COMPARED TO a week before, at least Munster had a performance to talk of. Just as pertinently, as they made the slow retreat from the English midlands on Saturday evening, they had something tangible to take from another defeat in the form of a hard-earned bonus point.
“We played a lot better than last week, there’s no doubt about it,” said Paul O’Connell. “At times we were approaching somewhere we need to be. At the same time, the break down is an area we need to work on and improve. After about five, 10 minutes, we did get a handle on it and things began to improve. In every facet, scrums, lineouts, we took a lot of steps forward.”
Yet they also knew they had the chance to win. With the 80 minutes up when awarded a close-range penalty, a scrum wasn’t an option, but they probably could have come up with something a little more original than Marcus Horan, after a tough 80 minutes at the coal-face, tapping and going – perhaps by moving the target with a pass to a carrier like David Wallace.
Even then, Munster were clearly furious with Christophe Berdos for not penalising Northampton again. “We felt they lay on the ball but the ref saw it otherwise,” lamented O’Connell, who nonetheless was not of a mind to blame Berdos for the defeat. “I thought Christophe was good today. The decision at the end was a bit strange, but I think he’s a very good ref and did alright tonight. I do think he refereed both sides fairly.
“Whether he did or he didn’t, we’re hardly going to be going on about it here. You can go on about refs all you want but I think the way Northampton played, the intensity they played with and their ability to take opportunities is what cost us, not the refereeing decisions.”
Likewise, more frustrating for Tony McGahan was the knowledge his team are not as match hardened as he would have liked. “We’d have liked our players back a little bit earlier; we feel we’re probably a week or two under-done. I think some of technical and tactical decisions out there today were costly.”
In particular, the Munster coach felt that his side should have opted to employ Tomás O’Leary more to kick from inside their own 22. “That put us under extreme pressure and at certain stages we needed our set-piece to be there. We came up a little bit short there. We wouldn’t be really happy with any particular part of our game yet. We’re still moving forward and another week’s training this week will put us in a good frame of mind for Treviso.”
Northampton’s well-regarded coach Jim Mallinder expressed no residual regrets that not alone did his team not add a fourth try in the last 35 minutes, but they also let Munster in for a losing bonus point.
“It’s always at the back of your mind that you’d love to sneak another try but no, we’re happy with the four.”
As for the result from Treviso, Mallinder said: “Very interesting, and I think it sends a real good message to everybody that you can’t take any team for granted. Perpignan will be fuming and I think will probably be looking forward to us going there and setting the record straight next week. I think Munster know the competition,” he added. “They’ve lost away from home before and qualified. You certainly wouldn’t write Munster off or if you did you’d do so at your peril.”
It was a particularly sweet victory for Northampton’s Irish contingent, with James Downey especially enjoying his huge first-half hit on Jean de Villiers and a win over one of his former provinces.
“When the draw was made it was the first thing that jumped out of the page at me to be honest, and I think the same with (Neil) Besty and Roger (Wilson) as well, especially playing Munster.
“Their pedigree in Europe is tremendous and that’s where we want to be. It was tense at the end, but we dug in and I think we got what deserved,” he said.
