Steve Tandy was left ruing a catalogue of unforced errors that prevented the Ospreys from creating any momentum as they went down to a heavy defeat at the hands of new PRO12 leaders Munster.
The 33-0 defeat at Cork’s Irish Independent Park means that Munster moved above the Ospreys to claim top spot in the Championship table, the recent run of four consecutive bonus point wins in the PRO12 and Europe coming to a shuddering halt.
Tandy met with the press in the aftermath of the loss, and he agreed with the suggestion it had been a disappointing evening for the Ospreys.
“I think that’s one word to sum it up, yes” said Tandy.
“We are bitterly disappointed with our performance tonight. Munster got what they thoroughly deserved, as did we.
“We had one opportunity just before half time that could have sent us in a bit closer, we put the ball up in the corner and didn’t take advantage of it at the lineout. I think going in at 14-5, or 14-7 could have put a different complexion on it, but was it a reflection on how the half had gone? I’m not sure.
“We lost the first four lineouts on the bounce. Perform like that and you will always struggle to win a game. We couldn't win a set piece. We couldn't get control of the ball but then in fairness, they picked out the back three and made life very difficult for us.
"We didn't collect any balls, we were second to any loose balls from the forwards which is unlike us so it was a disappointing night.
“Their first try came from us being up and around in their 22 and being turned over at the lineout, they’ve exited and then taken advantage at our end. We built a fair bit of pressure on ourselves. A team like Munster, when they start to get ball around your 22, they come away with points.
“It’s difficult to pick positives out of it. We are pretty raw at the moment and will need to look at this in detail to see where it went wrong but we were blown away in the opening quarter. We were able to steady it but never really built any kind of momentum. We never had any platform to create anything as anytime we got anywhere, we weren’t accurate. We put balls down, we made mistakes, errors of judgement and were punished.
“It wasn’t good enough, we know that, but we’ve got to react in the right way as it doesn’t get any easier in this competition with Glasgow in a few weeks. It’ll be this group of players again, and we’ll have to be a lot better if we don’t want to be feeling like this again.”
Tandy refused to point to the region’s hefty contribution to the international cause, with 12 players missing, saying that the Ospreys still had enough about them to have put in a stronger performance.
“Obviously it doesn’t help but that’s not the reason the scoreboard looked like it did tonight” he said.
“We had the same group of players last weekend and got a five try win over the Dragons so I can’t stand here and moan about boys missing with Wales.
“The group coming out here had belief, we felt it was strong enough to do a job tonight, to put a performance in regardless of the scoreboard. We definitely expected more than that, regardless of players missing.”
