Ian Costello says he has no regrets over the decision to rest Jack Crowley for Friday night's BKT United Rugby Championship defeat to Leinster.
Crowley was given the night off in line with his IRFU player management guidelines, while his fellow Ireland international Sam Prendergast was man of the match at Thomond Park, scoring a try and three conversions for Leinster in their 28-7 win.
Costello was obliged to rest Crowley and his captain Tadhg Beirne for one game during this current block of six games, four of which came in the Investec Champions Cup.
Rather than rest both at once, Beirne was left out of the squad that defeated Ulster just before Christmas, while Crowley was given his break for the home defeat to Leinster, with Billy Burns taking his place in the starting XV.
It left an already depleted Munster squad stretched even thinner, with Craig Casey, Conor Murray, Peter O’Mahony, Alex Nankivell, Jean Kleyn, Thaakir Abrahams and Diarmuid Barron among those currently sidelined with injury.
And while Munster’s interim coach Costello says they weren’t given any leeway on the load-management guidelines by the IRFU, it was his decision on which games Crowley (below) and Beirne would be rested for.
"To be fair, and the IRFU, they've recommended a number of games over a period. It's at our discretion when we rest players," he said after Friday’s defeat at Thomond Park.
"We've different plans around different players around giving us the best opportunity to get as many points as we possibly can.
"It's always a massive decision for a player not to be play in a game like this. If it wasn't this one, it would have been Saracens or Northampton and we'd be having the same conversation.
"So, it's probably one of those things where we feel we have to do the best thing for the team and for the squad at a particular point and Jack, as always, was outstanding about it."
The Munster head of rugby operations says that while they were beaten by Leinster, the fact that they picked up a bonus-point win away in Ulster when Crowley did play makes him "100%" confident it was the right decision.
"We've had to make some decisions. It's not a secret that we are stretched at the moment in terms of depth but we've a hell of a lot of quality, we just have to manage that the best way we can.
"I've no doubt if Jack wasn't there last week, we'd have struggled to get four tries, five points and nine points out of those two games.
"Disappointing we got nothing out of tonight. It would have been great even if it was a point to set us up for the next period but I suppose the bottom line is we've moved up from 12th into the top eight. We'll see what way the rest of the weekend settles but it keeps us in touching distance which is really important.
"It was our decision. Again, it was one of the games over this period.
"I don't think there's a black and white [way of doing it]. We sit down as a group with senior players and coaches and we look at what's best for the squad at a particular time. It was important that Jack kept going last week, for himself and for the squad and I genuinely don't believe we would have taken five points or he certainly contributed to those four tries [against Ulster]."
The reality is that while Crowley would probably have added to Munster, it would have been unlikely to bridge the gap between them and Leinster on Friday night.
While Munster intent was strong, they lacked the power to really hurt the visitors, while their setpiece return of 50% on scrums and 71% on lineouts was never going to be enough to win.
The province also saw a number of pick-and-go efforts thwarted close to the Leinster line.
And Costello says his side need to become more "creative" in those situations close to the opposition line.
"That's exactly the conversation that we had in the dressing room as coaches. It's a blend of both, but going back to what players we have available at the moment is we have to be brilliantly technically.
"We have to be innovative. We have to be creative in terms of how we use the ball and we have to be technically excellent.
"We've outstanding technical coaches so it was one of the things we talked about there is that we'll get players back in the future but it could March or April for some of our players, but right now all we can focus is our accuracy, our execution and how we are technically. Anything else is just a waste of energy at the moment. It's a blend of the two."
While Casey, Kleyn and Abrahams will all be sidelined until April, there is some good news on the horizon, with Costello confident that several players will be back on deck for the Champions Cup visit of Saracens to Limerick on 11 January.
"There was a couple of guys really close tonight. Conor's [Murray] not far off. Peter [O’Mahony] we would expect back.
"Jack O'Donoghue was really close and Diarmuid Barron only pulled out in our last training session. There's a few straight away.
"When you get to the stage of games when you want to use all 23, like against a side as good as Leinster or as good as Saracens, we need the strongest 23 we can possibly put out."
