Tadhg Beirne: ‘It was pretty frustrating. It was there for us to win it, we had ample opportunities’
Munster captain Tadhg Beirne cut a frustrated figure after his side lost out to Castres in the pool stages of the European Champions Cup at Stade Pierre-Fabre on Friday night.
Despite former Connacht back-row Abraham Papali’i and Quentin Walcker crossing the whitewash for the hosts – who are coached by former Ireland international Jeremy Davidson – Munster were just three points adrift (10-7) at half-time in France following a converted try from openside flanker John Hodnett. The visitors did edge in front when Jack Crowley added the bonuses to another Hodnett five-pointer, but with Louis Le Bruin knocking over a penalty to supplement an earlier place-kick from Jeremy Fernandez, Castres swung the pendulum back in their favour.
Munster were awarded a penalty in the final minute of the contest, but after Crowley failed to find touch from distance, Ian Costello’s men were forced to settle for a losing bonus point.
“It was pretty frustrating. It was there for us to win it, we had ample opportunities. We had an extra man for the majority part of the game [Castres picked up three yellow cards over the course of the action], but we just couldn’t score the tries. When we got inside their ‘22’, we let ourselves down with a lot of silly errors,” Beirne remarked when speaking to Premier Sports after the game.
“Whether it was forward passes, knock ons in the line-out, poor line-out calls from myself. Just a number of errors, giving away penalties and credit to Castres. They got dominance in the scrum and they started to take hold of the game there. We had an opportunity at the end there, but that is the way sport goes.”
Although they remain firmly in contention to progress in the competition, their defeat to Castres is a set-back for Munster in their bid to secure a top-two finish in Pool 3 – which would grant them a home tie in the Champions Cup Round of 16. For those who finish third and fourth in the pool stages, they will face an away fixture in the last-16 of Europe’s top-tier.
On January 11 and 18 respectively in the new year, Munster will face tricky European assignments against English Premiership outfits Saracens (home) and Northampton Saints. Before then, however, the Reds will switch their focus to a busy schedule in the United Rugby Championship.
Next Friday evening will see them taking on Ulster at Kingspan Stadium in the URC and Beirne acknowledged that he and his Munster team-mates will need to get themselves back in the right frame of mind for a tough interprovincial clash against Richie Murphy’s northerners.
“We’re just going to have to regroup, dust ourselves off. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We’ll be hugely disappointed with that, but we’ll have to dust ourselves off like I said. It’s a tough place to go up in Ulster too, no different to here. A few lads with knocks, hopefully nothing serious, and we’ll go again next week,” Beirne added.