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Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Red Army rule over Connacht
By Denis O’Connor
MUNSTER 35 CONNACHT 3
THIS time last year Connacht were celebrating a famous 12-6 victory over the then European champions at the Sportsground in Galway.
However, any hopes rugby fans in the west might have had that those heroics would be repeated a year later did not last long at Thomond Park.
The home side had established a 20-point lead before the half hour mark and were comfortable for the remainder of the game. Although Connacht were solid in the set pieces and worked hard in defence, they conceded far too many silly penalties to ever put Munster under any pressure.
In fact coach Michael Bradley signalled his intentions before the game kicked off when he rested captain and talisman John Muldoon, high-flying hooker Seán Cronin and first choice half-backs Frank Murphy and Ian Keatley. Gavin Duffy was handed the captain’s armband for the night in the absence of Muldoon.
Obviously the Connacht supremo decided that this fixture did not merit the same focus as the upcoming European encounter with Montpelier on January 15 or a more winnable home league game. The home side also took the field with an experimental lineup but as Connacht do not have anything like the strength in-depth of Munster, a four-try bonus point victory for the southerners was on the cards.
For the first 10 minutes or so, Connacht were able to hold their own in terms of possession and territory. This was just a mirage though and Munster took the lead when recent arrival George Naoupu gave away a daft penalty for interfering with Peter Stringer at a ruck and Ronan O’Gara continued his excellent recent form by splitting the posts. A couple of minutes later and Munster had worked their way up to the line with a succession of drives but Connacht held out and managed to get a relieving penalty.
A Munster try seemed inevitable at this stage as Connacht were unable to get out of their own half due to an inability to hold on to the ball for more than three or four phases. Paul Warwick had been sprung from the bench at this stage to replace the injured Felix Jones and the former Connacht favourite would go on to torment his former teammates.
After a blockdown by Niva Ta’auso almost led to a Connacht breakaway, Munster regathered possession and surged into the twenty-two. O’Gara found Warwick and the Australian’s expert skip pass gave Ian Dowling an easy run in.
O’Gara increased their lead to 13-0 with a penalty within five minutes before a second try put Munster in a seemingly unassailable position. A lineout catch-and-maul from 10 metres out was defended badly and Damian Varley got the touchdown.
There was no let up at this stage and Troy Nathan’s sin binning for a high tackle on Warwick put the visitors firmly under the cosh. Miraculously, Connacht held out till half-time without conceding further.
Munster were penalised for illegal binding at a five-metre scrum and then Duffy made a thumping tackle to deny Warwick a third try. In the final minutes of the half, Connacht came close to crossing the Munster line but a dreadful pass by Conor O’Loughlin ruined the chance. Eventually Munster were caught offside and Keatley took the three points.
Warwick continued where he had left off in the first half and stretched Munster’s lead with a penalty one minute into the second period. The next half hour was poor enough fare as Connacht scrapped effectively to prevent Munster scoring further while not threatening themselves.
It seemed likely that they would deny the home team the four-try bonus point that had seemed a mere formality after 30 minutes. However, Man of the Match Warwick still had something left to say. His excellent chip and chase led to the third try after 71 minutes and with time almost up, Jean De Villiers bashed through a couple of tired tackles to seal the five points for Munster.
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