The hosts needed a bonus point from the game to be sure of a home semi-final against Cork Constitution in Saturday’s semi-final.
However, they came up one try short and with Con sneaking ahead of them with a superior points scoring difference, it means Munsters must now travel to Temple Hill next weekend.
David Corkery, a great servant of Con during his own illustrious playing career, is currently coaching the Limerick side.
“You can’t dress it up, you can’t dress it down, it was extremely disappointing to get that close to a home semi-final”, he lamented.
“There’s so much belief in that side. “You had Marty Moore (international prop returning for Lansdowne after a long injury lay-off at the request of Ireland coach Joe Schmidt). That spurred the boys on. The guys in there are gutted, some have tears in their eyes.”
Considering Corkery’s commitment to Cork Con for so long, it might have been imagined he wouldn’t fancy the idea of leading a Limerick side against them on their home ground in such an important fixture. He dismissed such a suggestion.
“You could have said the same about the league game and we went down and we did our bit. Con made their decision last year when they didn’t keep me on but that has nothing to do with it whatsoever.
“This is Young Munster. You see the tears in their eyes in that dressing room and that means something. It’s something money can’t buy. As a player and as a coach, this has been one of the most enjoyable years of all. My only regret is that I can’t be out on the field with them.
“This club has won only one AIL title in more than 20 years (2003) and they’re better than that.
“Ultimately we are alive, we’re kicking and it’s going to take a good side to beat us. Con had better be prepared because we’re coming. We beat them by a point in the last minute of our two games so far so there’s no reason why we can’t do it again.”
Scorers for Young Munster:
Gearoid Lyons try, pen, 2 cons; Dan Goggin, Jack Harrington try each.
Scorers for Lansdowne:
Scott Deasy pen.
YOUNG MUNSTER:
C O’Hanlon; J Harrington, T Goggin, G Lyons, D O’Neill; R Guerin, A Griesel; D Begley, G Slattery, E Ryan, T Goggin, S Duggan, S Rennison, D Dee, B Kilkenny.
Rolling replacements:
P Meyer, B Betts, M Madden, A Ross, M Doyle.
LANSDOWNE:
I Fitzpatrick; E Quinn, M Roche, T Daly, F Gormley; S Deasy, M Darcy; I Prenderville, J McKenna, M Moore, J O’Rourke, P Donnellan, J Ryan, C Butterworth, M Deegan.
Rolling replacements:
T McElroy, J Barry, R Deacon, R O’Farrell, C Barden.
Referee:
F Murphy (IRFU).
[“source-ndtv”]
