Munster Rugby's Champions Cup dreams shattered as Castres storm Thomond Park

MUNSTER Rugby's Investect Champions Cup dreams were shattered at Thomond Park on Saturday evening as French Top 14 side secured a dramatic 31-29 victory in front of an official attendance of 20,043.

It was the first time in nine attempts that Castres had won in Limerick, but they were good value for this success in this the 20th meeting between the sides in Europe.

It is the first time since 2020 that two-time winners Munster have missed out on the knock-out stages of Europe's premier clubb rugby competition.

Munster, who trailed 12-17 at half-time, outscored their visitors by five tries to four. Scrum-half Craig Casey, who was an injry doubt earlier in the week due to a shoulder injury, grabbed a brace as did back-row Edwin Edogbo, while winger Thaakir Abrahams also dotted down.

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The French side had tries through Vuate Karawalevu, Theo Chabouni, Geoffrey Palis and Christian Ambadiang.

Jeremy Fernandez and Enzo Herve executed four conversions between them for the visitors, while Jack Crowley landed two for Munster. 

Castres progress to the knock-out stages of the competition after their second win of the campaign.

Munster lost three of their four pool fixtures in this season's Champions Cup, while the province has now lost their last four fixtures in all competitions.

In each of Munster’s three Champions Cup pool defeats, poor discipline was a factor in the losses. Against Bath and Toulon they were punished with multiple tries while captain Tadhg Beirne was in the sin-bin, and both of Castres’ second half scores on Saturday evening came during Tom Farrell’s yellow card.

While Munster have missed out on a place in the last 16 stage of the Champions Cup, the province will drop down to the Challenge Cup following Gloucester's defeat to Toulon at Kingsholm later on Saturday evening.

Munster will face a last 16 fixture in that competition on the weekend of April 3-5.

Following Saturday night's game, Munster Rugby head coach Clayton McMillan said the side's tendency to cough up points quickly after scoring was one of the most frustrating aspects of their Thomond Park defeat.

McMillan said: “The big disappointment for me and the worrying trend I guess is that we work really hard to score some points, but we give up points very quickly after scoring.

“We don't make it hard for opposition to have to come back and get points, and that's the one worrying trend for me over the last three or four weeks.”

New Zealander McMillan admitted Munster had come up short in a number of aspects of their play against Castres.
“There wasn't any one thing in particular (that contributed to Munster's defeat)

“I think we missed a couple of kicks at goal. We fell off a few tackles. We created a few opportunities and didn't quite nail them. Missed a couple of line-outs.

“It's the accumulation of all the little things that make all the difference in the end. They hurt us.

“You win the game and they don't seem as important as when you lose, but that's the margins at this level if the game and games that have a lot riding on them. It's being on the right side of those moments. They had a few more than us.”

Munster captain Tadhg Beirne agreed that the side had contributed significantly to their own downfall on Saturday evening.

“I felt like when we went ahead we were good, and then we just lost our way briefly,” Ireland star Beirne said.

“We probably dug ourselves into a little hole for playing in our half a little bit at the point, but that had been working for us in the game so it's hard to go back and say we shouldn't have done that.

“We weren't switched on and we weren't good enough in those moments and they were able to exert more pressure onto us and capitalised on it.

“I think we'll be disappointed with our first half performance, defensively, for sure. We fell off too many tackles and just left them into the game that way, and then obviously a few penalties as well.”

MUNSTER RUGBY: Shane Daly; Thaakir Abrahams, Tom Farrell, Alex Nankivell, Ben O'Connor; Jack Crowley, Craig Casey; Jeremy Loughman, Niall Scannell, Michael Ala’alatoa; Jean Kleyn, Fineen Wycherley; Tadhg Beirne (capt), Jack O’Donoghue, Gavin Coombes. Replacements: Liam Barron for Scannell, Edwin Edogbo for Kleyn, Brian Gleeson for O’Donoghue (all 49 mins), Oli Jager for Ala’alatoa, Michael Milne for Loughman, JJ Hanrahan for O’Connor (both 56 mins), Dan Kelly for Nankivell (60 mins).

CASTRES OLYMPIQUE: Theo Chabouni; Christian Ambadiang, Vuate Karawalevu, Jack Goodhue, Geoffrey Palis; Pierre Popelin, Jeremy Fernandez; Atunaisa Sokobale, Loris Zarantonello, Will Collier; Gauthier Maravat, Tom Staniforth; Baptiste Delaporte (capt), Baptiste Cope, Florent Vanverberghe. Replacements: Atu Manu for Ambadiang (16-28 mins), Aurelien Azar for Collier (40 mins), Antoine Tichit for Sokobale, Santigo Arata Perrone for Fernandez, Enzo Herve for Popelin (all 47 mins), Teddy Durand-Pradere for Zarantonello (56 mins), Tyler Ardron for Cope (57 mins), Atu Manu for Karawalevu (68 mins).

REFEREE: Matthew Carley (RFU)