'We weren't clinical enough' - Van Graan on Munster defeat

Johann van Graan was left to rue Munster's lack of edge as his team blew their chances of a home quarter-final in the United Rugby Championship.

Needing a bonus-point win against a Leinster side who had rested its entire probable Champions Cup line-up to secure the second seeding, they required at least two points to move into the top four.

In the end, it proved too much for the visitors, who through injury and illness were without a number of Ireland regulars and South Africa’s Damian de Allende.

"The first half, they started well and we came back, I felt we created a lot in the first half and not near clinical enough," he told RTÉ Sport after the 35-25 defeat.

"We created opportunities and we didn’t use them. Against a team like them, they are going to use their chance.

"Straight after half time we started well and then...they scored with that penalty try and we went down to 14 [Niall Scannell’s sin bin] and they scored straight away.

"Being up 22-18 we went down 32-22 and then we have to play catch-up.

"We are incredibly disappointed and we came here to win tonight and we weren’t clinical enough to do it so fair play to them."

Munster have not won in the Aviva against Leinster since 2014, and Van Graan declined to comment on how disappointing it was given that Leo Cullen had used so many fringe players for the tie.

"I’m not going to get into them resting players, both teams had players unavailable," said the South African, who will move to Bath at the end of the season.

"It was two teams selected, they were better than us on the evening. The difference [from the loss to Toulouse] is we didn’t get knocked out tonight."

The results from the final round of the regular season sets Munster up for a trip to Belfast, where they won