‘I think Clermont were the problem on Saturday night,’ remarks Peter O’Mahony when Test match fatigue is proffered as a Munster excuse
The Munster captain admitted, in the immediate moments after his side were beaten by Clermont, that his team were bullied. Reflecting, a few days later, on the 16-9 reversal at Thomond Park, O’Mahony’s opinion has not deviated.
‘It is only half-time,’ he says, ‘that is the beauty of having these back-to-back games and we can put it right. We came up against an excellent side last weekend. We knew it was going to be tough, and we knew from the day the pool was drawn that it would be tough.
‘I thought Clermont played well but I thought we could have a done a lot of things better. But we have to go and dominate them physically. We were bullied at times which is not something that normally happens at home.’
The captain mirrored comments made by team-mate Conor Murray as he spoke about tweaks and not reinventing wheels in France. Asked to pinpoint those tweaks, he mentioned breakdown improvements and line-out moves that could be labelled as cute hoorism but by no means illegal. Of course.
Asked about his dust-up, early in the match, against the excellent Fritz Lee, O’Mahony called it ‘a non-event’. He remarked, ‘These things happen… I think there was about 12 punches thrown and there wasn’t one landed.’ The Clermont No.8 landed heavier blows on the scoreboard as he nabbed an early try and teed up Wesley Fofana for his score:
Clermont have a home record that would make a travelling supporter reconsider setting foot outside their front door. Two defeats in 84 home matches (all competitions) and 20 consecutive European Cup victories at HQ. Sprinkle that the fact that Clermont have won all five meetings at Stade Marcel Michelin against Irish opposition and you have a recipe for disaster.
O’Mahony, however, is heartened by Clermont’s two defeats in three games at the end of last season (Castres) and the start of this (Montpellier).
He declares, ‘They’re always good at home and the times they’ve been beaten, it’s through taking them on with a performance. We’re under no illusions that we’re going to have to put in a serious performance to beat them over there.’
Hat-tip to Word in Sport
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