What was once a fortress now has swinging saloon doors

MUNSTER… 17

BEYONNE… 17

If there were any positives, let’s get them out of the way first. Which, you suspect, is exactly what Graham Rowntree will be doing when the debrief begins. If he hasn’t got the paint stripper out already.

So here goes. Even though it was the French side who put the first points on the board, Munster did settle to the task quickly. The burgeoning Tom Ahern was the fulcrum of everything positive the reds did.

Their controlling of affairs at that early stage being endorsed by the fact that Shay McCarthy – on his European debut – and a rejuvenated Gavin Coombes crossed the whitewash as the locals opened up a lead of 14-3 for themselves.

They were lucky to have it though. Thomond Park has changed. As much as fans might will it to be otherwise. What was once a fortress now resembles a welcoming tavern with swinging saloon doors. Alas, there’s no pile of sawdust to signpost vehement defences mounted.

Truth be told, if it wasn’t for the wonderfully communicative referee Luke Pearce and his fellow officials, Munster could’ve been in the soup long before they did eventually end up being dunked.

What is most likely to enrage Rowntree the most is that their capitulation was almost entirely down to a breakdown in what have always been the most basic fundamentals of everything the province are. Dominance of the setpiece and an almost vice-like grip on possession.

Which has always been the basis for the often countless phases of pick-and-drive upon which so much of their success has been founded over the years.

Yet lately – and not just on Saturday evening – they struggled to hold their own in what has traditionally been their unquestioned fiefdom.

While it was all too easy to understand a frustrated Rowntree’s concession that “It feels like we lost that match”, they didn’t. Right so Jack Crowley had a chance to wrestle it back with the clock in the red, but, if you consider how ravaged they currently are with injuries, the amount of unforced errors and the disallowed try, they probably did well to emerge relatively unscathed.