Graham Rowntree sounded devastated in his post-game TV interview after Munster had been dethroned as United Rugby Championship champions. The Irish facet had been closely tipped to qualify for the ultimate and host the Bulls subsequent Saturday in Limerick.
Nonetheless, their ambition to win back-to-back league titles for the primary time got here a cropper as Glasgow pulled off the 17-10 ambush at Thomond Park that now has them heading to South Africa to play within the decider.
Regardless of dominating first-half possession and territory, Munster trailed 7-3 on the interval and so they went on to seek out themselves 14-3 behind on 50 minutes though the Warriors had been twice yellow carded by that stage.
Rowntree’s facet finally minimize the margin with a transformed Antoine Frisch attempt however a crimson card for Alex Nankivell, which resulted in George Horne’s 74th-minute penalty kick, settled the result in favour of the Warriors.
“Christ, that’s going to sting for some time, I’m not going to mislead you,” fumed Rowntree post-game. “You’ve got to take your possibilities on this sport. Merciless. Didn’t take our possibilities first half with all that territory and possession after which they received that unfastened attempt.
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“The second half was a equally trying attempt for them. We received down close to their line and we weren’t correct sufficient and we had been attempting to pressure issues an excessive amount of.
“We’ll have a look at ourselves. I’m immensely pleased with the place we completed this 12 months. We topped the league, we earned ourselves a house semi-final. However that’s sport, you recognize, it’s merciless. They took their possibilities higher than us.
“The long run is shiny the blokes we’ve received coming by way of. There are a couple of guys transferring on who deserved higher than what we gave them tonight however that’s sport. They’ll transfer on, we’ll transfer on. That is going to sting and rightly so for a very long time. You get your self a house semi-final after which to not get the job executed, that’s going to sting. However we’ve to stay with that.”
Munster legend David Wallace claimed that current workmanlike performances in the end haunted Rowntree’s fees. Talking on Premier Sports activities, he mentioned: “It’s actually robust for him and what an incredible season they’ve had. In November they had been eleventh within the league after which they got here again and completed prime. To get to the knockout levels and simply not hearth on all cylinders is actually arduous.
“From the teaching perspective, they had been in all probability doing all the proper issues and in the end perhaps the gamers catching a ball, I imply you may’t coach for that when it will get to this stage of the season.
“Are the gamers going to go on the market and pull the set off and be decisive and scientific relating to it? For the teaching employees, you’re feeling a bit sorry for them however typically that occurs.
“Munster misplaced somewhat little bit of momentum coming into the top of the season and simply too many errors crept in. We perhaps glossed over it somewhat bit, they glossed over it being somewhat workmanlike in these video games, getting the wins however in the end they should be placing within the huge performances as nicely to actually knock out these huge groups.”
?”THIS SEMI-FINAL BATTLE IS WELL AND TRULY ON!” @MunsterRugby get their rating by way of Antoine Frisch. Right here.We.Go.#BKTURC #URC | #MUNvGLA pic.twitter.com/q7nI9ekcFY
— BKT United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial) June 15, 2024
