ONE OF MUNSTER’S usual strengths turned to a weakness on Saturday evening in Thomond Park as Paul O’Connell’s pack failed to get their maul firing.
Whatever about Munster’s blunt attack in phase play, something we will discuss elsewhere this week, there were several scoring opportunities when Munster earned promising field position inside the green zone.
Green zone: The term ‘green zone’ is used to refer to Clermont’s defensive 22 here. Some teams extend that area out to 30 metres from the opposition tryline, while others refer to this area as the ‘red zone’.
The failings of Munster in this area of the pitch were neatly summed up when Damien Chouly picked off the final line-out of the game to deny the Irish province an opportunity to level the game with the last kick.
However, there were several other incidents of Munster profligacy in the same zone that were equally as important to the outcome of the game. Head coach Anthony Foley must ensure that these errors are cut out if Munster are to redeem themselves at Stade Marcel Michelin on Sunday.
8:47 – Picked off
Clermont’s explosive start to the game stunned Munster, and it proved to be apt that the French side’s first-minute try came from a maul.
With Fritz Lee having helped ASM to such a positive opening thrust, Munster needed to respond in kind as soon as possible.
A typical hanging box kick from Conor Murray allowed Felix Jones to pressure Clermont wing Napolioni Nalaga into losing the ball into touch in the ninth minute, providing Munster with an excellent situation inside the green zone from which to attack.
Munster have been sharp in this area of the field for the majority of the season before Saturday’s fixture in Limerick. They don’t often spend long periods of time inside the opposition 22, but they are normally quite ruthless when they visit.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case against Clermont, as demonstrated in the example above, Sébastien Vahaamahina getting up ahead of Peter O’Mahony at the tail of the line-out.
Unusually, there is very little movement from Munster before the throw; it’s a straight-forward play at the tail and Clermont read it well. Jono Gibbes’ pack did this all evening, clear signs of having their analysis nailed down.
The opposition are clearly involved in Munster’s failing, but O’Connell will have taken the blame for this incident and others on his shoulders as the line-out caller.
35:58 – Clear chance missed
While Munster enjoyed a favourable share of possession for the remainder of the half, they barely set foot inside the Clermont 22 again until just before the interval. Again, they were wasteful with their opportunity.
By now trailing 16-6, these so-called ‘championship minutes’ would have been the ideal time for Munster to score, sending Clermont into the break with a nagging doubt, even if Frank Azéma’s side would still have held the lead.
This is the situation O’Connell and his pack would have been pining for all week, a line-out platform within 10 metres of the Clermont tryline; the perfect place from which to send their usually powerful and intelligent maul into action.
As we see above, the play comes to a shuddering, inaccurate halt as the ball spills forward in the transfer from Dave Foley to Tommy O’Donnell. Conditions were slippery on Saturday evening, but even still this error would have hugely frustrated Munster.
O’Connell’s reaction underlines that, as the second row immediately indicates to referee Wayne Barnes that he believes Clermont had closed the one-metre gap before the throw even came in.
Indeed, O’Connell indicates as much before Duncan Casey fires his dart, with locking partner Foley also making the same point behind him. The appeals fall on deaf ears as Clermont do appear to step into the space.
Whatever about Clermont’s infringement here, it’s still Munster’s duty to be accurate with the mauling play. Having secured a clean win in the air, they are in good shape to organise themselves and shunt forward.
O’Connell and Foley themselves have stepped into the gap numerous times before, denying the opposition space to set themselves up. Again, it’s smart play from a well-prepared Gibbes’ pack, but Munster’s frustration should be directed at themselves.
53:34 – Problem persists
There was a similar incident on Munster’s very next visit into the Clermont 22, which came 13 minutes into the second half. Again, the home side knocked-on, and again O’Connell was unhappy with Clermont’s involvement.
The underlying issue is that Munster failed from another potential scoring situation.
