you can’t go into this game and analyse anything, because it was just tough to play.

“It was weird to go in 0-0 at half-time. It was one of the few games that you see which was scoreless, but I thought it was a really intense encounter. I don’t think it was boring.

“For me it was nice to enjoy it and at half-time, funnily enough, the boys in the changing room said, ‘Listen, we are going to score from a charge-down’. That is exactly what the guys said.

“They had been so close to charging the ball down every single time. The actual message on defence was that we are going to score on a charge-down. Then we score from a charge-down [through Murray]. That was really bizarre.”

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