THOSE lucky enough to have been among the 26,267 attendance at a buzzing Thomond Park this past Saturday were served up a thriller between Munster and an All Blacks XV.
Yes, the tourists came through 38-24, but the full-time scoreline doesn’t justify the heroics of a side under interim coach Ian Costello.
Munster were within a couple of points of their vaunted opponents but two late breakaway tries gave Clayton McMillan’s outfit a flattering win.
It was an outing in which buoyed-up Munster had tries through Mike Haley, a penalty try, John Hodnett and Tom Farrell.
While obviously gutted with the loss, Costello was pleased with the Munster performance.
“It’s really strange because we’re gutted. At 76 minutes it was right there for us to make history, but it’s hard to stay gutted for long when you get a performance like that,” Costello told the media afterwards.
“It was an incredible occasion. We had prepared for it, we talked about it, you think you know what to expect and then you come to a full Thomond Park and give the crowd something to identify with like that and get involved in. It was incredible.”
He added: “There was a lot to build on, and there were six academy lads out there as well, four of them in a pack at the end winning a scrum. That’s a nice little taste of the future hopefully.”
“What an occasion to be part of, the crowd was incredible and like Cossy (Costello) said, we gave them something to get behind. We have to be aware of that too,” commented home captain Diarmuid Barron.
“There was a lot of good, but a bit to work on as well.”
