Ryan: Munster win built on defence, scrum and maul

Munster tighthead John Ryan felt that Toulouse were a threat right to the close of their Champions Cup quarter-final tie, until the Irish province pulled away in the final few minutes.

Ryan and Co were just 27-16 to the good with five minutes remaining but late tries from Darren Sweetnam and Andrew Conway saw Munster move clear to secure a 41-16 victory and book their last-four spot against the winner of Sunday’s clash between Glasgow and Saracens. 

Man of the match Ryan scored the first of Munster’s four tries in a performance that he said was built on the foundation of a solid defence. 

“The floodgates opened in the last ten minutes. The scoreline was pretty flattering for us, but we’re delighted to be in the semi-final,” said Ryan. 

“They were a threat for the entire game. They had the chip threat and the hard yards they were making. But credit to the lads we made the hits and it was a brilliant defensive effort from us.” 

Ryan also credited his team’s scrum and maul as pivotal to the victory at Thomond Park. 

“They made a statement by coming over with a six-two forward split in the subs and I thought we handled it well. We got dominance in the scrum and in the maul as well,” said Ryan. 

The win means that Munster will contest their 12^th European Cup semi-final in 21 years, a feat that looked unlikely when Munster were billed as the weakest side in a pool that contained the defending Champions Cup and Top 14 champions Racing Metro, as well as defending Pro12 champions Glasgow and English juggernauts Leicester. However, a table-topping pool campaign, followed by today’s victory over Toulouse has defied all the odds, an achievement Ryan revealed the Munster squad always felt was possible. 

“We’ve worked really hard on it. It’s something we believed we’d get to ourselves,” said Ryan. “Not many people gave us a chance but we really backed ourselves to do well in Europe and the league. You might say we’re a small bit surprised but we backed ourselves.”