Skipper Alun Wyn Jones put in a try-scoring man-of-the-match performance in defeat at the Liberty Stadium, but was in no mood to celebrate after Munster spoil the evening with a late, late win.
A frustrated Jones met with the assembled press minutes after the final whistle, where he spoke about his disappointment after his team lost out to Munster following Ronan O’Gara’s winning penalty with the last kick of the game. He said:
“It’s a frustrating game, particularly when you have some decisions out there that you don’t understand, but it’s the same for all the sides in the competition. Ultimately though, there are no excuses from us.
“There have been too many occasions throughout the season where we haven’t been good enough, although today I thought we were good enough to win that game, but Munster pipped us at the end.
“It was swinging both ways but we’ve played them enough these season to know it was going to be like that.
“You usually get a feel for the scrum in the first twenty and it pretty much went our way. We had the penalty try, but there were a few decisions where we were penalised for our binding even though we were going forward. Things like that we’ve got to look at but on the whole I thought the scrum was positive.
“I was disappointed with our lineout and lineout defence early on but we were in it for the full 80, regardless.
“There have been plenty of games this year where we weren’t good enough but tonight we were and it’s disappointing to lose in the manner we did. The last quarter of the season has been frustrating. We should have finished here for the season on a high today, but the last kick, the last three decisions even, they were 50/50 calls essentially and unfortunately, they didn’t go our way and I think the game pretty much summed up where we’ve been in recent weeks.
“It’s a very disappointed dressing room and there’ll be lot of thinking, a lot of realisation no doubt. We are where we are for a reason, because too often this season we haven’t been good enough and that has to change.
“We are very ambitious, we want to do well and there are plans to really allow us to do that as a group, but ultimately, if we don’t perform as a team to the highest standard, as has happened too often this season, then it doesn’t matter what is being done to move us on to the next level. We have to take responsibility and make sure we move on from this feeling.”