BIARRITZ v MUNSTER REACTION:IN ALL the post-match analysis the words "dominate" and "set-pieces" echoed mantra-like around the cavernous bowels of the Estadio Anoeta. Hobbling bare-footed into the press conference, Mick O'Driscoll was in no mood to mince his words.
“I think what killed us really was our set-piece. We were dominated a little, which is very disappointing. We normally pride ourselves on that area of the game. To a man today we were a little disappointing.There were a couple of bad lineouts and bad calls from me, I’ll hold my hand up. There were a couple of bad scrums and it just wasn’t good enough.
“Primarily a forward’s job is to win good ball for their backs. To a man, the 15 guys or 23 guys who played today will hold their hands up. The best 15 players on the pitch today were from Biarritz, and that’s the way it turned out.”
Munster will take this defeat badly, as was abundantly evident in Ronan O’Gara’s crestfallen mood immediately afterwards.
“It’s kind of hitting me now, it’s gone for another year. That’s hard to take. I thought we were in good shape at half-time but in the second half it felt we were playing slow motion at times. The pitch was sapping and tough going but that’s not an excuse, I think the better team won.
“Maybe we were too happy to play territory, but when we kept the ball alive we were threatening. They like a slow pace and that’s what we gave them. In the end we got a slogging fest and they killed the game. I can’t really analyse what went wrong. You can talk all day but it doesn’t matter now . . .”
All around were regrets and candid self-admonishment.
Lamenting handling errors, discipline and mistakes, “myself included”, Paul Warwick added: “The decision-makers were at fault in that and I’m one at fault there. We didn’t get too much field position and we were defending most of the time and it was difficult.
“I’m not going to blame the forwards and they’re not going to blame us. Everyone has to stand up and own up for that performance. We’ve got to line out next week and try to get to the Magners League final. We have to move on. It’s disappointing that all facets imploded. There’s enough experience in the dressingroom and it was in our control to push on . . .”
On the scrums, Marcus Horan maintained: “I thought we attacked them pretty well on their scrum and they attacked us pretty well on ours.”
And the lineouts? “I wouldn’t say they were poor. They defended really well. The lineouts were on target most times but they were getting bodies up in the air. We were doing the same to them but they took out a lot of our ball and they’re a good lineout outfit. They’re good defensively and we suffered a bit there.”
Likewise lamenting silly mistakes and ill-discipline, Horan was asked about the age profile of the pack. “Well, we are ageing. We’re all getting older. I don’t know how you want me to answer that. I think a lot of us are playing some great rugby at the moment. I think there’s a great drive. There’s a great mix of young players as well . . . No matter what team you are, as the years go on, people will always say that. It’s an excuse that people will use. But the drive is definitely there.”
Asked why he pointed to the skies after one or two of his successful penalties, Dimitri Yachvilie said: “Because there was a good star with us today,” and added: “Of course we are very proud to beat the Irish because they have won a lot of Heineken Cups and they are a really great team with a lot of Irish players who play in the national team so we are very happy and very proud. The key today was the forwards, to be efficient, and our forwards were really great. I’m very proud of all of them today.”
