[su_dropcap style=”flat” size=”4″]M[/su_dropcap]unster went out swinging in Thomond Park on Saturday afternoon against an excellent Toulouse outfit that will take some stopping in this competition. In the absence of winning trophies, that will have to do. I can’t help but wonder what a full Thomond Park would have done when the game was in the balance with 15 minutes to play but that’s one of those “we’ll never know” moments.
I think back to that game against Sale in 2006, or the two Miracle Matches or even that game against Toulon a few years ago and wonder how that would have gone in an empty Thomond Park. I genuinely can’t tell you if the result would have been the same. As I said, we’ll never know. When it comes down to the whys and hows of this loss, I’m pretty confident that I know the root cause – power differential over 80 minutes.
Munster did really well to mitigate that differential for most of the first 50 minutes but when Toulouse transitioned to their power players on the bench between the 48th and 52nd minute – directly before and after Munster’s third try – the game started to slowly turn away from us. I’ll focus on how I felt we lost the game first, and then finish on how we might have won.
Look at this example. Watch for the lost two-man collisions on Joe Tekori (on at 51 minutes) and Clement Castets (on at 48 minutes);
Those two won collisions – where we couldn’t afford to lose the third man to the jackal attempt – create the space for Ntamack to kick into because Toulouse are getting over the gainline in the middle of the field AND they are generating quick ball. Kolbe is outside Earls in part because Toulouse have chewed up a few bad Munster folds because of the forward pressure they are exerting on the Munster defensive line.
The space on the edge is a direct result of the lost collisions on the previous two phases. The simple physics of the game in this area of the field rewards attacking teams who go forward and generate quick ball regardless of how many players it takes to produce. The same physics punish defensive sides who can’t keep 14 men in the line two phases in a row. Their first try looked very, very similar. Lost collisions in the middle of the field creating an opportunity in the wider spaces.
You see the kick and think “Ah! Such skill and vision!” but Ntamack is given the time and space to use that option because of collisions won elsewhere. Earls has to turn and run to the space targeted by Ntamack and fouls Kolbe in the air. On the resulting lineout maul, we had a moment where a won collision on Kaino as he rolled around the corner could – possibly – have set up a defendable 5m position but we lost that collision too.
Once Toulouse got to the try line on this phase, the next phase had an air of inevitability about it because they had already found the edge of our forward defensive line after the first carry. This shows up on both sides of the ball too. When we were in a position to string together two dominant collision points we weren’t really able to do that as effectively in the second half.
Have a look at this sequence and pay close attention to the key collision between Scannell, Holland and latterly Dave Kilcoyne on Joe Tekori.
That’s one Toulouse tight five forward denying us workable gainline, quick ball and burning three of our tight five forwards to win the ball. That time advantage gives Toulouse the kind of space they need to stack their defensive line and put extra pressure on the next Munster phase.
That isn’t to say that we didn’t manage to impact Toulouse from 55 minutes on. When we stitched together some well-worked maul break strike plays coupled with collision point wins, we created space. When we used Coombes as a decoy runner – he had Toulouse so spooked by the 64th minute he was drawing three players onto him – that opened up space for Ryan to run into a gap when Murray found him with a wide pass.
That opened up an opportunity for us in the wider space but Cronin didn’t back his pass to set up O’Donoghue for what would have been a certain try. When you aren’t winning the “simple” collisions, everything is that bit harder and more complex. We did well to create this opportunity – an example of the expansivity that we’ve been working on – but it was allowed to thrive because of the collision win by Stander and Kleyn off #9 and then the threat of Gavin Coombes drawing three Toulouse forwards onto his line. We earned a penalty from this sequence.
To work around this, we would need to kick smartly and effectively. Directly after taking the lead, I felt we made a key error off the restart by kicking contestably off #10 instead of going long. You might even say that running out of the 22 was itself an error but it gave Toulouse field position.
We were under pressure immediately and conceded penalty advantage relatively early. Look at the key matchup at the end – Cronin and Holland narrowing on Tekori, who opens up the space for Toulouse with a swivel pass. The threat of the collision opens up the space for expansivity. Sure, the missed tackle in the secondary defensive line by Hanrahan was key, but when you’re trying to mitigate for a size disadvantage you have to kick impeccably. We didn’t and paid the price.
The killer try featured all the same principles – a lost lineout, a tight five forward getting ripped in contact, Toulouse powering through around the fringes against our forwards, Munster getting hurt by Toulouse extending wide after we narrowed up to compensate for those early collision losses and then missed tackles coming back against the grain.
