The final scoreline tells no lies but the feeling Munster were considerably closer to Leicester than the bald outcome suggests was reinforced by the Leicester director of rugby Richard Cockerill.

For sure, having won, he could afford to be generous but nevertheless, and with his customary blunt view of things, Cockerill supported Munster’s apparent intention to extend Anthony Foley’s stay as Munster head coach.

“Look, I thought Munster were really good today. Foley did a great job preparing them to come here and, if you look at the detail of the game, and don’t just look at the result, Munster were very good tonight and probably unlucky not to get more out of it.”

“Anthony Foley’s had a lot of stick, he’s a good coach, a Munster man – third generation as far as I’m led to believe – and he’s doing a hard, difficult job. We coaches stick together, because it’s difficult at times. Leicester are a good club, this puts us in a really good place now on 18 points with Treviso at home and Stade away. It puts up in a good position to qualify, we just have to do it now.”

Scores

Although Leicester scored two tries to nil at Welford Road yesterday, and three tries to two in winning 31-19 at Thomond Park eight days previously, Cockerill said: “That was harder, because they played really well and came really hard at us. We were probably a little bit off tonight from where we’d like our standards to be. We made hard work of it at times, but it’s a great win.”

“Munster were really good and that shouldn’t be unnoticed as well,” he added, returning to his earlier theme.

“Foley’s had a lot of stick, as a young coach. He’s a Munster man through and through, his team played bloody well there and people should recognise that and give him a bit of that support.”

Reflecting on the game, Cockerill said: “We were under pressure for large amounts and were probably a bit fortunate to get as big a win as we did. We knew Munster would come and throw everything at us and they did that.

“We played okay, scored a good try through the forwards and we were a little bit ill-disciplined in that first-half. We gave them too many easy outs out of their half when they were under pressure and the yellow card was cynical play and we deserved to be yellow carded. It cost us three points and the tide turned, the momentum went Munster’s way and we did well to tough it out.

“Three bits of defensive play saved the game for us, the attitude of our players was outstanding and they can take a lot of credit for that.”

Reaction

Told of Cockerill’s comments, Foley said: “I spoke to him before and he was talking about how he’s gone through this and it’s all about maintaining a level head, not to get too up or so down, but it’s hard. It’s hard at times, about looking at the game and seeing how are we going in the right direction, seeing are we improving and seeing if we can turn it.”

He expressed the hope the Munster supporters would stay with their team. “You take the scoreline out of it you’re seeing a team play with a lot of ambition, trying to do the right things but unfortunately getting turned over at times and not understanding the use of the ball. We’re not a million miles away, it’ll take a bounce of a ball to go our way, I thought it did tonight with the Frankie (Saili) break.

“I thought that was a massive shift in the game but it was like see-saw, it went our way, their way and then it didn’t come back to our way. It’s about making sure that when momentum goes our way that we’re more ruthless with it.”