Unlike the previous example we looked at, Clermont get a man into the air to compete here, Vahaamahina disrupting superbly. It’s sharp movement from Munster this time to create some space for O’Connell at the tail, but the Clermont lock still gets up with an isloated lift from Clément Ric behind him.
As the throw comes from Casey, Barnes indicates that Munster are “beyond the 15[-metre line],” which means the line-out has actually ended even before O’Connell claims the ball. From Barnes’ view, that entitles Vahaamahina to take up the position around to the side of O’Connell that the Munster lock is so aggrieved by.
Vahaamahina gets a strong right arm in as O’Connell looks to transfer the ball to James Cronin, again highlighting Clermont’s mindset of doing their utmost to prevent Munster’s maul getting set.
Whether scrapping in the air like this, or closing the gap as we saw before, Gibbes sent his pack out intent on ensuring Munster did not get a solid mauling platform. Again, it’s worth stressing that Clermont’s involvements were crucial in the Munster failings.
There is, however, still an obvious chance for Foley’s side to hold onto the ball here. The inaccuracy will frustrate them throughout this week’s training.
77:23 – History repeats itself
There was almost a carbon copy of the above in the 78th minute, as Munster desperately went in search of those equalising seven points.
The field position is basically identical, and again Munster use a dummy play at the front of the line-out, although Foley’s movement fails to draw in the clever Chouly this time.
Instead, the Clermont back row gets a strong lift from Jamie Cudmore and Alexandre Lapandry, forcing his right hand in as O’Mahony attempts to claim the ball.
That excellent work from Clermont results in Munster spilling the ball, although Barnes does not believe it to be a knock-on this time. Again, O’Connell is unhappy with Clermont’s defensive tactics but his side do at least retain possession.
No score comes from the subsequent attacking phases, and it’s another promising mauling scenario gone wrong for Munster.
79:55 – Chouly reads O’Connell
After everything that had gone wrong for Munster throughout the course of the fixture, they were left with their best mauling opportunity of all with the last play of the game.
Even after being battered by Clermont’s aggressive defence, failing to create more than three linebreaks and numerous handling errors, O’Connell and his pack would have backed themselves to score here and clinch a draw with the conversion.
The maul is probably the area of the game in which Munster would have hoped their final chance came, even after the previous failings.
Clermont’s actions again stress their attitude to these dangerous defensive positions. Many sides would stay on the ground here, getting themselves more ideally set up to defend the maul, rather than risk going into the air, not stealing the ball and then being less prepared to stop the drive.
“I saw that Paul O’Connell had called the two last line-outs to himself,” said Chouly post-match, “so I told the guys to lift me and it worked. Just during the game he adjusted his call and I saw it. It was psychology as well.”
Munster attempt something similar to the previous two incidents we’ve highlighted here, with a dummy movement from Foley in front of Chouly.
We can see above that Clermont have no interest whatsoever in Foley. Cudmore [the lifter at the front] is staring directly at O’Connell, waiting to see where the 35-year-old goes.
As Chouly admitted afterwards, there was only ever one man his side were going to mark up on. Rarely is O’Connell out-thought in this manner at the line-out, but Clermont managed to read his intentions superbly all evening.
Even when they didn’t, Gibbes’ pack were intent on causing as much disruption to Munster’s attempts to set their maul as possible. It’s one of the key work-ons for the southern province this week ahead of the return leg in Auvergne.
O’Connell and his pack will be stinging from their failure to deliver at maul time. Cutting out the inaccuracies on the transfer, opening more space for the lift with their movement and limiting Clermont’s ability to play havoc will be essential on Sunday.
Every visit into the green zone will need to see some return in terms of points if Foley’s men are to pull off a surprise victory at Stade Marcel Michelin.
Munster actually got caught for it in the first half and then Barns just didn’t bother with it for the rest of the game. He is the most inconsistent ref in the game.
But at the same time no excuse for losing like they did.
