Munster reached the Champions Cup knockout stages for a record 17th time with a runaway 48-3 bonus point victory over Castres Olympique at Thomond Park.
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS: MUNSTER 48 CASTRES OLYMPIQUE 3
The kick-off was delayed by three hours due to heavy rain in Limerick, but the efforts of the ground staff ensured the game went ahead as Munster – advancing as Pool 4 winners – set up a home quarter-final against Toulon over the weekend of March 30-April 1.
Man-of-the-match Keith Earls’ third try in as many games made it 13-3 for half-time, with the hosts taking advantage of Thomas Combezou’s yellow card after a slow start from the heavy pre-match favourites.
News came through at the break that La Rochelle’s failure to notch a bonus point against Harlequins meant Munster needed just a win to seal that prized home quarter-final. Nonetheless, Johann van Graan’s men pushed on for maximum points.
Rhys Marshall’s maul effort and a scintillating bonus point score from Simon Zebo, either side of a penalty try, had Castres out for the count and replacements Alex Wootton and James Cronin made it five unanswered tries in the second half.
The French side certainly came to play and they dominated the early possession without creating scoring opportunities, their best attacking moment coming when captain Robert Ebersohn broke through midfield in the ninth minute.
Full-back Zebo was rock solid under the high ball, but Jean Kleyn’s goading of an opponent saw a penalty reversed on the quarter hour and Rory Kockott kicked Castres into a deserved lead.
Despite the injury-enforced departure of Dave Kilcoyne (knee), the Munster pack, with Kleyn to the fore, were rewarded for their direct play entering the second quarter. Ian Keatley knocked over two penalties from in front of the posts to put them in front.
The penalties were mounting against Castres and centre Combezou paid the price for his team’s indiscipline on the half hour mark. Opting for a scrum, Munster flung the ball wide through Conor Murray, Rory Scannell and Zebo to put ace-poacher Earls over in the left corner.
Keatley added a terrific conversion before the home side missed out on a second try before the interval, Chris Farrell making a powerful break but Murray was unable to connect with the supporting Andrew Conway on his outside.
However, once hooker Marshall crossed at the end of a 44th-minute maul, Munster were in full control as they continued to build from their strong set piece platform.
CJ Stander was held up on a bulldozing drive past the line, but a bout of scrum pressure saw Castres leak a succession of penalties. Earls and Murray had close-range tries ruled out before referee Ben Whitehouse binned replacement prop Daniel Kotze and soon followed up with the awarding of a penalty try.
Earls was devastating on a 58th-minute kick return, scurrying up towards the Castres 22 before passing for Zebo to brilliantly slice in between the final two defenders and register the bonus point.
Keatley converted to complete his 12-point haul and his replacement JJ Hanrahan added the extras to Wootton’s maiden European score, which saw him wriggle over after Munster ball had gone loose on the ground, and a last-minute touchdown from prop Cronin via another punishing lineout drive.
Giving his reaction afterwards, Munster head coach Johann van Graan said: “My initial reaction to earning a home quarter-final is that I am very proud to be part of this province. Everyone will think about the result, the way that we did it, but to the people of Munster, the ground staff who did so well to get that field in playing condition.
“For a supporter to know that this game was going to be postponed for three hours, go away, come back, stayed until late night to give the support that they did. To the management, we had to re-adapt our diet of what we ate, our strapping times and then to the players for that performance out there, it is not the score, it is the way that we played.
“My initial reaction is that I’m very proud to be part of this. That is the reason why I came here (to Munster) to be part of something special. I said on the first day when I came here for the Racing 92 game (last October), Thomond Park has got magic, the magic is what the people deliver. I am very proud to be part of this.
“I am very happy about the win. I am very happy with how we as a squad handled the day. If you don’t adapt on days like these (with the delay in kick-off), things can go wrong and I am happy with that win.”
The South African explained: “For the three-hour delay, together with manager Niall (O’Donovan) and the coaches and the senior players, we decided to go back to the hotel, treat it as a new game. Some of the guys ate again, some of the guys went for a nap.
“I encouraged the guys to get away from the game for an hour, got back together, focused on our plan because initially we thought there would be a lot of water on the field, we anticipated that by 4pm a lot of water would be removed, so we had to adapt our plan again. Well done to the management and players for the way they we adapted to the conditions of the day.”
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