MUNSTER 18
ULSTER 13
Garry Doyle reports from Thomond Park
A HUGE WIN for Munster, achieved against the odds, against a team who had an extra player for most of the game and against a backdrop of stinging criticism.
You just wouldn’t have thought it would turn out this way after a truly awful opening quarter, when they conceded territory, possession, penalties and momentum to their guests. Of even greater significance, they also gifted Ulster the pleasure of an extra man after Simon Zebo was red-carded for a reckless tackle on Mike Lowry.
Initially it looked as though referee, Mike Adamson, intended to just award a yellow but after a lengthy consultation with his TMO, Brian MacNiece, he switched his decision to red. There and then, 15 minutes into the game, you wondered if Munster would survive.
They looked rudderless. Captain Peter O’Mahony picked up an injury in the warm up and normally they aren’t the same team when he is absent. This time they were. Not initially but bit by bit, they eked out little victories, like the turnover from player of the match, Tadhg Beirne, on 20 minutes as Ulster inched towards their line.
Other moments were of even greater significance, the tries from Mike Haley and Alex Kendellen, being the obvious reference points. But this was a victory for resilience. They were 13-6 down midway through the second half when Ulster replacement, Kieran Treadwell, picked up a yellow for a dangerous tackle on Shane Daly.
That changed the game. Sensing a chance, Munster took it. The Haley try – scored out wide after a great pass from Craig Casey – made up for the carelessness of the first half, when they twice had overlaps in Ulster’s 22 but ignored them each time.
Yet even when Treadwell returned to the pitch and Munster were left with a 13-11 gap to try and overturn, they played smartly. Ulster didn’t. Nathan Doak tried a 49 metre penalty when the wiser option would have been to kick to touch and control the terms and conditions from there.
Foolishly they opted for glory. The kick fell short. Ben Healy returned it into the Ulster half and the next time they were in Munster territory, a second try had been conceded. This time it was youngster, Kendellen, who scored it, Jack O’Donoghue and Haley having made the breaks to get Munster into the red zone.
The irony is that Kendellen only made the bench – and Beirne the starting XV – because of O’Mahony’s injury.
The captain’s absence was felt early on as they coughed up three penalties in the first seven minutes, the third of those leading to the game’s opening try for Rob Herring, who connected with Sam Carter at the line-out, before bravely breaking off the subsequent maul to squeeze across the line.
John Cooney’s conversion, kicked in a swirling wind, was superbly executed.
Eight minutes on the clock, Ulster had a lead.
Munster were proving particularly generous hosts at this point. That first-quarter was littered with errors, from a trick play which saw Niall Scannell attempt a quick line-out to Casey which ended with a turnover; to Jack Crowley sending a kick straight into touch. Later the young out-half’s ambitious counter-attack from inside his 22 nearly led to disaster.
They got away with that one, escaped punishment again when Sean French tried a crazy pass to Casey on his own five-metre line, and then as the clock ticked past the 40-minute mark, with the deficit cut to a point, French failed to find touch when Munster simply needed a breather. From the subsequent phase of play, Ulster eked out another penalty, which Doak scored.
So suddenly it was 10-6, Munster heading to the dressing room wondering how they’d failed to score a try between the 30th and 35th minutes when they camped inside the Ulster 22, John Hodnett and Thomas Ahern making the breaks that got them there.
In the end, they settled for three points, kicked by Crowley, content to get the scoreboard moving. To be fair, the difference in their play in the second quarter compared to the first was massive, Gavin Coombes coming into the game more, Casey mixing things up better, Beirne proving to be an inspiration, Chris Farrell a leader, so too Ahern and Hodnett.
Better again, Crowley – starting the biggest match of his career – was growing into the game, delivering a diagonal grubber to the Ulster five-metre line, kicking two penalties, moving the score from 7-0 to 7-6.
They were dictating things at this stage, hence their frustration at that avoidable score for Doak just before half-time.
Another Doak penalty on 55 minutes made it 13-6 and you just didn’t sense a Munster comeback. Then came Treadwell’s tackle on Daly. Then came the Munster surge. Haley’s try followed some brilliant flowing rugby. Kendellen’s was also preceded by a superbly executed series of passes.
That summed up the day, indeed Munster’s season thus far. When they put their mind to it, they’re good. It took them half-an-hour to figure this out tonight.
Munster scorers
Tries: Haley, Kendellen
Conversion: Crowley (0/1) Healy (1/1)
Penalty: Crowley 2/2
Ulster scorers
Try: Herring
Conversion: Cooney (1/1)
Penalty: Doak (2/3)
Munster Rugby: Mike Haley; Seán French (rep: Shane Daly ’51), Chris Farrell, Rory Scannell, Simon Zebo (red card ’15); Jack Crowley (rep: Ben Healy ’62), Craig Casey (rep: Neil Cronin ’71); Dave Kilcoyne (rep: Josh Wycherley ’51), Niall Scannell (rep: Diarmuid Barron ’51), Stephen Archer (rep: John Ryan ’51); Thomas Ahern (rep: Jack O’Donoghue ’65), Fineen Wycherley; Tadhg Beirne (CAPT), John Hodnett (rep: Alex Kendellen ’62), Gavin Coombes.
Ulster Rugby: Mike Lowry, Craig Gilroy (rep: Rob Lyttle ’77), Ben Moxham, James Hume (rep: Angus Curtis ’62), Ethan McIlroy, Billy Burns, John Cooney (rep: Nathan Doak ’23); Jack McGrath (rep: Andrew Warwick’45), Rob Herring (rep:John Andrew 77), Tom O’Toole (rep: Ross Kane ’77), Alan O’Connor (CAPT), Sam Carter (rep: Kieran Treadwell ’45 – yellow card 58-68), Greg Jones (rep: Marcus Rea ’62), Nick Timoney, Duane Vermeulen.