Ian Costello, left, and Peter O’Mahony after Munster’s Champions Cup quarter-final defeat to Bordeaux Begles. Photo: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
As the dust settles on Munster’s Champions Cup campaign, the reality is that a quarter-final exit to one of the best teams in France is probably a fair reflection of where this team currently stand.
Sure, they will have major regrets for the manner in which they fell 29-3 behind to a Bordeaux side who weren’t about to repeat last year’s shock slip-up to Harlequins at the same stage of the tournament. Yet when Munster look back on their campaign as a whole, they will perhaps feel that the damage was done in the pool stages, when they lost two of their four games.