Munster 19
Leicester 31
Murray Kinsella reports from Thomond Park
MUNSTER’S HOPES OF advancing into the knock-out stages of the Champions Cup took a hammer blow as they lost 31-19 to Leicester Tigers at Thomond Park.
Defeat for Anthony Foley’s side means they must now win away to Leicester next weekend if they are to keep their European season alive. The ultimate frustration in the Limerick loss is that Munster’s mistakes played a major role in all three of the visitors’ tries.
Having trailed 18-6 at the break after a disastrous 10-minute spell, Munster did launch something of a revival early in the second half but they were disappointingly poor otherwise.
Ian Keatley had a torrid evening at out-half, kicking poorly from the tee and out of hand, while a backline including the likes of Francis Saili, Keith Earls and Andrew Conway never truly fired.
The official attendance at Thomond Park was 22, 261 but the crowd looked to be far smaller than that. With minutes left in this game, some fans were already on their way out of the stadium. A sorry state of affairs for the proud province.
Foley’s men enjoyed strong possession and territory in the opening half, but failed to turn the pressure into points aside from two Keatley penalties. The out-half missed a third chance from straight in front of the posts on the half-hour mark, sparking an unhappy ten-minute spell for Munster.
They went from 6-6 to trailing 18-6 at the break, after two Leicester tries through Nike Goneva and Mike Fitzgerald.
The first came after a controversial penalty decision from referee Romain Poite and his TMO. Fitzgerald had appeared to deliberately block Andrew Conway from chasing a kick, but the French match official instead penalised James Cronin for an earlier push off the ball.
The Tigers kicked the penalty to touch on the Munster 22 and mauled their way to just a metre short. Scrum-half Ben Youngs launched a looping pass wide to Goneva on the left touchline, where Keatley inexplicably missed his tackle to allow the wing to dive over.
After Williams missed the conversion, Matt Smith nearly burst clear to score after Conway’s grubber attempt found its way into the Tigers centre’s hands. Munster’s fullback raced back to haul him down, before Williams’ dinked diagonal kick nearly landed in the reach of Goneva on the left.
Instead, the ball flew into touch, seemingly to Munster’s relief. They turned the let off into a disaster, however, as hooker Niall Scannell overthrew Donnacha Ryan towards the tail of the five-metre lineout.
Fitzgerald strode onto the inviting ball and surely has never scored an easier try. Williams’ touchline conversion rubbed salt in Munster’s wound as they headed in at half-time in a worrying 18-6 deficit.
The second half couldn’t have started any better for Munster. A sublime kick from Keatley left the Tigers facing a pressurised lineout five-metres from their tryline and Munster pounced intelligently.
After they drove Tom Youngs back, James Cronin was clever enough to reach over the pile of bodies and touch the ball down after it rolled over the Tigers defensive line in front of Ben Youngs, Conor Murray also getting a hand to it.
Keatley couldn’t convert from out wide as Munster roared into the game aggressively. Poite finally went to his yellow card as Marcos Ayerza tackled off the ball and Keatley fired over the penalty to bring Munster back to within four points.
With Ayerza in the bin, Foley might have expected his side to build on the rallying spell but instead they conceded another soft try.
Poor kicks from Keatley and then Earls, the second of them straight into touch from outside Munster’s 22, allowed Leicester back into good field position on the Munster 22-metre line, from where Ben Youngs struck.
The scrum-half spotted a huge hole outside Copeland, the pillar defender, and sniped at pace, arcing out from the ruck and bursting through the Munster blindside’s desperate tackle effort.
Williams’ conversion sent the Tigers into a 24-14 lead. Munster continued to fight hard as the visitors attempted to close the game out, with a try for replacement hooker Mike Sherry following some sharp down the left by Earls with just over 10 minutes remaining.
Keatley was wide again with the conversion, before Tigers’ sub out-half Tommy Bell extended their lead out to 31-19 with two penalties.
Foley’s side did have a late chance to grab a losing bonus point but Conway’s pass to Zebo went to ground after a sharp break. Stander broke soon after but his inside pass to replacement Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino was spilled.
Munster scorers:
Tries: James Cronin, Mike Sherry
Penalties: Ian Keatley [3]
Leicester scorers:
Tries: Niki Goneva, Mike Fitzgerald, Ben Youngs
Conversions: Owen Williams [2]
Penalties: Owen Williams [2], Tommy Bell [2]
MUNSTER: Andrew Conway; Keith Earls, Francis Saili, Denis Hurley (Lucas Gonzalez Amorosino ’64), Simon Zebo; Ian Keatley (Rory Scannell ’74), Conor Murray (Tomás O’Leary ’70); James Cronin (Dave Kilcoyne ’55), Niall Scannell (Mike Sherry ’52), BJ Botha (John Ryan ‘HT); Dave Foley (Mark Chisholm ’55), Donnacha Ryan; Robin Copeland, Dave O’Callaghan (Jack O’Donoghue ’72), CJ Stander (capt.)
LEICESTER: Telasu Veainu; Adam Thompstone, Matt Smith, Seremaia Bai, Niki Goneva; Owen Williams (Tommy Bell ’59), Ben Youngs (Sam Harrison ’69); Marcos Ayerza (yellow card ’45) (Matias Aguero), Tom Youngs, Dan Cole (Fraser Balmain ’74); Graham Kitchener, Mike Fitzgerald (Dom Barrow ’72); Ed Slater (capt.) (Laurence Pearce ’69), Brendon O’Connor, Lachlan McCaffrey.
Replacements not used: Harry Thacker, Gonzalo Camacho.
Referee: Romain Poite.
Attendance: 22,261.