Forget about the possible knock-on, we conceded this because we lost control of our own possession, lost collisions and were unbalanced in the middle of the field because of Toulouse’s power.
That’s how we lost, in my opinion.
We got into a winning position in the first 50 minutes because we worked to the principles in our favour – kicking smartly, aggression at the defensive breakdown and strong work in transition.
I wrote before the game about how Munster would have to vary our kicking between long kick to pressure sets and contestable short kicks off #9/#10 while also being effective at the breakdown when Toulouse tried to work to the edge. When we did that well, we earned field position and pressured Toulouse on their transition sets. It was a large reason why you didn’t see a whole lot of Cheslin Kolbe in the first half.
That strategy developed clear opportunities. This first clip was a clear error from Stander in not passing but there wasn’t a clear call for the pass either. He got ripped in contact after good work that lead to the opportunity in the first place – a decent kick on a transition that lead to a breakdown turnover in that flow space where forwards and backs are out of support position.
The second clip is one of our most cohesive sequences of attacking rugby all season long. We took a Toulouse kickback and went into a box kick set up. Toulouse should have realised something was up here because we typically don’t box kick from central positions like this but they compressed onto the ruck and that was the trigger for Munster to release.
The wide position we earned from that break allowed us to play with width off the next ruck. In that space, Archer was able to sell a dummy inside pass at pace and we were over the gainline again. Now we were rolling. More guys got over the gain line. Coombes was already imposing himself on Toulouse physically but it was his passing ability on a bouncing wide ball that opened up space for De Allende and Earls to create a score in the corner.
The second try came from the same principle – kick, pressure receipt, turnover the ball, play from that turnover on transition. I’ve highlighted Coombes involvements in this sequence. If you go back and watch the other try you’ll see him multiple times too.
When you are playing to your strengths and take your opportunities, you will score tries and Munster certainly did that. This is the expansive rugby that Munster have been looking for. I don’t know if we score either of these tries two seasons ago against a team like Toulouse so that alone is a good barometer for improvement as an isolated facet of our game. Why not keep playing that way? Because Toulouse changed their approach and, shorn of Beirne from the 34th minute, we became less effective at getting stops on their possession when they tightened up their game. When I speak about the effectiveness of the front five, I’m speaking about your ability to vary your own approach in response to the opposition as they change their approach. Toulouse had a clear size advantage off the bench and when they went to their bench around the 50th minute, we struggled to live with them consistently.
The areas close to the ruck operate on a different spacetime than the wide areas. Two metres of gainline conceded next to the ruck is like 15m conceded at the widest point from the ruck. When you can impact the opposition in those spaces, it gives you options to turn that 15m in the wide channels into a try. The principle has never applied more fully to the game as it is currently played. You either have the power to live with the very best teams for 80 minutes so your expansivity and other skill work can have an effect, or you don’t and you either have to work around that power deficit with a defensive kick-chase game that fans hate, or you roll the dice with the referee’s breakdown interpretation when the opposition turn on the power, as they always do.
Leinster’s killer try in the early going of the second half last week was them turning on the power and we struggled to live with them. Toulouse turned on the power here in the second half and we hung on in there but that power, once fully applied off the bench, told in the end.
The highlights will show Dupont, Ntamack and Lebel but the game was really won by the Toulouse pack and their bench over the course of the 80 minutes. Munster showed up, threw some shots, landed them but until we competing with the power Toulouse are capable of rolling off the bench more completely for 80 minutes, results like this week and last week will continue to happen with fluctuations in performance but consistency in losses in these big games bar the odd freak result.
But there’s no real blame to apportion to coaches or even to players. Casey should have been on 15 minutes earlier, in my opinion, but that’s about it. We actually played quite well here despite the loss but until we shore up our power output from the start and off the bench, we will continue to struggle against teams we have a power differential on. That’s how the modern game is going. Leinster, Exeter, Toulouse, Racing, Sale and even Clermont have shown over the last two weeks that power wins the knockout rugby games. Until we can compete with that tight power, trophies will continue to elude us, in my opinion.
We played well, there were obvious positives but we fell short all the same. That’s where we are against the very best teams at the moment and, in reality, that has been true for the last three or four seasons. Until we close the power gap as a collective, we will continue to finish seasons like this.
Notable Players
I’d hesitate to say that any of our players played poorly here. I’ve rated Niall Scannell, James Cronin, Billy Holland, John Ryan, and Kevin O’Byrne down but that’s mainly down to them being overmatched in a lot of the scenarios they found themselves in as the game progressed. There’s no shame in that. Niall Scannell, in particular, had quite a good game for much of this contest – really smooth set-piece – but really looked tired towards the end of his time on the pitch and ended up conceding a few sloppy penalties.