This is the most frustrating thing about Barnes as a referee – his inconsistency. By all means make a mistake but be consistent! He blew Munster for closing the gap early in the match and so I felt this would be something he was looking out for. Au contraire (with apologies to G Thornley, esq)! I was directly behind the lineout late in the first half and Clermont might as well have jumped on Munster’s side of the line. I really wouldn’t have an issue with it if he hadn’t penalised Munster for it previously. Consistency!
Another thing that drove me mad was the delaying Clermont did from the very first lineout. In fairness to Barnes he did signal to speed up at that lineout – the only problem was that was all he did at every other lineout – signal them to speed up while they smile at him. It’s a small thing but it would have speeded things up and he wouldn’t be getting the crowd on his back when there is an obvious sanction in place.
And when you see the Clermont forward having a meeting before a scrum and getting away with the wasting time its very frustrating for the sup porters but it must be really maddening for the players.
Murray, as you may have pointed out, there were occasions where O’Connell kept saying to the referee that Clermont were closing the gap before the lineout was taken. If that actually happened, at what point might they have done it? And how could Barnes not see it if it did happen?
Hi Conor,
The best example of what O’Connell was suggesting was in the incident under the heading ‘Clear chance missed’ above. Basically, Clermont are edging towards the Munster line after both teams have set themselves up, and before Casey throws the ball.
The laws of the game dictate that there needs to be a metre between the teams at that point, but as O’Connell points out, Clermont have closed that space before the ball is thrown. It’s subtle from Clermont, we’re talking a matter of inches with each little step, so that might be why Barnes doesn’t spot an infringement. Also, Chouly – marking O’Connell – steps back a little as O’Connell appeals.
As per Murray’s article Clermont did close the gap at the lineout but Barnes did not penalise Clermont. Makes it all the more frustrating because he penalised Munster for this in the first half. He also didn’t penalise Clermont when a few players were offside in their defensive line. Fact is Munster were poor and made too many error to give themselves a chance to win the match. Clermont were good but they only won by 7. Game was there to be won
Thanks very much Murray.
They ignored Barnes from the very first line out. He ended up running among them like a school boy while they did what they wanted. He just wasn’t strong enough and they knew it.
from munsters pov he ignored poc because he could and it suited him as poc isn’t captain. We have to sort that out. It’s been a problem for too long. Pom takes his instructions from poc so cut out the middle man and let poc get on with it.
All I’m hearing is referee this referee that ,referees fault …. The ref didn’t see this…..give it a break… We were the school boys who got bullied for 80 mins !! Flash Harry zeebo needs to stick to basics —defend !!
Their failure in every zone cost them. Green, red, black, orange, yellow, blue, navy, pink and white.
Well robsonkeane the traffic must have been nightmare going through limerick on your way up the Connacth game on Saturday ?
Hahahaha.
You play to the ref, Clermont did there homework and certainly played on the edge, but many a time Munster have done the same. Lot of silly mistakes by Munster and they were way off the mark by there standards. It will be a hard task to go to France and come away with a result. However, a week is a long time in Rugby and you don’t become a bad team over night. You have to believe they can do, no point supporting munster otherwise :-)
I’m all clichéd out after reading that Alan!
Ah Keano, surely not, you have to think outside the box feen. We can’t do anything about Yesterday, that is ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or loose…..how’s that :-)
Since Munster changed to that soccer strip, things have gone from bad to worse. Rugby shirts should be tough like the game of football which is being played
Hi Murray,
could you take a look at how Munster’s pillars were being pulled and dragged at every other ruck? This, plus the amount of times that there were no pillars because they were still lying on the ground from the last phase, allowed the Clermont rushers much more time to get up on Murray and meant that there was no time for him to get the ball to the midfield and beyond.
It’s incredibly frustrating to see that now teams have worked out the kick and chase tactic we still persist in it. The box kick has been getting increasingly ineffective since Murray used it for Ireland against the All Blacks back in 2012. Munster (and Ireland) are just not getting the ball back after a couple of phases or even in a better field position. Teams are just going to keep bottling Munster up in midfield and forcing them to the touchline with the knowledge that if Murray is facing the touchline he’s going to be kicking it up the line.