Possession was the important ingredient that made the difference in our clash with a Young Munster side that is now hovering at the top of the table after a 16-0 victory.
With a difficult week where two senior players were with only an outside chance of playing right up to kick-off the focus pre-game was excellent. There was a real buzz in the air with nine Limerick locals in the team and a determination to push ourselves away from the bottom of the table.
With so many players familiar with the opposition and the surrounds it was hoped that we would harness the focus collectively and bring intensity to our game to enable us to compete with a team determined to turn around an upset loss to Thomond a week earlier.
A good start with the breeze behind us gaining positive field possession and putting together good phase ball to be awarded a kickable penalty. Sadly the kick went astray and Munster woke up with plenty of hard running off the rucks to regain dominance. We waited to make the tackle instead of surging forward to shut them down. After 12 minutes Munster picked up a penalty to take a 3-0 lead. The arm wrestle continued especially at scrum time with all the tricks of the front row box been pulled out to gain the ascendancy.
The crowd were very involved doing there best to assist the Referee with any indecision and to get into our hookers ear at lineout time. We fragmented under the intense pressure and struggled to implement the basics at lineout time and breakdown to utilize the breeze and gain some confidence on attack. From a defensive scrum on 31 minutes an overlap was created in the left hand corner by another Young Munster scrum trick and an 8-0 lead extended to 11-0 with a penalty on the half.
There was frustration at half time that we hadn’t been able to play the rugby needed to pick up the points that the wind advantage gave us. More concentration was needed at set-pieces and a hunger to get our hands on the ball. If we played with the spirit the opposition had in the 1st 40 and hunt as a pack we felt we could still turn the game around.
However there was a yellow card issued to our 2nd rower three minutes into the half when a man cut inside his committed presence. Unfortunately before we started putting any of the half-time talk into practice Young Munster were over in the left hand corner after some poor defence to go ahead 16-0. We finally ignited and got back on track with tougher work on the ball which gave scrum-half Brendan O’Brien time to present the backs with some front foot ball. We got very close several times but Munster stood up to the pressure and held us out. All five substitutions were made in the last quarter and made a good impact as we defended with more honesty and spirit. There followed 35 minutes of scoreless Rugby but there were a lot more positives to be taken from the team effort in that period than in the 45 minutes of individual effort that lead to our 16 point demise.
We have a week’s break before we take on an in-form Clonakilty at our Merrion Road home base. There is a lot of work to be done on and off the training pitch in order to regain the spirit that allowed us to play positive style Rugby based around implementing the basics at a consistently high level under the pressure. Any game of Rugby, no matter what level or part of the world it is been played in, has to be performed in this way in order to achieve anything.
Pressure is a relative thing and the Club and team have to show strong belief and make sure we are going into each battle with the confidence that each of us stands beside, not behind, each other to allow a united force.
