Clayton McMillan identifies ‘two relatively soft tries’ as core reason for Munster’s URC’s quarter-final defeat to Bulls
Munster head coach Clayton McMillan and captain Craig Casey (inset).
Munster head coach Clayton McMillan believes the closing stages of the opening half proved crucial in his side’s 45-14 United Rugby Championship quarter-final defeat against the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Saturday.
As the scoreline suggests, the home side were full value for their victory as they dominated for long periods and eventually outscored the Irish province by six tries to two.
The Bulls made an excellent started as they raced into 14-0 lead after early tries from Embrose Papier and Kurt-Lee Arendse but Munster soaked up the early pressure and struck back via a five-pointer from Jack O’Donoghue.
Handre Pollard slotted a penalty shortly afterwards, but the visitors did not panic and responded via a well-taken try from Alex Nankivell in the 32nd minute.
Munster fail to kick on
That meant the match was evenly poised with the Bulls holding a 17-14 lead, but Munster did not kick on and lost their way in the closing stages of the half.
Further five-pointers from Johan Grobbelaar and Cameron Hanekom gave Johan Ackermann’s troops a comfortable 31-14 half-time lead and things went from bad to worse after the break as they would not add to their points tally while the Bulls’ dominance was rewarded when Papier and Stravino Jacobs scored their other tries.
And McMillan believes if his side had a strong finish to the opening half, the end result could have been different.
“Finals are often about moments and we could have controlled a couple of them better than we did,” he told reporters after the match. “It’s about belief in ourself, and if we had gone into the break 14-17 down then it would have been a different ball game.
“I’m really proud that when we were under a huge amount of pressure – 14-0 down inside the first 10 minutes – we stuck in the fight and worked our way back in the game.
“We had to work extremely hard for our two tries and then we conceded two relatively soft tries.
“It’s moments like those that swing big games. We still weren’t totally out of the game in the first 10 minutes of the second half. If you get to 21-31 then the psyche changes.
“We feel that we are in striking distance and they maybe change the way they play. But we weren’t able to take our opportunity and then they were good enough to punish us for our mistake.
“The Bulls’ ability to capitalise when we got a bit fractured and loose was the most impressive part of their game, even though their scrum is a real weapon as a reliever or to apply pressure.
“Their maul too, they can leverage off that forward dominance.”
Craig Casey left dejected
Meanwhile, Munster skipper Craig Casey could not hide his disappointment when interviewed shortly after full-time.
“It’s very disappointing that our season ends today,” he told Premier Sports.
“I think the Bulls were top class today. We probably gave them lots of ins in the first half, and they capitalised massively on that. 14-0 down after ten minutes, got back to 17-14, looked like we were in it.
“Then, just a few unforced errors from ourselves, let them score some handy tries and that was that. They were clinical, and look, fair play to them.”
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Munster were not at full strength as they were without the services of two of their best players in Tadhg Beirne (utility forward) and Jack Crowley (fly-half) but Casey would not use the Ireland duo’s absence as an excuse for his side’s defeat.
“We’re not going to use that as excuses now. We’re missing some key players, but it was next man up, we had full trust in our squad, there were some very keen young fellas there that were driving this squad on for the whole year,” he added.
“That’s not an excuse on our side. Bulls were just better on the day.”