David Corkery on rugby: Munster need much more from Jack Crowley and Tadhg Beirne

As games of rugby go, this was as ugly as it gets and for Munster, the cracks that have haunted them for many years are starting to look like gaping valleys.

Predicting champions in any sport is not an easy task but I'd be fairly happy to suggest that Munster and Castres aren't going to come within an arses roar of winning this season's Champions Cup.

From the off, both played as if they had just gathered in the car park a few hours before the kick-off. Shocking passing, very poor kicking, lack of cohesion between backs and forwards, terrible leadership and absolute zero inventiveness.

There is an old saying in rugby that if you want to play an expansive game you must first earn the right to do so. Ultimately what this means is that unless you have players with the finishing capabilities as Bryan Habana or Jonah Lomu, you must be prepared to roll up your sleeves and do some donkey work before you even think about feeding your wingers.

There were long and laborious passages where it looked as if both sides had no idea that in order to win they had to go forward with the ball.

Without even attempting to find a way of outsmarting or even running over the man who stood in front of the ball carrier, the first option was to pass the ball to the man next in the line. The ball went from one wing to the other and back again until someone eventually got fed up and decided to kick the damn thing, thus giving away possession.

Both sets of backs positioned themselves so far behind the play it would have been almost impossible to break the all-important gain line, especially with how quickly both defensive lines were advancing.

SHODDY

Jack Crowley, who I'm a big fan of, probably had one of his shoddiest showings yet and with the Six Nations looming, now is not a good time to offer up a 2/10 performance.

Perhaps Crowley is thinking too much about the challenge that Leinster’s Sam Prendergast is establishing. 

Whatever it is he needs to very quickly eradicate the mistakes he is making.

The first thing Crowley should do when the team gathers in Limerick for their debriefing is marshal all his forwards together in one room and give them a bollocking of biblical proportions.

Apart from John Hodnett and Dave Kilcoyne, who had to play 60 minutes, in his first game back in nearly a year, all the rest need to be told in no uncertain terms that their performances were nowhere good enough to even compete at this level.

If Munster’s opponents had been Toulouse, it would have been a foregone conclusion after 20 minutes.

Irrespective of how good Crowley can be when he is firing on all cylinders unless the eight men in front of him can supply a respectable amount of ball while dominating their opposing numbers, he will never be able to guide them out of trouble.

For me, Crowley is still Ireland’s number one fly-half and as all greats do, he will take the learnings from this defeat and turn them into valuable lessons that no training field practices could ever afford him.

FLAT

Another area of Munster’s performance that fell flat on the night was leadership. It is starting to look like awarding Tadhg Beirne the captain's armband was the wrong decision.

I have no idea of what Beirne is like in the dressing room or on the training paddock but ever since he accepted the job his performance has dropped a good 20%.

There are also pivotal times in games where the man looks very unsure as to what decision he should be opting for. The last thing the players who play under his wing want to see is uncertainty or hesitation in his decision-making.

Captains can only become great leaders if they lead from the front and make unwavering calls as to what they want their players to do next.

Munster’s next four games are against Ulster (A), Leinster (H) Saracens (H) and Northampton (A). And with the injury list they compiled in this game and the quality within these sides, their season could well be over at the end of this run.

Apart from Ulster, would you put your last euro on them winning any of the other three?