BEIRNE OWNS UP TO FIRST HALF 'ERROR'

MUNSTER captain Tadhg Beirne held his hand up for Munster's early line-out problems on Saturday in their 40-14 Champions Cup defeat to Bath.

- By RICHARD BUTLER

The visitors, hampered by late changes to their starting lineup, were trailing 28-0 midway through the first half as their line-out misfired.

“It was a silly error on my part. I lost one and then it was compounded then with a penalty into the corner,” said Beirne.

“My yellow card was punished very severely when I was off the field. It was probably on my shoulders that first 20 minutes unfortunately.

“We'll move on for next week, but I thought the fight from that point on was more like the Munster we know.”

Munster’s head of rugby Clayton McMillan was taking the positives despite the heavy beating.