Munster have come under pressure in the Heineken Cup and Magners League but remain a force
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Writing in the Irish Independent David Kelly delivers his verdict on the fall out from Munster's Magners League win over Connacht.
"Crisis? What crisis? Munster ease seven points clear in the Magners League after beating Connacht but still the microscopic lights arrow in with all the intensity of a police grilling.
"A crisis!" laughed Tony McGahan, presumably still privately seething at the outbreak of farce that attached itself to his players' Christmas festivities with the worst possible timing.
It is clear that a defeat in Galway would have heaped more pressure on the coaching staff. "Look," said McGahan when asked whether the media coverage of his side's partying was the best preparation for this encounter, "we came back off a defeat against the Ospreys, so it was really important we got a result against a side who've proved very difficult in all the derby matches. That was our priority."
Yet still Munster came under the spotlight for their alleged gamesmanship during the final scrums when Connacht sensed a penalty try against a back-pedalling scrum; a canny substitution as a battalion of Munster backroom staff hurried to the scene left Connacht coach Eric Elwood in little doubt that shenanigans were afoot.
McGahan protested his innocence when he twice offered to display the hapless Dave Ryan's injury for all to see. It all smacks of a team under pressure, compounded by Alan Quinlannow joining back-rowers Peter O'Mahony and James Coughlan on the injury list as a crucial January hovers into view.
But then, the beginning of the new year is the business end for hardened outfits like Munster; soon, their dithery December may seem like a distant memory should they negotiate a safe passage to the Heineken Cup quarter-finals for a 13th successive season."
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