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A strange night because the Ospreys failed to really trouble Munster but they hung in there until well into the second half and denied Munster a bonus point until the last few minutes.
Munster continued with the 2-3-2-1 pod system when they were structured. Jack O'Donoghue was once again the 1 hanging out wide and again it looks like a role he was born to play. His pace, strength and ball carrying are made for those wider channels. Munster problem is getting him enough ball out there to allow him to impact the game enough.
Interestingly Munster used Tommy O'Donnell and Jack O'Sullivan as a midfield pod a number of times from lineouts. They went to the front with the throw, with ball off the top down to the scrum half who gave a long ball to 10 who then had a pod of 2 to crash it up or the ball behind the forward pod to the centres depending what was on.
I thought Munsters defence was superb tonight. The Ospreys really only threatens through kicks at goal. It was Munster penalties that kept them in the game for so long. The Ospreys played some clever tactical kicking in the first half that pinned Munster inside their own half but despite spending so long on the back door, the Munster linespeed continually sent the Ospreys back and Munster often won the territorial battle without the ball. It was particularly evident from the set of 5m scrums on the Munster line. Munster faced pwave after wave of heavy carriers but when the Os ran out of heavy options their backs where driven outside the 22 with great pressure.
For Munster I thought Jed Holloway was excellent in the tight. He was very safe in the lineout on our ball and in the scrum James Cronin wasn't going backwards. From the stands Cronin looked well on top of his man all night but didn't seem to have the ref onside.
Cronin apart the starting front row didn't have a lot to shout about. O'Byrne was excellent again when he came on and is really setting out his case to be in the European march day 23. He had one beautiful lob throw to Billy Holland that set up a 20m maul that won a penalty. Loughman was brilliant again tonight but I want to see him get more game time at tight head. He needs live match scrummaging to be a true option at 3 for the big games still to come.
Holland was excellent as always and Tommy O'Donnell put in another good shift. I was a little disappointed that Jack O'Sullivan couldn't get on the ball and make more of an impact as he has done already this season. I tho k the fact he was the only heavy carrier in tonight's back row may have influenced this.
Wycherley when he came on was hitting rucks like life depended on it. However the penalty for holding the two Ospreys players down in the ground ten seconds after the ruck had ended was pure stupidity, if somewhat funny.
I don't think Neil Cronin will be overly happy with his performance tonight. He started off well in the first ten minutes with some crisp passing and good box kicking. However as the game went on I thought that wind up before he released the ball in his pass became more evident. His partnership with Tyler wasn't working either. Tyler is a facilitator at 10. He needs quick ball and then will make the right decision on how to use it. Unlike JJ or Joey he doesn't tend to make things happen himself. That delay from Cronin took time away from Tyler.
This may sound strange to say but Cronin actually saw too much ball during the first half. Munsters gameplan relies on a quick tempo to keep the point of attack moving. Tonight Cronin was the scrum half too much tonight. That meant that Munster were waiting for him to get to the base of the ruck or he was waiting for the receivers to get into position before he passed the ball. I think the fact the ball protection at the base of the ruck was so poor tonight was down to the fact it was being kept in the ruck too long especially in the first half. It was noticeable how the tempo increased in the second half and really upped when Casey came on.
Scannell grew into the game but Goggin was the best back out there tonight for me. He consistently made ground, the defenders were always wary of him and he attracted their attention whether he had the ball.or not. Daly was again the best of the back three. Nash was industrious and somehow Haley got MOTM but Daly was the real class act.
I was at the game so haven't seen the tries on TV yet but watching live the strike moves looked to have Larkhams stamp on them. We are seeing more loops, more pull backs, better support lines and certainly more cutting edge. The only negative I thought was we regressed on our transition plays and went back to kicking too much.
While tonight wasn't pretty it was effective and a try bonus point win is nothing to be turning out noses up at.
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