Saracens will again be the only English club in the quarter-finals of the European Champions Cup after Exeter lost narrowly in a gruelling match at Thomond Park. The Chiefs did not just have to win to top the group and progress but deny Munster a bonus point. It was mission improbable but 14 minutes from time they got their chance.
Three times in the first half they had turned down the opportunity to kick for goal to secure a lineout in Munster’s 22, their habit in the Premiership. They scored a try on the first occasion, 11 minutes in, when their driving maul was held up just short of the line and Don Armand forced his way over.
The other two were repelled but when Nic White’s long, rolling kick into Munster’s 22 in the final quarter gave the Chiefs a foothold, they looked to seize the moment. Within a minute they were awarded a penalty, which they used to secure a lineout five metres out. There is no better team in Europe at turning that position into a try.
Exeter were leading 7-6. A converted try would have stripped Munster of their bonus point and the home side went into the set piece without one of their jumpers when Tadhg Beirne, whose immovable presence at the breakdown had been a major reason why the Chiefs were not further ahead, admitted defeat to a knee injury and went off.
On came Billy Holland, a Munster stalwart with 12 years of service. He and his fellow forwards knew that Luke Cowan-Dickie, who nine minutes earlier had replaced Jack Yeandle at hooker, was unlikely to throw short because it would have made the maul easier to defend.
The ball duly went to the middle and up soared Holland, taking the ball in two hands. Exeter in their desperation conceded a penalty and they slowly deflated. Four minutes later, Joey Carbery kicked his third penalty of the evening to leave the Chiefs needing to score 10 points in a fixture that this season had yielded 36 in two matches. It may as well have been 100.
They had given it everything and barely allowed Munster an opening but it was an evening when European experience prevailed. It was the home side’s 177th match in the Champions Cup and Exeter’s 37th. Even when they had been largely outplayed – though not outfought – Munster had the knowhow to hang tight and ride the storm.
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After some of the frolics earlier in the day, this was rugby in the raw. From the outset it was an unremitting contest for possession in the air and on the ground. The counter-rucking was fierce, no one was given any time on the ball and there would have been more space if both teams had been locked in a broom cupboard.
It was a match largely played between the 22s. Munster scented the Exeter line only once, on the hour when Connor Murray, whose box-kicks were unerringly accurate, hanging in the air as if suspended for a few seconds, and they were held up just short and dispossessed. Otherwise they ran into what Carbery later described as a brick wall: never mind the quality, feel the hits.
Carbery gave Munster an early lead with a penalty but Armand’s try put Exeter in control. Exeter went into the interval a point ahead with Carbery’s second penalty eight minutes before the break reducing the deficit. The pace barely dropped in the second period with the lure of the quarter-finals driving both teams. Munster had the crowd and history behind them and the Chiefs needed a moment of inspiration. On the most frenzied of nights it did not come.
“I am hugely proud of the players,” said the Exeter head coach, Rob Baxter. “Most teams who come here do not get close to Munster but we did – without quite doing enough to win a game that could have gone either way. I am excited about next year in Europe already. We are very close and it is about how we move forward.”
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