David Corkery on Munster rugby: Tadhg Beirne must avoid sin-bin but Ben O'Connor's improving with every game

Not having lost at home this season, Toulon were strong favourites against Munster on Sunday.

You don’t convincingly dispatch the likes of Bath, Racing 92 and La Rochelle without being dominant in your own back garden.

Thankfully, the rebellious Munster we all love was present and they didn’t lie down and have their bellies tickled as they did against Ulster. Ultimately, the home side were better armed to turn possession and territory into points and deserved the win.

Munster were focused on the very fundamentals of the game, that allow wingers to score tries and midfielders to make line-breaks. 

Without the ball, there is very little point in even turning up and Munster had to sort out their many issues at the scrum and in the line-out.

The ammunition the line-out produced here wasn’t exactly brilliant but the scrum was solid and gave Craig Casey a very clean supply to work with. If this is something that the Munster pack can reproduce from here they'll improve across the season. With a strong scrum, Munster would be better off picking daisies rather than trying to win a game of rugby.

The other area that Munster clearly worked on was the pressure they were going to exert at the breakdown.

Toulon are a side that, if they boss the breakdown will carve you up in the wider channels of the field. However, Munster sacrificed one or two more bodies when contesting for the ball, thus putting pressure on Toulon scrum-half Ben White.

Munster would have known that referee Karl Dickson looks for a game to flow so when White found himself having to dig for the ball or rush his pass, it put Toulon’s back division in uncharted waters.

Both Edwin Edogbo and Tadhg Beirne certainly earned their wages when it came to slowing down the hosts' possession but, after that, neither set the world alight with their overall performances.

Leading 6-0 in the 38th minute after some very industrious work by Munster, Beirne received a yellow card for what I would call a completely unnecessary infringement. It was during this 10-minute period that Toulon crossed the Munster whitewash on two occasions.

While Beirne is a world-class operator, he is no stranger to finding himself sitting in the sin bin. 

This is doing no good whatsoever when it comes to aiding his team's overall outcome.

In the modern game, it is non-negotiable that when teams enter the opposition scoring zone, they must leave with something tangible on the board. When you are underdogs as Munster were for this game, it would have been imperative that they drained every last drop of advantage that was on offer when they found themselves within sniffing distance of Toulon’s try line.

In the first half, I found it very strange that Beirne twice opted for the points rather than trusting in his pack's ability by sticking the ball in the corner and going for a try over a penalty. Fortune favours the brave and I do believe this was a game where Munster needed to roll the dice and take their chances.

STANDOUT

Alex Nankivell was once again Munster’s best player on the park, but Shane Daly and Calvin Nash also had some great moments.

Ben O’Connor’s status as a first-team player is gaining much momentum with every minute he plays, but up front, Munster are still missing the kind of impact that a great backrow combination can offer.

Gavin Coombes might have a great try-scoring record, but there is so much more needed from him if he is ever going to progress to the next level. A man of his size should be smashing players in the tackle and leaving a wake of destruction when carrying the ball. 

I don’t think his name was even mentioned during this game until he was substituted for Brian Gleeson.

A bonus-point win over Castres Olympique next week in Limerick will see Munster through to the next round, but I can tell you now that they are light years away from winning this tournament.