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Keith Wood picks out key reasons for Munster falling short in Pro 12 final

Former Ireland captain Keith Wood feels Munster's confidence had taken a knock prior to their Gui...



Keith Wood picks out key reaso...
Rugby

Keith Wood picks out key reasons for Munster falling short in Pro 12 final

Former Ireland captain Keith Wood feels Munster's confidence had taken a knock prior to their Guinness Pro 12 final defeat to Scarlets. 

Munster were comprehensively beaten in Saturday's final and speaking to Off The Ball on Wednesday night rugby, Wood highlighted the issues he saw.

"It was very poor," he said of the Munster performance.

"I do believe some of the players' confidence was shocked after their match against Saracens and I don't know that they fully recovered it. I don't think that Ospreys put up a stern enough approach to really test that level of confidence, so I think some guys struggled with that.

"I thought our trio of Lions were well below par. I think CJ [Stander] has suffered a lot since the injury and I think he's suffering from having a very, very long season and was heavily marked.

"So with him not getting over the gain-line as usual, there wasn't enough space further out and there were a couple of really bad stats in it. The Munster forwards didn't pass the ball at all in the first half and that's frightening and I think defensively we were at sea. I've said it on numerous occasions. I like Saili in terms of his ability to break tackles. I don't like him defensively and I think he rushed out of the line at the start and caused a lot of doubt and then the next play immediately afterwards, he stayed back in the line and the rest of the players rushed up, expecting him to rush up and you need a bit of uncertainty in defence and there was none."   

Wood also discussed past and present Lions tours as the team for the opening game was named.

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