Our rugby analyst, Mike O’Halloran, believes Munster can overcome Clermont Auvergne in France next weekend…
Munster were bullied into submission by Clermont Auvergne last Saturday evening in Thomond Park, when they surrendered their impressive record of beating French opposition 23 times in Limerick.
Munster travel to France on Sunday for “the second half” as captain Peter O Mahony puts it.
Munster always travel in hope, but is that hope real or are we Munster fans living in the past? Perhaps some of the match facts from the European Champions Cup might clear the air a bit.
Munster have been beaten four times by Clermont. Seru Nakaitaci has the most clean breaks in the competition so far with five. Nick Abenanon is second in the table of most defenders beaten.
Lopez and Lee are ninth in the table with most off loads, six each. Lopez has the most try assists with three, with teammate Fritz Lee with two. Lee has the seventh highest tackle count in the competition with 34.
Camille is third on the most points scored table with 34, Keatley is in eighth position with 30.
As for tries scored, Naipolioni Nalaga has two as has Zac Guilford both in joint third in that table.
A fairly impressive list you have to agree, but what of Munster?
Well Munster have had four separate point scorers, Keatley 30, Kilcoyne 10, Conor Murray 5, Andrew Conway 5. Clermont have only three different point scorers in Lopez 34, Nalaga 10 and Zac Guilford 10.
Dave Foley is ahead of the Clermont forwards in line outs won, he comes third in the table with 16. CJ Stander leads the table of most carries with 51. Nick Aberdanon has gained most meters with 265, to C J Standers 172. Simon Zebo made the most metres last Saturday night clocking up 81.
Given all the above, does Munster have any hope in France given that Clermont haven’t been beaten there in 20 matches?
To win a number of things need to happen; Munster need to manage their maul more efficiently, O’Connell needs to get to grips with Chouly, Keatley needs to be more accurate with his kicking from the hand and off the tee, an overall success rate of just over sixty percent will not do.
They need to create more line breaks and cut out the numerous handling errors.
Can they do it? Of course they can.
Clermont Auvergne V Munster Rugby is on this Sunday at 3.15pm.
