Waking up this morning, the Munster players will probably be wondering how they are sitting there having failed to win any of their two opening pool matches in this year's Champions Cup.
Graham Rowntree's men looked to be in strong positions in the games against both Bayonne and and Exeter, only to fail to capitalise on either occasion. The game against the French club at Thomond Park would ultimately finish in a draw, while they would lose by eight points against the Chiefs yesterday despite leading by 11 points at one stage in the second half.
All of that leaves them in a precarious position in their Champions Cup group, with games against Toulon and Northampton still to come.
In saying that, some in Munster feel a big decision went against them at a key stage in Sunday's fixture.
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Tadhg Beirne questions try given against Munster in Exeter loss
While they may have led by 11 points midway through the second half, Munster would find themselves three points behind in the final few moments of the game.
They would be given an opportunity to find a winning or equalising score during this period, although their last gasp attack was ultimately ended by an intercept try from Henry Slade.
WOW 😍
Henry Slade seals the win and the bonus point for @ExeterChiefs at Sandy Park.
How good has he been this #InvestecChampionsCup so far?#EXEvMUN pic.twitter.com/vEablq5AVK— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) December 17, 2023
Referee Mathieu Raynal and his officiating team would review the incident afterwards, with questions about whether Slade was offside before intercepting Conor Murray's pass. In the end, they decided the try should stand.
This was a key moment. Not only did it stop Munster from continuing their search for another score, but it also meant that they would not get at least a losing bonus point for their efforts.
While Slade did look as though he was onside, there were two trailing runners who clearly blocked Murray's passing angle. Speaking after the game, Munster captain at the time Tadhg Beirne said he made his case to the referee that this should have meant the try was disallowed (h/t Irish Independent).
I think there were two or three lazy runners, even himself (Raynal) is probably in the way of the pass.
If ‘Mur’ decides to throw the ball at one of them, it’s a penalty all day. We’re trying to play there and they’re in the way of us hitting the ‘10’, and he tries to throw it to the second man and they intercept it.
But they’re in the way of the pass in the first place. To me, it’s offside, but he felt they weren’t in the way and they weren’t offside so that was the decision made.
We’ve said it a few times. We were already losing the game at that point and we could have put the game to bed a lot earlier, so we’re not going to blame a referee.
Whether we agree with him or not that was his decision. We had ample opportunities before that to put ourselves in a better position...
I was just questioning his decision. He said he (Slade) wasn’t offside and I was like: ‘That’s fine, if Slade wasn’t offside, I was questioning the other three players that were coming back that were in the way of the pass.
He just said that he’d made his decision and I asked him to have another look at it because it was a big moment in our competition.
We felt that we needed to win this if we wanted to have an opportunity of topping or even coming second in the group, and now we’re in a position where we’ll be fighting for the top four.
It is likely that Munster would have lost this game in any case, although the losing bonus point could prove to be crucial come the end of the group.
In order to ensure that this is not the case, they will now have to go and win their final two group games.
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