Munster Rugby coach Graham Rowntree: "It got a bit squeaky towards the end but we found a way to win"

MUNSTER Rugby head coach Graham Rowntree says next Sunday's Investec Champions Cup last 16 meeting with Premiership pace-setters Northampton Saints is a 'pivotal game' in their season.

URC holders Munster warmed up for their trip to Franklin's Gardens (12.30pm kick-off) with a hard fought 20-15 victory over Cardiff Rugby in the United Rugby Championship at Thomond Park on Saturday evening.

The victory sees Munster sit in fourth place in the URC table with now just five games to go in the regular season.

Rowntree was pleased his side had found a way to defeat the Welsh region although he admitted that the home side struggled to get their game going, their cause not helped by a high error count. It was Munster's fourth win on the bounce in the URC.

Rowntree said: “Do you know what, it happens. We’ll get on with it. We spoke about it at half-time.

“We couldn’t get our game going, it’s not like us, we were making mistakes and errors that weren’t like us and in the end we found a way to win the game. It got a bit squeaky towards the end but we found a way to win.

“We won’t over-analyse it, it was just some glaring mistakes we don’t normally make. At half time it felt like we’d taken 50 (points) for the guys because we couldn’t get our game going, we hadn’t scored a try.

“I told the lads I played loads of games like that in my career, dogfights where all that matters is getting the result. We’ll have a look at what we can do better but I’m not going to get hung up on it too much.

“We’ll look forward to next week to a pivotal game for us.”

Rowntree agreed that Munster will take positives from managing to secure a precious win on Saturday night in the circumstances. 

“It takes nous, it takes guts. Our goal-line defence at the end there. Obviously the intercept was a bit of a turning point for them, then we had the yellow card and they maul us. That changes the context of the game but after that we found a way back in through our defence," he added.