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'Bizarre end to the game': Castres flyhalf's puzzling decision
By Sam Smith
Munster's 19-13 win over the visiting Castres side on a weekend where many European games involving French teams were postponed ended in bizarre fashion when Castres flyhalf decided to end it.
Still within touching distance of the home side at six points adrift, Castres had possession around halfway and ball-in-hand to potentially play for the win. Instead, flyhalf Benjamin Urdapilleta decided to hoof the ball into touch from the base of the ruck and secure the loss.
His decision was met with confusion and disbelief, as fans questioned why the side didn't play for the win.
The match was a forgettable affair as both sides really failed to get going. Munster fans were unhappy with the performance despite being happy with the overall result, but theorised a better opponent may have embarrassed their side.
Munster built a 9-3 lead on the back of three first-half penalties before a try to Jack O'Donoghue opened up the game in Munster's favour to 16-3. The two sides traded penalties before a late Castres try with four minutes remaining gave the visitors a chance.
But Urdapilleta was happy to take a losing bonus point instead of trying for the win.
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Latest Comments
If Pollock is in the squad, who gets left out?
"I think the Eddie Jones style development player approach is whats called for"
(i) Why?
(ii) The churn of players under Eddie Jones was generally considered to be quite a bad thing. Do you want Guy Pepper, Ted Hill, Ben Curry, etc. to give up and go to France like Marchant did?
(iii) England already have a really young squad, and especially a young back row. If they do badly in the six nations Borthwick will probably lose his job, so shouldn't they prioritise winning in the short term and developing the players already in the squad, rather than bringing in newer, younger, guys?
(iv) England have a development tour in June. If you really want Pollock to be in the squad prior to graduating the u20s, why not wait until the summer?
Go to commentsWhen England's defence was able to get into shape it could be dominant though (especially in the game against NZ). Is the number of tackles really the main issue?
I get that making loads of tackles is tiring, but so is building multi-phase attacks. I'm just worried England would get tired out from attacking, then struggle to get set when they're subjected to counter attacks.
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