Munster captain Tyler Bleyendaal has insisted they always knew they would have the reserves to beat the Ospreys.
Not for the first time the Irish province broke hearts when they snatched a late victory on Welsh soil – this time grabbing a 25-23 win late on to move back to the top of the Guiness Pro 12.
Ospreys coach Steve Tandy may have been unhappy with some of the decisions made by referee Marius Mitera, but conceded the home side were ultimately to blame for their downfall.
Despite trailing 17-3 in the early stages, Munster cut the gap to just two points before the break. The second half proved difficult again as Ospreys stretched their lead with a penalty, but a late Dave Kilcoyne try secured the victory for the visitors.
Munster have now won their last eight consecutive games and are hold a three point advantage over second place Leinster.
Skipper Bleyendaal said: “There’s a lot of belief. We got it taken to us by Ospreys in the first 20 and they were unbelievable. We had to stick to our structures and believe in what we do.
“We work hard for each other and that’s what it came down to in a tough game. We stuck to our game-plan and it paid dividends in the end. That’s that belief. There was no panic.
“They’re a great team and we’re going to be under pressure. Maybe we shouldn’t have been 17-3 down but that’s just an unbelievable win here.”
After seeing his side’s 13-match unbeaten run come to an end, Tandy said: “There are question marks over the officiating – definitely.
“We’d like some explanation on no-arms tackles and on the consistency of high shots – when you look at Rhodri Jones’s in the first half and the ones at the back end of the game.
“You just have to question the protocols and what they are looking at and how far back. They don’t want to listen to players when they are asking the question.
“But then they are missing things. I don’t even know whether they looked at the no-arm tackle. That would probably be something that’s frustrating for us.”
“At the end of the day it is getting borderline ridiculous when you look at it. But if you are going to be consistent that’s something you just want. You could argue both of them are not high tackles, the way the game has gone.”
Despite being unhappy with the refereeing in the game, Tandy admits that his side should have seen the match out and keep the pressure on Munster and Leinster.
“For us, it would be easy to go down the referee route around certain aspects of the game,” he said.
“But, ultimately, I think there was enough in our game today to win that match.”
In a tight encounter, Hanno Dirksen and Kieron Fonotia had exchanged first-half scores with Jack O’Donoghue and Francis Saili with Sam Davies and Tyler Bleyendaal booting the rest of the points.
It meant the Ospreys went into half-time 20-18 ahead and Davies’ second-half penalty looked like giving them the win, but Munster refused to go away and incessant late pressure saw them finally find a way over the line as prop Kilcoyne dotted down for the game’s vital score.
The try made it 23-23 and Bleyendaal’s conversion ensured Munster moved back to the top of the table.
