Munster crashed out of the Challenge Cup with a loss against Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park on Saturday.
The woes surrounding Munster rugby continue. It was recently announced that voluntary redundancies were offered for off-field staff, and with murmurs of a disconnect between coaches, it seems that the province is in a sticky spot.
Their form is currently the worst of the Irish professional teams. Round 4 of the United Rugby Championship seems like a very long time ago. Munster were victorious over Leinster at Croke Park, the only asterisk being that Leinster's players weren’t back from their international tours long enough to be match-ready.
Munster didn’t need to worry about that; they had beaten their biggest rivals in Dublin with their stronger selection. Everything was on the up; there were questions of a shift in Irish rugby.
A tough European campaign derailed their progress, followed by difficult results during the Christmas interprovincial derbies.
Munster were no longer the trending team and their fast start to the season with five wins in a row, including that defeat of Leinster in Dublin, was all in the past.
Munster now sit in seventh place in a bunched United Rugby Championship table, just one point ahead of the Bulls and two points ahead of Connacht who are in ninth place.
They are sitting dangerously close to losing out on a play-off spot, which would be detrimental for many reasons, most of all the financial health of the club, which is already being brought into question.
Losing is one thing. The most frustrating thing for Munster fans at the moment is the nature of some of the losses and the inconsistency in their performances.
During their trip to South Africa, they were destroyed by the Stormers the week before they bounced back with a very strong performance against the Bulls at altitude.
Last weekend in the Challenge Cup was another inconsistent performance from Munster. Nobody expected such a lifeless performance from them in the first half, despite playing into difficult conditions.
Their defensive efforts on Immanuel Feyi-Waboso late in the second half put an end to any hope that it was a 15-20 point wind.
Munster hurt their chances by trailing by 31 points. That’s not the type of Munster that supporters have come to expect. The underdog tag suits the province, and a gritty first-half performance is what we should expect from them.
A day of European magic is what Munster needed, but instead they were clearly second best to Exeter for too long in the first half.
What's more frustrating is that the reaction from their players came from the same sources. Jack Crowley was the most emotionally invested in providing the spark for Munster’s unlikely comeback, scoring two tries along the way. There were some mistakes amid his urgency, yet he showed that he cared deeply about where the club is going.
Tadhg Beirne was up to his usual tricks, turning balls over when he had no right to and audibly encouraging players around him to do more.
Craig Casey couldn’t be faulted and Edwin Edogbo showed a point of difference. Munster’s centres showed some spirit in the middle of the pitch but there weren’t enough positive performances across the pitch to continue their quest in the Challenge Cup, which was a competition that they could have used to turn their inconsistencies into positive performances.
Comparatively, Connacht have won their last six games, and beat the Sharks at home to continue their Challenge Cup journey this weekend.
After a challenging first half of the season, they’re now putting together complete performances and defensive frugality is giving them a chance to build some momentum heading into the last four rounds of the season.
Both Munster and Connacht are experiencing contrasting trends in their performances, yet Munster’s fate in the league is still well within their control.
Ulster and Leinster will face off in the next round, with Munster travelling to Benetton who have an extra game in the Challenge Cup against Exeter. It means that one of the teams above Munster in the league table will have to drop points, and if they look after their own performance then things won’t look as daunting.
Munster will then host Ulster and travel to Connacht in back-to-back matches to save their season. They can put themselves back into proper contention with victories against their Irish rivals.
There’s a lot of uncertainty within those permutations, but at least everything is still within their own control.
The atmosphere in Munster rugby is far from ideal and the adversity around the club can have a negative impact on performances. However, there’s opportunity within the chaos and using some of the challenges to invoke an emotional response from the players could see Munster back in a more positive state, at least from a rugby perspective.
Munster have papered over the cracks with an emotional response and positive performances in the past. Their long-term ambition has to be to fix the cracks within their structures, but for now it is crucially important that they deliver some traditional Munster-like performances to get the club out of trouble. The alternative could be the beginning of very challenging times at the province.
Four games separate Munster from a mini resurgence or damaging failure. It’s backs against the wall once more for the province.
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