Munster win battles but lose the war

As pure unadulterated rugby torture goes this was as painful as it gets. True to type, Munster reverted to their bad away days and all the mitigating factors in the world won't make them feel any better about a collective performance that didn't do them justice at all.

Only in terms of the almost inevitable fighting did Munster give it a good go. It was hard to say who was more incensed, the sun-kissed and partisan 10,000 crowd at the Stade Selery, just outside Toulouse, or the two sets of players, but at the end there was hardly even a courtesy handshake as Munster trooped off, their red shirts shrouded in a red mist.

Peter Clohessy had to be restrained by team-mates, seemingly from an official, while even the normally mild-mannered Killian Keane approached referee Nigel Whitehouse to remonstrate about Colomiers' cynical and continual decisions to engage the quick penalty taker within a metre or two. Whitehouse got the message at the second attempt and flourished his fourth ineffectual yellow card of the game. That he did respond in such fashion was an apt commentary on his own gradual loss of control as fistfights and off-the-ball feuds broke out regularly.

An intemperate Colomiers were penalised several times for foul play in the first-half, a side effect of which was that it was about the only thing keeping Munster in the game.

Another problem area lay in Whitehouse's failure to penalise Colomiers' forwards for lying on the wrong side of the ball and preventing release of Munster ruck ball. Munster, in turn, were not shy of some shoeing, and there did seem to be one nasty kick on the head. All that aside though, the die was cast long before the end and the kernel of the story was that Munster simply played badly.

Their scrum, something of an Achilles heel, was in trouble from the off and the introduction of Des Clohessy for John Hayes during the interval only brought about a partial and belated improvement.

Worse still, their lineout, normally a source of strength, also creaked under pressure, as, ironically, Colomiers moved their open side Patrick Tabacco up and down the line much like Munster use Eddie Halvey.

Without a reliable set-piece platform it almost goes without saying that Munster therefore had few chances to play off second and third phase. To compound all of this, their kicking game was pretty wretched and their back play was laboured and flat.

Hence, given that Colomiers couldn't get the insurance of a third score to pull clear, and that Munster were theoretically in the game at least up until the last 10 minutes or so this must go down as a chance missed.

It quickly became pretty evident that Munster weren't tuned in and as confidently on top of their game as they needed to be.

Given Declan Kidney's reconnaissance mission had informed them of Colomiers' mightily effective driving line-out, it was incredible that both half backs should be guilty of kicking out at all, never mind on the full.

By comparison, Munster lost a couple of throws on their own lineout and it wasn't long before their scrum started creaking badly as well. Inevitably, trouble in the line-outs and the scrums led to trouble on the scoreboard. The first blow came, ominously, within two minutes of the kick-off when, from the first of innumerable line-out drives, out-half Laurent Labit brought Benjamin Lhande in off the left wing on his inside shoulder, the pack driving off him for Stephane Peysson to score his fourth try of the competition. Labit converted.

After Killian Keane landed the second of two penalties, Everitt inexcusably kicked out on the full from good scrum ball just inside half-way, leading to a line-out drive and a Labit penalty.

Just to undermine himself some more, the unfortunate Everitt then sent his restart out on the full.

In any event, a laboured Munster back move did lead to another Keane penalty when Colomiers fringed but from the restart, Peter Stringer's box kick was adjudged to have curled over the line.

Subsequently opting for an attacking line-out, Colomiers were rewarded with a catch from Jean-Marc Lorenzi and a try for Bernard de Giusti.

More mistakes followed and were punished. Clohessy's swing of the arm off the ball saw an attacking Munster scrum reversed, Brian Roche sliced a short touch rather than kick downfield and Labit landed a penalty. Keane retorted after more foul play but Labit had the final say of the half after a very harsh offside call against the Munster three-quarters.

That ended the scoring. Ten minutes into the second period, following a well-worked blind side line-out move further out, Munster forfeited a gilt-edged chance when McDermott overthrew Mick O'Driscoll just three yards out.

Sheer purgatory followed as Labit missed three kickable penalties to put Colomiers three scores clear and a simmering game hit boiling point. Exactly on the minute, Whitehouse made his best decision of the day as another scuffle broke out, and called a halt. Not a moment too soon.

Colomiers: D Skrela; B Lhande, M Carre, S Roque, M Biboulet; L Labit, S Milhas; S Delpuech, M dal Maso, S Graou, J-M Lorenzi, G Moro, B de Giusti, S Peysson, P Tabacco. Replacements: R Nones for Graou (52 mins), R Tremoulet for dal Maso (60 mins), R Rysman for Lorenzi (66 mins), F Pedoussaut for Milhas (67 mins).

Munster: B Roche; J O'Neill, K Keane, R Ellison, M Lynch; B Everitt, P Stringer; P Clohessy, M McDermott, J Hayes, M Galwey (capt), M O'Driscoll, D Corkery, A Foley, E Halvey. Replacements: D Clohessy for Hayes (half-time), T Tierney for Stringer (58 mins), D Wallace for Corkery (65 mins), S Leahy for O'Driscoll (76 mins).

Referee: N Whitehouse (Wales).