EUROPEAN CUP: CASTRES - 21 MUNSTER - 13:Munster will be kicking themselves for some time over this one. Bad enough that it took them a long while to play something approaching their best. Worse, far worse, was that when they got back to 16-13 moving into injury time they had done enough to win the pool and, as it transpired, earn a home quarter-final.
But, amazingly, they weren't fully aware of this.
Had they lost 16-13, Munster would have topped the pool on the points aggregate in the two head-to-heads with Castres. With Leicester losing at Llanelli, this would have meant they played the quarter-final in Thomond Park in a fortnight.
Some players knew, some didn't; most pertinently, playmaker-in-chief Ronan O'Gara didn't.
O'Gara had shown what a ballsy player he can be just moments before. Within a minute of failing to put Anthony Horgan over in the corner, he had cut through the Castres line and set up a converted try for the supporting David Wallace.
But from the recycled restart, and cramped for space, rather than kick for territory he attempted to run the ball out and was caught.
With their one other chance of getting downfield, John Kelly kicked out on the full.
To compound it all, Anthony Horgan was lured by the thought of an interception and let replacement Olivier Sarramea in for the 86th-minute try that assured Castres of a home quarter-final.
Munster were left to wait on Leinster's result yesterday to see if they would be playing Bath, Leinster or, as we know now, Stade Francais.
One could have only sympathy for O'Gara minutes after the hurly burly had ended.
"You don't really know what to think after a match. You're struggling for thoughts. You're concentrating for the whole match and I didn't even realise that the three points (defeat) would have topped the pool until somebody mentioned it to me afterwards."
Reflecting on that, and perhaps on his decision to run the ball from the recycled restart after pulling to within 16-13, O'Gara said: "I should have kicked the ball long, but I just got three fellas around me and I didn't clear it in time." He added ruefully: "Winning overpowered me I suppose. Being a competitive person, we just kept going on."
When asked about the permutations at the end of this game, Munster coach Declan Kidney responded: "Did the players know? We wouldn't have sat down to discuss that as a general statement beforehand, but it would have been known enough that that would have been the case," said Kidney. "Ifs, buts and maybes."
Tellingly, when Castres players responded to the converted Wallace try by wrongly deducing they then had to score a try, Gregor Townsend knew the permutations exactly, and told them they needed only a three-pointer to top the pool. As it happened, Sarramea's try did the trick for them.
The game left what might be called an unsavoury taste in several respects, not least for the alleged bite on Peter Clohessy by a Castres forward. The referee, Tony Spreadbury, told Mick Galwey that he was aware there had been an incident but couldn't identify the player concerned. Afterwards he intimated that the matter was out of his hands.
Clohessy showed me the stomach-churning scar afterwards. It had drawn blood, and there even appeared to be two incisions akin to a bite. Video evidence is rumoured to be too inconclusive to cite any player, and Munster were still debating what action, if any, to take.
They know the identity of the Castres player concerned but can not name him for legal reasons, and may simply ask the ERC to investigate.
As an incensed Clohessy called for attention to his bleeding arm, Spreadbury, incredibly, informed Galwey that "I will ruin this game if you want."
In this and other respects his performance was unsatisfactory, and the penalty against Marcus Horan which made it 16-3 at the break was particularly annoying.
With Alexandre Albouy at the bottom of a Castres ruck, the ball was clearly out when Horan came around to pick it up. Spreadbury signalled nothing in that moment, but after Munster rucked over the ball while the Castres supporters erupted, the English official then penalised Horan for offside.
Munster had made one of their customary slow starts away from home, and their restart game gave Townsend ample time to establish a territorial advantage, while their tackling was often on the back foot and their lineout creaked badly (though the scrum went well) as they gave Castres a 13-point start.
Unable to generate quick ball over the gain line close in, Munster were often obliged to put boot to leather, although with the introduction of Paul O'Connell, John Hayes and David Wallace in the second half there was more penetration and balance to their running game.
As Galwey stressed, it's win or bust next time out. "It's cup rugby from now on."
That should focus the minds.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 8 mins: Teulet pen 3-0; 16: Teulet pen and con 10-0; 21: Teulet pen 13-0; 26: O'Gara pen 13-3; 40: Teulet pen 16-3; (half-time 16-3); 54: O'Gara pen 16-6; 80: Wallace try, O'Gara con 16-13; 86: Sarramea try 21-13.
CASTRES: R Teulet; U Mola, E Artiguste, N Berryman, S Longstaff; G Townsend, A Albouy; M Reggiardo, R Vigneux, B Moyle, N Spanghero, C Fernandez-Lobbe, A Costes, I Lassissi, R Froment. Replacements: S Chinaro for Costes (38 mins), G Delmotte for Berryman (67 mins), O Sarramea for Teulet (77 mins). Sin-binned: R Froment
MUNSTER: D Crotty; J Kelly, M Mullins, J Holland, A Horgan; R O'Gara, M Prendergast; M Horan, F Sheahan, P Clohessy, M Galwey, M O'Driscoll, J Williams, A Foley, A Quinlan. Replacements: J Hayes for Horan, P O'Connell for O'Driscoll (both 50 mins), R Henderson for Holland (65 mins), D Wallace for Quinlan (67 mins), J Staunton for Crotty (74 mins), D Hegarty for Staunton (77 mins).
Referee: T Spreadbury (England).
