Munster boss Graham Rowntree couldn’t hide his delight after his team sealed their first away victory since he took over the coaching reins at the start of the season.
The Irish province’s 38-17 triumph over Edinburgh at the Dam Health Stadium came after they had previously lost at Cardiff, Dragons, Connacht and Leinster and sets them up nicely for next Sunday’s Champions Cup clash with Toulouse at Thomond Park.
Third successive victory
After a slow start to their United Rugby Championship campaign, which began with those back-to-back losses against Cardiff and the Dragons, confidence is growing in Munster’s ranks and they are currently on a three-match winning streak after also beating South Africa ‘A’ and Connacht in recent weeks.
What made Rowntree happy in Friday’s win over Edinburgh is the way they achieved their goal as they outscored their hosts by five tries to three.
“We gave them some freebies early on,” he told reporters. “We had spoken about how dangerous they were in attack but we were falling off tackles, threw an intercept and gave them access to our 22 with a poor penalty.
“We scored some good tries before half time, including a crucial one just before the break, because we hadn’t had a lot of territory up to then. The half time talk was all about being patient and sticking to the plan. The message was to keep the ball and be a bit more direct.”
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That tactic worked and after trailing by 12 points at one stage Munster fought back during the opening half and were only three points in arrears at half-time.
They took control of proceedings after the interval and were rewarded with three further tries, while keeping their hosts scoreless, and were deserved winners in the end.
The victory will boost Munster’s morale ahead of their clash with Toulouse before they head to Northampton for their next Champions Cup encounter.
“The next two games see us go into Europe, which has always been special for the club,” Rowntree added. “It is important that with all the lads back from the Autumn Internationals and a few lads back from injury, our league form had to be better in these last two games. With that in mind I am delighted with the last two weeks.”
When asked if this Munster’s rebirth after rebuilding earlier in the season, Rowntree replied: “I hope so. There is a great balance to our game, we have worked very hard on that.
Full of belief
“There have been a lot of moving parts – we have used 56 players for one reason or another but, as I constantly say to the lads, I have full belief in what we are doing.
“Even in those games we were not winning, we were showing signs of what is going to come. Now we are heading into a special week, a European week, a top French team at Thomond Park, we can’t wait.”