David Corkery on rugby: Munster so far off level set by Leinster and France's best clubs it's shocking

Back to earth with a bang for Munster. 

This heavy defeat brings a very serious dose of reality.

For those who thought the glory days of Munster were returning, Saturday's trouncing at the hands of Bordeaux shows where they truly stand. Only now will New Zealander Clayton McMillan appreciate the size of the task that lies ahead when he takes over as head coach for next season.

Last week after Ian Costello’s men beat a very out-of-sorts La Rochelle, everyone hoped the tide was turning. Headlines reminded us of the great days when winning trophies seemed like a rite of passage. 

However, what transpired in France on Saturday evening fully exposed the gulf that truly exists between Munster and teams like Leinster, Bordeaux, Toulouse and Toulon.

ASTONISHING

Let me give you an example.

Last Friday evening Leinster played in their Champions Cup quarter-final against a full-strength Glasgow team who had beaten Munster in the URC. The result was an astonishing 52-0 massacre. A week earlier, Leo Cullen and his players were playing Harlequins where they posted another unbelievable score of 62-0.

We all know that Leinster have a squad that could easily compete in a Rugby World Cup and any one of their bench players would make the starting 15 with Munster, Ulster and Connacht. Yet when you go past the 112 points they accumulated, how could they keep two quality sides like Glasgow and Harlequins from scoring a single point in 160 minutes of rugby?

It just beggars belief.

I don’t know how many records they broke in these two outings but we'll be waiting a long time to see Munster get close to that or to having a third European Cup star embroidered onto their jersey.

For the second week in a row, Munster and their 16th man found themselves boarding a plane to France to chase silverware but this time it was a forgone conclusion after 30 minutes.

Yes, Munster rallied but at that stage their hosts had taken their foot completely off the gas and their thoughts had shifted towards their domestic league where they play Pau next week.

Unlike Ronan O’Gara’s charges who Munster squeezed by last week, Bordeaux have been riding on the crest of a wave. They are bursting with confidence and playing a brand of rugby that most sides will find very hard to dampen down.

From the off their ability to mix their powerful running game with some sublime and pin-point passing had Munster grasping at straws as they tried to repel their advancements.

Rampaging forwards like prop Ben Tameifuna and number eight Pete Samu intermingled their storming carries with some incredible passing skills.

DOMINANT

French international scrum-half and Bordeaux captain Maxime Lucu ran the show on the day and such was the dominance his forwards were affording him, the Munster backrow failed to get their hands on him for the entirety of the game.

If Munster were going to have had any hope of competing with their hosts, their set-pieces needed to be pin-point accurate and their unforced errors would have had to have been kept to a minimum. 

This is not what happened.

When called upon the Munster scrum was strong and reliable but the same cannot be said of their line-out which was embarrassing, to say the least, and it just baffles me as to how a collection of players with so much experience couldn’t fix it.

At this point, it would be wrong of me not to mention that this is set to be the last time we’ll ever see Peter O’Mahony and Conor Murray line out in the Champions Cup and it is just a shame that their last appearance will go down as a complete capitulation.

We will see this dynamic duo again in URC, but this is not how they would have wanted their European escapades to have ended.

The only positive I can offer from Saturday's loss is that there is always next year, but at this point, I’m becoming very sick of writing that.