‘We’re going to look at it in the cold light of day. We’ve got to be better than some of the stuff we were doing’

With a tone that was withering and a look that was somewhere between rueful and annoyed, Graham Rowntree listed out the games that have gotten away from Munster this season.

At the end of a 13-game block, they can reflect on six matches where they squandered winning positions and point to those as the reason why they’re one of the lowest seeded teams in the Champions Cup knockouts and currently 10th in the URC.

Now, they have a window to reflect as their international contingent head off to Portugal with Ireland.

The Crusaders fixture at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday week is a chance to build some momentum; the games against Scarlets, Zebre and Ospreys in February and March an opportunity to climb the table before they return to full strength for the run-in when the weather will be better and they’ll have a few more bodies back.

The injuries can’t be discounted as a factor.

On Saturday, they lost Tom Ahern when he took a pair of sickening blows to the head at the bottom of the ruck.

While Northampton were reduced to 14 men for the rest of the game when Curtis Langdon paid the price for his recklessness, Munster were forced to shift Gavin Coombes into the second-row and bring on 19-year-old Brian Gleeson at No 8 just as the conditions got worse. The game became a dog-fight and Northampton, who sacrificed a back-three player to go full-on in the tight, won the battles.

Their out-half Fin Smith used the wind brilliantly as they edged the territory battle and for veteran Munster fans there was a galling sense of their team being beaten at what once was their own game.

Whereas once Munster packs would have welcomed these sort of nights, they now negate the team’s strengths – particularly when they’re missing their South African second-rows.

But, as you looked at the team that entered the last 17 minutes with a 10-point lead, you felt they’d have more than enough to see it home having beaten Toulon away seven days previously – coming from behind themselves to do so.

Instead, their soft belly was exposed ruthlessly by a Saints side who they’ll meet again in the round of 16 at Franklin’s Gardens.

The draw could have been worse, but the English side are an impressive outfit and, having played each other twice in the pool stages last year, there’s plenty of familiarity in the fixture when they meet on the first weekend in April.

​“Hugely frustrating,” Rowntree said. “So far as this is the last time that group is going to be together for a while. We’ve got guys going away on international duty. We’ve got a huge game for the club in Páirc Uí Chaoimh against the Crusaders soon enough then we’re into the URC.

“Harlequins away (in a friendly) on the 23rd, we’ll look at some guys there. There’s a lot of rugby coming up but we’ll be split.

“Guys will be away on international duty, it’s unfortunate that last performance will be the last time we’ll be together for a while.

“We’re going to look at it in the cold light of day. We’ve got to be better than some of the stuff we were doing. We’ve got to learn, we’ve got to be better than that.

“Credit to them, by the way. They grew another leg in that last third of the game, some big moments around ruck when we were a bit naïve, a bit slow.”

Sitting alongside him, captain Tadhg Beirne was experiencing a familiar feeling as he reeled through the matches that got away from Munster in the last few months.

“They have been those types that we felt like we could have won if we had just managed the game better,” he said.

“If you look back at all them we’ve shown how good we can be in all of them as well. So, we’ll take massive confidence from those as well.

“If we clean up one or two things and just be that little bit smarter I think then teams will struggle against us.

“We just let them in at the wrong time in the last few weeks but we have shown some really good rugby in the last few weeks as well,” added Beirne.

That’s the thing. When Munster are good they are breath-taking, the period before half-time when Jack Crowley went up a gear and they produced Antoine Frisch and Peter O’Mahony’s tries were testament to their quality on the ball.

But, there’s a softness that has to be rooted out in the next few weeks because it’s undermining their good work.

“Conditions, game management, huge amount of players we used over Christmas in the interpros, lots of moving parts, a famous victory last week. We lost our way today against a 14-man team,” Rowntree lamented.

“We will pick the bones out of that, see where we can get better at, we drive on.

“I am not going to panic. We are into the round of 16. It was inevitable we were going to have to go somewhere coming into today.

“But we will look at our performance, keep growing our game. Young men, old men, got to learn from that performance and I will drive that on,” added Rowntree.

Unlike Connacht and Ulster, they’re still standing even if the route they’ve chosen is laced with danger.

MUNSTER’S LOST LEADS

November 10 Led Ulster 14-3 after 20 minutes, lost 21-14 at Ravenhill November 25 Led Leinster 10-0 after 13 minutes, lost 21-16 at Aviva Stadium December 9 Led Bayonne 17-10 after 54 minutes, drew 17-17 at Thomond Park December 16 Led Exeter Chiefs 24-13 after 51 minutes, lost 32-24 at Sandy Park January 1 Led Connacht 6-3 at half-time, lost 22-9 at the Sportsground January 20 Led Northampton 23-13 after 63 minutes, lost 26-23 at Thomond Park

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