Munster suffered a second defeat to Leicester Tigers this evening and once again failed to pick up a losing bonus point after the English side recorded a 17-6 Champions Cup victory in Welford Road.
Despite a bright start and positive opening quarter, Anthony Foley’s men trailed 10-6 at half-time after a converted Ed Slater try put Pool 4 leaders Leicester in front.
Munster opened the scoring through Ian Keatley when Leicester were penalised for holding on after six minutes, however the out-half was unable to follow up with his next attempt when kicking into the swirling wind from 42 metres out.
An impressive defensive effort was needed when Tigers kicked deep into Munster territory and while holding them out, there was welcome relief when securing a scrum penalty to kick clear.
After twenty minutes of superior Munster possession, Leicester did get ball in hand and were quick to show their intent with full-back and man-of-the-match Telusa Veainu breaking the line. In stopping the attacking threat, Keatley was penalised for a high tackle and Tigers opted to kick for the corner.
Similar to last week’s game in Limerick, Leicester used the lineout maul to good effect and while camped on the Munster line, Slater picked and drove over from close range to score the opening try. Freddie Burns added the extras.
Munster secured a further penalty on the half hour mark, this time for offside, and in opting to kick for the corner, unlike their hosts, the province were unable to capitalise and were pinged for holding on.
It was Tigers who extended their lead further with a Burns penalty after 36 minutes, but the good work was negated on the stroke of half-time. Replacement lock Dom Barrow earned a yellow card for going offside and Keatley made no mistake in clawing back three points.
On the resumption, an early attacking wave saw Munster advance deep into Tigers’ territory. Conor Murray looped a delightful pass out to James Cronin for the hard-working prop to go over in the left – only for the pass to be ruled forward.
More points were on offer minutes later after securing a scrum penalty, however Keatley missed a second penalty attempt and the province failed to make the most of their one-man advantage.
Burns went on to miss a kickable shot at the other end before his side slipped up following a scrum near Munster’s try-line. A Leicester pass went to ground and Francis Saili, a leading light in the Munster back-line, was first to react, claimiming the loose ball and setting off for a length of the pitch run with Keith Earls and Simon Zebo in support.
With the chasing cover in pursuit, Veainu showed incredible speed in catching Saili. The centre did manage to get the pass away to Zebo before Adam Thompstone pulled off another try-saving tackle just short of the line. Disappointingly, poor ball control at the breakdown led to Tigers securing the turnover and nothing came of the break.
In soaking up the pressure, the hosts worked their way back upfield and with Ben Youngs taking a quick tap and go, the in-form Aviva Premiership club ended up scoring a crucial second try with 15 minutes remaining.
Winger Vereniki Goneva finished off a crisp attacking phase, gobbling up a pass from the impressive Peter Betham to go in behind the posts. Burns kicked the conversion to extend the gap further and there was no way back for Munster despite the best efforts of skipper CJ Stander, Andrew Conway and replacement half-backs Tomas O’Leary and Rory Scannell.
Giving his reaction afterwards, Munster head coach Foley said: “We thought we should have won last week and we will leave here thinking we probably should have won this one. Why didn’t we? We are not scoring. We have to be ruthless in that area.
“It wasn’t as frustrating as last week but I’m annoyed at the way we turn over ball and how loose we are around it. We worked hard to get into positions to create opportunities and we just let it go.”
Munster will plough on in the hope that they can rediscover their best form next month. They have three crunch matches to come against Stade Francais – both home and away – and Benetton Treviso, with a total of 15 points still on offer.
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