Ronan O’Gara feared the worst for his Racing 92 side when they fell behind to Munster in the Champions Cup this afternoon, but was pleased with the spirit they showed in the second half despite their eventual defeat.
The Racing assistant coach was given a hero’s welcome on his return to Thomond Park and admitted that he almost forgot “how good this place is” as his old club ran out 22-10 winners to secure a home quarter-final.
Racing trailed 17-3 at one stage in the second half but fought back with a try from centre Henry Chavancy before Ian Keatley’s crossed over late to kill the game off.
“It’s been tough you know, I think everyone’s bodies took a bit of a bang" - CJ Stander
And O’Gara, who described the contest as “a good hard game”, was relieved the contest wasn’t as one-sided as Munster’s 32-7 win at Stade Yves-du-Manoir two weeks ago.
"Munster had the capacity to pull away from us in the second half and I feared they would kill us with a few other scores," said O'Gara.
"But, in fairness to our boys, they hung in there and they kept fighting. From our point of view there has been a lot of progress in the last two weeks which was needed.
"Hopefully now we can launch our Top 14 campaign. Attitude is everything and I think tonight the attitude was right. It goes an awful long way in sport."
Asked if he felt his return to Thomond Park had turned out the way he expected, O'Gara said: "I forgot, I suppose, how good this place is, if you are a Munster player. Last night was my first night back in Limerick and it was really special, really warming."
Munster forward CJ Stander meanwhile was pleased with the performance of the squad in what he described as a "tough game."
The man-of-the-match South African said: "In fairness to the boys it was a tough game and they stepped up from 1 to 23, everyone who came off the bench. Killer, Dave Kilcoyne, came off and he had a unbelievable game so that’s good.
"Last week we were disappointed with the breakdown, we tried to look after Murray this week, so I think that’s the thing that got us the game – just to get the ball back from the breakdown because last week we disappointed ourselves so we got the few quick balls so it was good.
“It’s been tough you know, I think everyone’s bodies took a bit of a bang.”
