Lions get ‘fine balance’ wrong in Munster defeat

An action-packed game at a chilly Thomond Park had passed the hour mark already when the Lions began their ‘dad’s camp’ inside the Munster 22.

The match was on the line, with the Lions trailing 17-10 and primed to land the knockout punch on a Munster pack that showed great tenacity throughout, but were arguably punch-drunk by then from the visitors’ intense physicality.

The Lions pack had come to play all right.

Led by barnstorming tighthead prop Asenathi Ntlabakanye – who’s surely going to become a Springbok in 2025 – they had shoved the hosts back in the scrums, climbed into the breakdowns and ruled the air in the line-outs.

So, coach Ivan van Rooyen’s team had Munster on the ropes, and just needed to land the knockout blow to record an historic first United Rugby Championship victory for a South African team at Thomond Park.

But the hard-yards approach from the first 60 minutes ironically proved to be their undoing in that respect. Time and again the Johannesburg outfit opted to keep it tight with a series of pick-and-go carries, in order to draw in the Munster defenders.

What the Lions didn’t then go on to do was then fling the ball wide once they had achieved their initial goal. They had almost run out of steam in the 66th minute, after 14 phases of relentless attack, when scrumhalf Morné van den Berg belatedly swung the ball out to Sanele Nohamba.

The replacement flyhalf had a Munster defender in his face and wasn’t able to get a proper pass to Henco van Wyk on his outside, and blitz Munster wing Thaakir Abrahams – from Paarl – read it perfectly to intercept the ball with his boot to hack it forward and save the day.

First 40 minutes in images 📸#MUNvLIO#ForOurCity@vodacom #URC | #HitsDifferent#LionsPride🦁 pic.twitter.com/bLHPwheZIh

— Lions (@LionsRugbyCo) November 30, 2024

“Really, really proud of the good fight, good workrate. A lot of the things that we worked on these two weeks, we could see. The error-rate in the last 20, 30 minutes, plus game management, probably cost us an historic win away,” Van Rooyen said afterwards.

“There’s a fine balance (between taking the ball wide and opting for a pick and go). We know that they tend to get really tight if you pick and go, so that’s one opportunity. But also, the ball was actually quite a bit wet – to just move it in that area isn’t always that easy: they also get off the line quite hard because they are so tight.

“I think at times when we got it right, it was probably the best in the season for us. At times, not that accurate. Definitely, we spent enough time there to capitalise, but obviously, we just didn’t use our opportunities.”

Captain and centre Marius Louw also bemoaned his team’s finishing in a game where victory was there for the taking against a struggling Munster outfit who just recently saw their coach Graham Rowntree surprisingly resign.

“I think Coach Cash mentioned it earlier: we put ourselves into really good positions to get into their 22, put pressure on them,” Louw said.

Henco van Wyk has it all 🏉✨

📺 Stream #VURC on DStv: https://t.co/0P0NNhnwKw pic.twitter.com/GmAjocU1ug

— SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) November 30, 2024

“I know you mentioned about the pick-and-go’s around the ruck, and if you look at our second half, where we picked-and-go, picked-and-go in the middle of the field, we had a two-man overlap.

“It’s just our execution and getting that ball wide that obviously spoiled the try for us that could’ve put us (in with a chance) with a possible draw at that time. Then we had to go again. It was possibly just execution from the backs when we wanted to take the ball out wide – it’s definitely a work-on.

“We did exceptional work to maul, get us go-forward ... Pick-and-go’s, get them tight. Then actually our execution after that was lacking.”

Outside centre Henco van Wyk’s sensational try in the first half, where he stepped past five players and took two more defenders with him over the line, was the stand-out moment for the visitors. But now they have to quickly move on as they travel to Swansea to open their EPCR Challenge Cup campaign against the Ospreys on Sunday (5.15pm start).

The only injury concern is flyhalf Kade Wolhuter, who went off for an HIA in the 43rd minute and didn’t return to the pitch.