The Munster interim head coach Ian Costello, who has been working within the province’s coaching organisation on and off for the last two decades, admitted that the epic sense of occasion and victory in their Champions Cup Round of 16 win over La Rochelle was as good as anything he has witnessed.
As ever, the 25-24 win, which has earned them a place in the quarter-finals next weekend, where they will play either Bordeaux Bègles away or Ulster at home, was fuelled by at least 3,000 raucous Munster fans on a warm sun-kissed evening in the packed Stade Deflandre.
Hailing the performances of each player in the 23-man squad, Costello said: “It was a special day from the moment we arrived at the ground. The reception we got outside; I’ve been at the club a long time, it was up there with anything I’ve ever seen.
“And what a place to play rugby. We just had to stick in there and stick in there. I couldn’t be any prouder of the lads staying in the fight and giving us a chance right up to the end. There was so much quality in there as well.
“So, emotionally, couldn’t be prouder and we’ll try enjoy it for what it is now and then look forward to ... we want three more of these, not one more. We want three more and that’s what the chat was in the dressingroom.”
The performance and the win was pot marked by momentum swings and three tries apiece and two yellow cards apiece and all manner of minor moments which became big moments.
“It was a very different type of game,” said Costello. “It was very start-stop, it was very combative. It felt quite slow but it was like a heavyweight boxing match. There were a lot of TMO interventions, a lot of things that probably interrupted our flow and we felt we didn’t actually get into a huge rhythm like we usually do.
“We’re a possession-based team and we couldn’t keep the ball or get the ball for long periods. We had a purple patch in the second half that we really capitalised on, so it was just one of those where you had to stay in the fight and win key moments, like knock-out rugby.”
Also labelled the Ronan O’Gara derby, there was a certain irony in the winning score ultimately being a drop goal by another Cork outhalf in the Munster number 10 jersey and Costello confirmed that the province’s legendary all-time leading points scorer personally visited the away dressingroom to congratulate his former team in red.
“We’ve huge respect for Ronan, what he’s done here and at this club and he spoke to us in the dressingroom really well.
“But we didn’t talk about it at all, it wasn’t a factor. They’ve such pedigree as a club, we’d our hands full dealing with that.
“Look at our scrummaging, our maul ‘D’, our collisions tonight. The boys will take three, four days to recover from that with the effort that went into that.
“Our focus was around dealing with their power, how we play our game around it.
“We did it just about enough, I’d say we were probably much lower on certain stats like possession, territory than we usually are.
“But, no, the focus was on us and how we stop their threats.
“The majority of the game, I thought we did that really well.”
As for Crowley’s critical 40-metre drop goal drop goal which gave Munster the buffer of a 25-17 lead entering the final 10 minutes, Costello said: “He went for it early, we probably didn’t see it coming – nobody did – but it gave us that eight-point cushion.
“Disappointing to concede the try after that, but it was pretty nerve-racking the last couple of minutes. I won’t lie.”
Their opening try by Craig Casey had been a stunning effort created by Thaakir Abrahams fleet-footed counter-attack from inside his own 10-metre line, the kind of X-factor for which he was signed to replace the retiring Simon Zebo – on punditry duty here and loudly serenaded by some of the Red Army.
“When you look at the profile of your team and where you might have gaps, we thought we could add more pace and our back three today was exceptionally quick,” said Costello.
“Calvin [Nash] had an outstanding game, his tackling on the edge, his kick-chase. Andrew Smith, his first European game, he came in on loan because of injuries, he was outstanding as well.
“Those moments, he [Abrahams] went between two world-class backs, he’s pretty sore now and he’s six days to recover for the next one.”
