Munster Made To Pay For Poor Start

Clermont Auvergne produced a powerhouse performance at Thomond Park tonight to beat Munster 16-9 and take over at the top of European Champions Cup Pool 1.

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS: MUNSTER 9 CLERMONT AUVERGNE 16

Two unconverted first quarter tries from man-of-the-match Fritz Lee and Wesley Fofana saw the physically dominant visitors tear into a 10-3 lead. Playmaker Camille Lopez added a penalty and drop goal to make it 16-6 for half-time.

Ian Keatley’s third successful penalty on the hour mark enhanced Munster’s comeback hopes, but Clermont kept their try-line intact to end the province’s 23-match winning streak in European home games against French opposition.

Clermont laid down an early marker by scoring a first minute try at the sold-out Limerick venue. Ludovic Radosavljevic’s delightful dink forced Felix Jones to concede a five-metre lineout and the resulting maul saw number 8 Lee lunge over in the right corner to silence the Thomond faithful.

Lopez’s conversion attempt came back off the woodwork and he also miscued a long range penalty attempt. Drawing breath, Munster probed with kicks before Tommy O’Donnell found some space to dart forward from deep.

A muscular maul and driven penalty from Keatley got Munster off the mark, but had Napolioni Nalaga not fumbled Julien Bonnaire’s kick towards the left corner Clermont would have been celebrating a second try.

Still, the visitors were finding it far too easy to get outside the Munster defence and following an Aurélien Rougerie charge into the 22, Lee’s pass deflected into the hands of the overlapping Fofana who accelerated away to score an unconverted effort in the right corner.

Keatley lessened the damage by punishing Clément Ric for collapsing a scrum, his 25th minute penalty going over off the right hand post. However, BJ Botha was the guilty party five minutes later as Lopez finally got on the scoresheet.

Clermont continued to look the hungrier, more inventive side, Lopez taking a quick lineout and Nalaga weaving through the Munster midfield before the former fired over a peach of a drop goal.

Loose Munster kicking played into Clermont’s hands during a cagey opening to the second period, and a lineout error – the hosts’ second in a promising position in the 22 – coughed up hard-won possession.

A better spell of continuity, with replacement prop James Cronin getting over the gain-line, led to Keatley reducing the arrears to seven points. Chasing Conor Murray’s box kick, Jones clattered into the receiving Nick Abendanon to give Munster a further psychological boost.

Clermont were content for time to tick away amid a spate of reset scrums and turgid forward phases, the only chink of light for Munster being an eye-catching counter from an otherwise well-marshalled Simon Zebo.

Lack of control in attacking situations added to the home side’s growing frustration and although they ended the game battering away at the Clermont defence, Damien Chouly’s last-minute lineout steal (pictured below) sealed Munster’s fate.

Speaking afterwards, Munster head coach Anthony Foley said: “It was a very poor start (from us). That allowed Clermont to get belief and obviously gave them five points (with Lee’s try).

“From there, they grew into the game and we didn’t get as physically into the game as we would have liked and some of that is turning over ball and not making good use of the ball, putting pressure on them. We soaked up a lot of pressure and ended up giving out points to them.

“We came into the game very confident to get a physical job done on them. We are not looking for excuses. Clermont were the better team here and we need to rectify that for next week. We need to be able to go over there and get one back.”

He added: “We’ve got to stay true to the badge that we’re wearing and turn up next week. It’s not a great feeling at the moment in the Munster camp so we need to rectify that.

“We just need to turn up and play. We didn’t do that today. We made too many errors. We allowed them a good foothold in the game and they are good players.

“We have good players but you can’t give those players front foot ball, an opportunity or a half-break. They make hay.”