Ian Costello hails 'outstanding' third quarter as Munster Rugby score bonus point win

MUNSTER Rugby interim head coach Ian Costello hailed the side's 'outstanding' third quarter display as the province took a firm grip on their URC fixture with the Scarlets at Thomond Park on Saturday night.

Munster, who led 7-3 at half-time in front of an attendance of 13,714, turned the game decisively in their favour in the third quarter scoring tries from Man of the Match Gavin Coombes and flanker Alex Kendellen. 

Munster interim head coach Ian Costello said: "The third quarter was outstanding. It was a mix of everything we tried to do – set-piece, kick-chase, tap-backs.

"I thought we were relentless in that period and that’s where we won the game.

"Sometimes the first half drains the tank as well. I looked at their [the Scarlets'] body language into the second half and even though we hadn’t scored at that point, you could see that the first half had taken a toll on them."

Costello believed the fact the side had not played a game for three weeks had contributed to their frustrating first half showing.

"We had 14 turnovers in the first half and there's two way of looking at that," Costello said.

"We were rusty – we hadn’t played in three weeks, you could probably see that, even though we trained really well.

"But we took a moment as coaches – we sort our messages before we go and speak to the players. Staying calm and staying positive was important, because we’d dominated possession and territory.

"It was one of those games you’d regret if you didn’t get the third quarter right, so we reinforced the positives. We said we need to look after the ball, probably move a little quicker, just be a bit smarter close to the line, rather than forcing the pass when we didn’t need to."