I thought Conor Murray and Joey Carbery did pretty well on the whole. Carbery is still very much making his way back to full match sharpness but he showed some nice moments passing the ball here and stood up well to repeated Toulouse targeting off the set-piece. Conor Murray was on for ten minutes too long, in my opinion, but he kicked well after a ropey start and showed some good accuracy phase for phase across all the ranges.
Damian De Allende had his best game for Munster here on a big day against big opposition. His passing and timing were what he is – world-class. His biggest strength as a player is his capacity to make good decisions with the ball in hand and under pressure. He did that really well when he was put into a position to make something happen and on both occasions, he did exactly the right thing and it lead to Munster scoring – penalties and tries.
Jean Kleyn has been really consistent for Munster this season and this game was another example. I imagine Jean Kleyn surrounded by other tight five forwards with his physical impact and I see a player who instantly changes his perception on this island as an international option. At the moment – and this game is an example – he’s almost overheating for us as a tight five collision winner. He’s a player we ideally need to play 80 minutes but against a team like Toulouse, he has to max out his carrying, impact defence, mauling to the point of exhaustion. With Beirne off the field relatively early, it upset our balance in the front five on a day when we couldn’t really afford that but Kleyn was really good, for me, and showed his value to Munster in a season where he was badly overloaded as our one fit specialist tighthead lock.
You know that Keith Earls is the Man, I know that he’s the Man and he keeps showing the game that when he comes around, there are few in the game better than him. Earls took his chances really well here on a day when we wouldn’t get that many. You want a top finisher in position and that’s what Earls is and always has been. He blotted his copybook for me with a shot in the air on Kolbe but other than that, he was really good on a day when we really needed him to be.
Munster vs Toulouse games have a habit of “making” players. In 2013, CJ Stander made his name in a red jersey with a barnstorming performance against Toulouse as Munster powered to a semi-final in front of a packed Thomond Park. Munster didn’t win this time and Thomond Park was empty but Gavin Coombes proved his credentials as a foundational talent for Munster going forward.
He was, quite simply, remarkable. He carried the ball 19 times, won breakdown turnovers, scored two tries and was one of the best and most prolific passers on the field.
This moment is particularly remarkable.
We were asleep here, actually. Our latch came too late and it was a little angular but the freaky thing is, it didn’t matter. Toulouse knew it was coming because Coombes was just standing over it. They were expecting him to tap and go, prepped accordingly and he ran them over regardless like it was mini-rugby.
On a day when CJ Stander said goodbye to Thomond Park, Gavin Coombes announced himself as his spiritual successor by running over serious hitters like Kaino, Tolofua, Cross, the Arnold twins and anyone Toulouse stood in front of him.
He’s not just a top-drawer impact ball-carrier, either. His passing, timing and line running was unreal here against some of the very best opposition there is in the European game. All four of our tries do not happen without the key involvements of Coombes as a breakdown threat, a passer and as a power-forward ball carrier.
This was as good as I have ever seen Gavin Coombes play and, if anything, he can only improve from here. Watch him move up to another level when there’s a full Thomond Park roaring him. This was an outstanding individual performance that announced Coombes as a cornerstone player for this province and a worthy inheritor of that famous red #8 jersey.
Top, top class. ★★★★★
The Wally Ratings: Toulouse (H)
The Wally Ratings explainer page is here.
Players are rated based on their time on the pitch, if they were playing notably out of position, and on the overall curve of the team performance. DNP means the player did not feature and N/A means they weren’t on the pitch long enough to warrant a fair rating.
| Names | Rating |
|---|---|
| Dave Kilcoyne | ★★★ |
| Niall Scannell | ★★ |
| Stephen Archer | ★★★ |
| Jean Kleyn | ★★★★ |
| Tadhg Beirne | N/A |
| Gavin Coombes | ★★★★★ |
| Jack O'Donoghue | ★★★ |
| CJ Stander | ★★★ |
| Conor Murray | ★★★ |
| Joey Carbery | ★★★ |
| Keith Earls | ★★★★ |
| Damian De Allende | ★★★★ |
| Chris Farrell | ★★★ |
| Andrew Conway | ★★★ |
| Mike Haley | ★★★ |
| Kevin O'Byrne | ★★ |
| James Cronin | ★★ |
| John Ryan | ★★ |
| Billy Holland | ★★ |
| Fineen Wycherley | ★★★ |
| Craig Casey | N/A |
| JJ Hanrahan | ★★ |
| Chris Cloete | ★★★ |
