Ospreys victory confirms visiting sides no longer fear Munster citadel

When bursting at the seams and teeming for the haute cuisine of big European occasions, it remains one of the great European venues; witness how Toulouse were eaten alive here last April. But in the bread and butter of the League the Thomond Park factor is, for the time being anyway, no more.

So what else can be judged from a second defeat in three home games at their Limerick citadel this season and, what’s more, a fourth defeat in their last five League matches here?

The question arising from that, of course, is whether there will be any ripple effects when it comes to their uber-tough European campaign and specifically the visit of Saracens in October and Clermont in December.

It could, of course, be argued that there have been cracks in the edifice ever since, ironically, Thomond Park was redeveloped, as it had to be, into a 27,000 capacity stadium. After all, it is now three seasons since Ulster stormed the Thomond fortress in that seismic Heineken Cup quarter-final.

One of the drawbacks in developing the biggest purpose-built club rugby stadium in Europe is that not only is there a risk of a spanking new ground losing some of the lustre attached to a cramped, decaying old traditional venue, but that it simply becomes harder to fill, especially when more games are allotted there.

That Munster didn't maximise their status when one of the leading brands and teams in the world below Test level with better marketing and public relations is another matter. Musgrave Park may have lacked the same sheen, but it served a purpose in ensuring Thomond Park was not overused and thus the Limerick ground retained its big-game feel. Now that the Cork stadium is being redeveloped, Thomond's overuse, coupled with worsening results, have contributed to it losing its X factor; á la Old Trafford post-Fergie.

Try though the hard core did to raise the roof, for the third time in three early-season games at their one-time fortress, the

attendance scarcely numbered 10,000. And this fourth defeat in five games here adds to the vicious circle.

Admitting that their home defeats made this a more challenging start to his role as head coach than he anticipated, Anthony Foley said: "We've consistently said we want to make our Thomond Park a fortress, make it hard for teams to come here and play. We haven't that so far and that's on us. We need to rectify that. Two defeats and I think we're in sixth position in the league at the moment. There's teams one or two points ahead of us and Ospreys have now created a little bit of a gap ahead of everyone, but this competition runs until the end of May and we'll see how we go over the next few weeks and try and get some momentum into it."

Hailing their first win outside Wales in exactly 12 months, the Ospreys backs coach Gruff Rees maintained Thomond Park was no less intimidating these days. “Not for us, no. We still feel it’s one of the true bastions of European rugby. We were fully respectful of the need to up a gear and be more physical than we had been in our previous games, and to get that win we certainly had to go to the well to do so. For us, nothing’s changed.”

Conor Murray played well as captain, while Ian Keatley had some good moments. But the in-form duo of Rhys Webb and Dan Biggar, again at the very apex of his game, gave the Ospreys more direction.

Although Paul O’Connell led from the front in trademark fashion, Munster could have done with more penetration up front – only CJ Stander put them on the front foot until the arrival of James Cronin and 20-year-old Jack O’Donoghue (who looks a real prospect). It was a similar story in midfield until the curiously late arrival of JJ Hanrahan.

Their clearing out was also poor while they scarcely used their maul, only resorted to pick-and-jam tactics late on and not until desperation crept in was their clearing out ruthless enough. But their exit strategies were awful and generally they just played in the wrong areas of the pitch.

“The biggest area [of concern] is where we were playing again,” said Foley. “I don’t think we need to spend that much time in our own half. I don’t think we need to give the opposition the leg up they are getting at times . . . It is not just the halfbacks it is everyone. We all need to buy into what we are trying to do and where we want to play the game. I think that will happen a lot quicker in the next few weeks.”

With Leinster to come at the Aviva next Saturday, followed by the visit of the Scarlets here and then Sale [away] and Saracens [home] in Europe, it will need to do so.

“I think even if we had won tonight there was going to be pressure on getting a result next week so that doesn’t change anything,” said Foley. “I think local derbies, as you would have seen last week with Connacht and Leinster, are feisty affairs so that would have been no different anyway regardless of the results over the weekend.”