Downbeat Rowntree rues soft tries, Ringrose hails Leinster resolve
Munster head coach Graham Rowntree admitted he was struggling to find positives, despite only losing to arch rivals Leinster by the slenderest of margins in a tense United Rugby Championship clash at Thomond Park last night.
7-6 in front at the break thanks to a converted finish from Gavin Coombes, the southern province were in a strong position to secure their first home win at the expense of Leo Cullen’s men in just under four years. The simultaneous sin-binning of Max Deegan provided them with extra incentive, but Leinster instead turned the screw courtesy of tries from Scott Penny and Dan Sheehan.
A Patrick Campbell five-pointer left the bare minimum between the teams, but Munster found themselves on the back-foot during the closing minutes and had to settle for a losing bonus point in the end.
“I’m genuinely struggling for positives at the moment. Without a lot of territory and field position, at half-time we were in the game. Doing a lot of things well. The third-quarter, we got a good penalty try. Then they had a guy in the bin and then we conceded two soft tries. Can’t sugarcoat it more than that,” Rowntree acknowledged in a post-match interview with former Munster player Marcus Horan on TG4.
“Two soft tries that we never recovered from, if I’m honest with you. Towards the end there, our game management, we need to look at that. We didn’t really stick to the plan, but we’ll do that in the cold light of day in the week, when I’ve calmed down a bit. They’re the league leaders for a reason. They’re an exceptional team. It’s not a question of us comparing ourselves to them.
“We’ve got to look at what we can do better. We just can’t concede those tries. We spoke about it. Denis [Leamy] has spoken about it during the week. We’ll look at that. We’ve got a short turnaround now. We’re in Belfast, in six days’ time [to face Ulster]. We’ll have to have a look at the game. Sort out what we can and get on with it.”
From a Leinster perspective, this game represented a 10th successive triumph in this season’s URC. Having already gotten the better of their interprovincial counterparts at the Aviva Stadium back in October, the Blues are now all of 24 points in front of the 11th-place Munster.
Nonetheless, it certainly wasn’t all plain sailing for Leinster, who were denied a bonus point for only the third time in the present campaign. Garry Ringrose once again captained the visitors in the absence of Jonathan Sexton and delivered another assured performance at outside centre.
After overcoming the early dismissal of Cian Healy to record a 38-29 victory over Munster in the RDS at the beginning of this month, Ringrose praised the resolve that Leinster continue to show in the face of adversity.
“Sometimes, as tough as it is, when moments like that [Deegan’s sin-binning] happen it kind of catapults you or galvanises you into action. Thankfully we managed to kick on and it was a credit to the forwards, stepping up the way they did,” Ringrose told TG4.
“It’s probably a little bit of credit to the training we do and the coaches. They put us through our paces during the week to challenge you fitness wise every time you go out. You’re tested in games as intense as this to go into that dark place. I was really proud of the lads that everyone dug in.”