Munster physicality wins the day

Saturday night saw Gloucester take on Munster at Pairc Un Chaoimh in front of a healthy crowd in Cork.

A poor first half

Gloucester started well enough and took an early lead through a George Barton penalty. However, both teams looked poor in the first half on reflection. The Gloucester lineout looked to be going the same way as the week before when the first couple were lost but to their credit they sorted it out. Munster did look more threatening in attack, especially when they went wide. They scored a try of their own through Dan Kelly which was converted. Gloucester also lost Jamal Ford-Robinson to a yellow card due to an illegal clearout. Munster did pile on some pressure and were threatening to score but the Gloucester defence held out.

Strategy looked wrong

You can't fault the effort of this Gloucester side in the first half, they threw themselves around and tried to match Munster physically. Given they played with the wind advantage, I'd have liked to see the half backs try and pin Munster back and kick to the corners. There was one example of this when George Barton kicked lower to the corner, he went well last night. All too often unfortunately the kicks were straight down the middle giving Munster plenty of space to attack.

Second half Munster physicality takes its toll

Going in 7-3 down at half time I was hopeful Gloucester might scrape something from this match. I knew it'd be tough with not much in the way of experience on the bench. Gloucester stayed in the game until the last quarter, despite a mountain of pressure. Gonig into the last quarter, they trailed 12-3. Then Gloucester got their second yellow card of the evening as Caio James saw yellow. At this point Gloucester had taken the likes of Arthur Clark and Jack Clement off and Munster's physicality told.

They looked dominant and especially at the end like they could score at any point. The scrum got on top and tries were scored through Quinn, Farrell and Beirne. You can't really disagree that Munster deserved their victory despite the defensive effort in the first three quarters of the game from Gloucester, they never really looked threatening in attack.

Gloucester with a second half scrum.

For Gloucester, I thought Jack Clement did well and carried hard, George Barton looked assured at full back. Jack Innard put himself about in the defensive effort too. Munster's international quality at half back showed though, Craig Casey and Jack Crowley were a class above and used the conditions in the second half to pin Gloucester back.

For the first three quarters of the game, I thought we had the upper hand in the scrum and the lineout improved.

Missed opportunity

I know there's big matches coming up and some players have to be rested at some point due to internationals. But I think we showed Munster far too much respect last night. As I said in my preview, this isn't the Munster of old. In reality, the first half looked like two poor sides. If we'd taken our first team, I think there was a win there for us. I get we might not want to risk injuries, but it does make you ask questions of why we bother to qualify for The Champions Cup. We could've gone strong in the first couple of rounds.

Now we're hoping Bath and Edinburgh beat Toulon and Castres respectively with the French teams getting nothing. Then when it comes to Toulon coming to Kingsholm in the final round they might not have anything to play for. If that is the case then we'd be looking at a lower seeding if we qualify and ending up potentially in Leinster or Bordeaux or the like.

Big stadium, poor experience

I was excited by Pairc Un Chaoimh, despite being a bit disappointed that the game wasn't at Thomond Park. The stadium itself looks like a cauldron but the experience itself was disappointing. We got to the ground early and had a wonder around, there was nothing outside the ground at all. In the ground there looked to be one beer tent at each end of the ground, we were in The Blackrock End and the queues to get alcohol at half time were massive. There didn't look to be any merchandise on sale anywhere too. The big screen was at the other end of the ground but wasn't that big to be able to see. Likewise the scoreboard was behind us, they probably could've done with another in the ground and the match clock was hidden in a corner. For such a big crowd, I was probably expecting more of an atmosphere. Given this was a big event taken on the road, I would've expected more and was underwhelmed. It felt like a premier event run by an amateur organisation.

The Cork experience

Despite the above, wherever we were in Cork we were made to feel welcome and Munster fans were great and happy to talk rugby. They really are rugby people. You're also reminded that you're playing against a Province and not just a town or city when you come over to Ireland, it really is tribal!