Big win in Belfast but Munster must be 'infinitely better' against Leinster, warns Costello

The visitors came away from a bonus-point win against Ulster on Friday night. 
Big win in Belfast but Munster must be 'infinitely better' against Leinster, warns Costello

Coach Munster Prendergast, Ramsey Left, Mike Costello Ian Coach Munster Pic: And Interim Cardy/sportsfile Attack Head

A bonus-point 22-19 derby victory in a Belfast bearpit should not be dismissed lightly but as welcome as it was for Munster, there will be plenty to concern interim head coach Ian Costello ahead of a visit from league leaders Leinster to Thomond Park this Friday.

A win is a win and a bonus-point win is a much better outcome than would have been hoped for before kick-off. Yet for all the positives that were delivered by Munster on a noisy night at Kingspan Stadium, not least a hat-trick of tries in a player of the match performance from centre Tom Farrell, there were just as many negatives. Indeed, Costello and his assistants will be particularly unsettled by the recurrence of issues they might have expected to have fixed on the training field following the previous weekend’s 16-14 Champions Cup pool loss at Castres.

A high penalty count which led to lengthy defensive sets on their own tryline, sloppy errors and an inconsistency of performance across 80 minutes have all been seen before and will be ruthlessly punished by this weekend’s post-Christmas visitors if they are to be repeated on home soil.

“Infinitely better,” was Costello’s estimation of the improvement needed by his squad to tame Leinster in Limerick. “But to be honest, this was about getting a win up here. And we do have a game to game focus. How to use our squad the best we possibly can.

“We have been tested massively with injuries and we had a few more against Castres. But that’s the beauty of having the likes of (Brian) Gleeson, he was brilliant when he came on tonight after a tough night in Castres, Evan O’Connell who we rested last week has come back in fresh and produced a big performance.

“We are going to need all these boys over the next month. And some of them will get an opportunity in Thomond Park against a very strong Leinster side in front of a full house.” 

In a desperately low-quality first half, it was a contest which appeared to be an interprovincial race to the bottom as both Ulster and Munster failed to shake off their European malaises. Ulster, reeling from heavy pool defeats in Toulouse and at home to Bordeaux, had conceded more than 100 points in the process saw no let-up on their return to URC action as Tom O’Toole was sent off for foul play having ended Alex Nankivell’s evening with a hamstring injury after the Ireland prop dropped all of his weight onto the centre’s exposed leg at a ruck.

Yet it was the visitors’ ill-discipline which was more widespread, conceding 17 penalties and making life extremely difficult for themselves. The number had been 15 seven days earlier at Stade Pierre Fabre and five more followed in the first 16 minutes, allowing Ulster to take a 7-0 lead through O’Toole’s opening try on seven minutes.

Munster ended the first half just 7-5 down after Farrell had grabbed his first try of the night on 27 minutes but they had been and would continue to be forced to spend long periods defending on their five-metre line. Those penalties invited most of the pressure as Costello watched his side repeatedly fail to exit their 22 but the second half at least saw them start to trade blows as the contest opened up.

Farrell’s second came soon after the restart, Ulster replacement Harry Sheridan replied, then Shane Daly pushed Munster in front, only for home flanker James McNabney’s try to retake the lead on 75 minutes with John Cooney’s conversion opening up a 19-15 lead as the final whistle loomed. Yet Munster underlined just how important victory was to their campaign to dig deep and produce the winning try, courtesy of an excellent Farrell finish, Crowley silencing the boos and catcalls with his conversion ending the match.

It provides a much-needed boost after the disjointed performance in France and Costello admitted: “I think the last week has hit our confidence a bit because we had actually been going quite well.

“We played very well against Stade (Francais). The Lions are tough and we played well. We played really well against New Zealand and then we were very poor last weekend.

“I can’t be positive enough about the confidence they showed to score at key times, especially the last one.” 

Still, as laudable as character and confidence are traits within a playing squad, accuracy and diligent game management will need to accompany them if they are to keep climbing the table at Leinster’s expense next time around, as hooker Niall Scannell suggested.

“I think the main thing is our discipline and not putting ourselves in that situation,” Scannell said. “We talk about not giving teams access, but I think we were probably lucky that we could hold them out as many times as we did.

“We are incredibly proud we dug in but that’s just not a situation that we want to put ourselves in against Leinster.” 

Munster are likely to be able to recall captain and lock/flanker Tadhg Beirne to face his native province after the Ireland star sat out the Ulster game under IRFU player management guidelines but fly-half Jack Crowley may be set for a similar rest while Nankivell is a serious doubt as the latest squad member to join the casualty list. Yet props Dave Kilcoyne and Oli Jager continued their returns from injury off the bench and Conor Murray is expected back from an elbow issue to face the Boys in Blue.

ULSTER: M Lowry; W Kok, J Postlethwaite, S McCloskey (J Murphy, 38), Z Ward (R Telfer, 25; S Wilson, 34); A Morgan, J Cooney; A Warwick, R Herring (J Andrew, 57), T O’Toole; A O’Connor – captain, K Treadwell (H Sheridan, 61); J McNabney, Marcus Rea, D McCann.

Red card: T O’Toole 31 mins Replacements not used: E O’Sullivan, Matty Rea, D Shanahan.

MUNSTER: M Haley; C Nash, T Farrell, A Nankivell (R Scannell, 34), S Daly; J Crowley, P Patterson (E Coughlan, 45-55 – HIA & 66); J Ryan (D Kilcoyne, 49-68), N Scannell, S Archer (O Jager, 49); T Ahern, F Wycherley (B Gleeson, 61); J O’Donoghue – captain (E O’Connell, 49), J Hodnett (A Kendellen, 56), G Coombes.

Yellow card: R Scannell 61-71 mins Replacement not used: E Clarke 

Referee: Ben Whitehouse (Wales) 

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