Donncha O'Callaghan slams 'unacceptable' Munster after shock loss to Zebre

Zebre shocked Munster in the United Rugby Championship with a 42-33 victory in Italy to land their first-ever win against Graham Rowntree’s side.

After a sloppy opening, Munster went into halftime in front with first-half tries coming from Gavin Coombes (2), Mike Haley and substitute Bryan Fitzgerald.

However, they were outscored 27-5 in the second half with their only score coming via a Shay McCarthy try late on.

READ MORE Zebre 42-33 Munster recap and result from the United Rugby Championship

RTE pundit Donncha O’Callaghan didn’t hold back when quizzed on Munster’s performance.

“You don’t want to take away from the fact that Zebre were full quality for it but it was totally unacceptable for Munster,” he said on RTE.

“They’re performance there as individuals, as a team, to go on the road. Like we know what Zebre are. They were bottom of the league last year.

“Munster’s performance there was completely unacceptable. Delighted for them (Zebre) because they’re a development team, you want to see them come on, we want a competitive league but maybe I have Munster glasses on, the amount of errors, the amount of poor performances, the amount of individual sloppy mistakes was totally unacceptable. It’s great for our league.

“It’s great to see Zebre coming on, but Munster will look back at that and they should be embarrassed by that performance.”

Head Coach Rowntree said his side need to make improvements but also gave credit to Zebre after full-time.

Speaking alongside O’Callaghan, Darren Cave said: “I don’t think Zebre have scored 40 points in a game since January 2020, pre-Covid. Against the Cheetah’s who aren’t even in the competition anymore.”

He added: “I think the game is more complicated than urgency and energy. It's not that simple but that Munster defence need to find a way to get organised quicker. It's as simple as that. We saw it last week. Players looking in, players not being set.”

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