Munster head coach Graham Rowntree says his side were masters of their own downfall, as they saw their hopes of a home quarter-final dealt a huge blow by the Glasgow Warriors at Thomond Park.
The province fell to a 38-26 defeat against their playoff rivals, and although they picked up a bonus point having scored four tries, it leaves them six points back from the top four with two games left in the regular season.
The game was effectively over by half time, Glasgow bursting into a 28-0 lead with four tries, extending that to 31-0 with a Domingo Miotti dropgoal just after the break.
And while Muster did rally, aided by big impacts off the bench from Scott Buckley, Josh Wycherley and Craig Casey, a miracle comeback never looked likely.
"I'm not going to sugar coat it," Munster head coach Graham Rowntree said after the game.
"I didn't sugar coat it to the lads at half time or after. That wasn't us, we have to do better than that.
"As we said at half time, it's a beautifully simple game, you lose collisions both side of the ball, you're going to lose the game.
"We were better in the second half in that regard, but collisions, and our inaccuracy when we got near their tryline... it wasn't us, it wasn't us."
The result ends the province's run of five wins in a row in the URC, and leaves them unlikely to secure a home quarter-final, with a return to Glasgow even a possibility in the playoffs for Rowntree's side.
However, the Munster coach said he will be parking those permutations for the time being, with the province set to fly out for the first of two trips to South Africa next month, facing the Sharks in the last 16 of the Heineken Champions Cup.
"I can't think about that, I have to think about the next game, to try get a squad together now to submit to the airline tonight, to get on a flight Tuesday night to Durban for a European game.
"The connotations of the league, we'll deal with that later. The next game is all I'm worried about. We need to get Monday right, get this week right, get a squad right and prepared for this next game."
While Munster were well beaten by Franco Smith's side, they did flex their muscles in attack in the second half, with Gavin Coombes, Josh Wycherley, Craig Casey and Calvin Nash all crossing after the break.
However, a frustrated Rowntree was reluctant to describe the bonus point as a 'silver lining', after giving the opposition such a head start.
"We score tries, we've proven that this year, at half time we spoke about how we will score tries, but we have to be better. We're chasing our second bonus point towards the end of the game, the crowd were fantastic and stayed with us the whole game, but we give ourselves a mountain to climb. We'll have a look at what created that mountain, but it's simple, we have to be better...
"They were great, they played well. We previewed them, their ability to move the ball and we previewed their maul, previewed their breakdown and we didn't deal with it. I’m not going to hide away from that.
"I’ll give you some positives in the cold light of day when I’ve had a look at it. We factually are better than that in all those area I’ve spoken about.
"We have to dust ourselves down, get on a plane on Tuesday night. We’ll have a look at what we can do better. I’m not hiding away from the performance, that wasn’t us," he added.
