Devastated Munster men must pick themselves up

MUNSTER winger Johne Murphy is hoping he can provide a vital insight into what his team mates can expect when they face Premiership high-flyers London Irish in next Saturday’s mammoth Heineken Cup opening round clash at the Madejski Stadium (kick-off 5.45pm).
Johne Murphy has plenty of experience facing ‘Irish’ from his years playing cross-channel with the Leicester Tigers.


The Munster players must pick themselves up from the bitter disappointment of losing to Leinster for the fifth straight occasion in time for Saturday’s Heineken Cup opener.
Munster failed to score a try against Leinster for the fifth successive game as Joe Schmidt’s side secured a hard-earned 13-9 victory before 50,000 spectators at the new Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Saturday night.
Tony McGahan’s men do have the consolation, at least, of retaining top spot in the Magners League by virtue of the losing bonus point secured against their fiercest of rivals.
The twenty-five-year-old Munster winger Johne Murphy said he felt as disappointed as he ever felt after a game following Saturday night’s Magners League reverse in Dublin.
“This is as disappointed as I have been in my career.
“It is a rivalry which I think no one can really prepare you for.
“I am absolutely gutted,” Johne Murphy said.
“We had our opportunities to win the game.
“They got one opportunity and they took theirs.
“I suppose it was just the pressure building and building on each other which got them their try at the end.
“When we got into their green zone we didn’t build the same pressure which is something we have been trying to work on for the past couple of weeks.
“We will build on it hopefully for the Heineken Cup.
“We learned a lot tonight. What better way to prepare for the ERC games than with one of the biggest rivalries in Irish sport. We learned a lot about ourselves tonight.
“We will sit down now and look at what we need to do to go to London Irish.
“It is somewhere I am used to so hopefully I can help the guys build for next week and explain what it is going to be like on Saturday.”
Murphy is already looking forward to the opportunity to help Munster finally break their extended losing run against Leinster later in the season.
“We will have a chance to beat Leinster in the return game at Thomond Park later in the season.
“Hopefully, we can get this monkey off our back finally,” Johne Murphy said.
“The new Aviva stadium is fantastic. You play rugby for games like this.
“It was fantastic running out on the pitch. You get goose bumps walking around and when we ran out in the match it was a special moment.
“But that still doesn’t make up for the disappointment we have in the dressing room,” Johne Murphy told Leader Sport.
Munster will hope to have the injured duo of Jerry Flannery and Keith Earls back in contention for selection for the upcoming Heineken Cup group games against London Irish and big-spending Toulon.
Meanwhile on the club front Young Munster celebrated their return to the top flight of the AIL with a deserved victory over city rivals Garryowen at Dooradoyle.
Shannon had to make do with a losing bonus point from their clash with Dolphin.
In Division 1B there were opening weekend defeats for both UL-Bohemian and Bruff while in Division 2 Old Crescent recorded an encouraging home win over Clonakilty while Thomond succumbed to Belfast Harlequins at Deramore Park.

COLM KINSELLA