Stade Francais 14 Munster 16
Typical, typical Munster. Just when you thought the odds were stacked too high against them and they were out of sorts, they pop up, stick up two fingers at you and record yet another famous win.
They did so in an absorbing counter at the Stade Jean Bouin in Paris.
Facing into a small gale in the first half, the French opted to keep the ball in hand and made serious inroads into Munster territory. Munster, however, were first to put points on the board with a Ronan O’Gara penalty on six minutes.
Stade Francais still looked threatening, choosing to go for tries off kickable penalties only to see Munster turn them over.
It was somewhat against the run of play when Anthony Horgan crossed for Munster try on 19 minutes. The ginger haired one came off his wing into the midfield and when the ball found its way along the line to him, he broke two tackles to run in under the posts from 25 metres. O’Gara’s convert put them 10 points clear.
Diego Dominguez responded with a penalty, but, by then Munster had settled and were starting to dominate possession and territory. Stade Francais fought off the Munster surge only to see O’Gara, when out of options, strike a sweet drop-goal from 35 metres. He added another penalty just before half time to leave it 16-3 at the break to Munster.
Facing into the wind in the second half Munster could not afford to concede early points. They managed to keep the French out for a paltry eight minutes when number eight Christophe Juillet crashed over from a couple of metres. Dominguez missed the conversion, but, with just 15 minutes of the second half gone, he had reduced the deficit to five with a penalty.
That famous Munster spirit kicked in and the men in red began to become mean with ball, denying their opponents possession and encamping themselves in the French 22. They received a huge boost when the Stade flanker, Pierre Rabadan was sin-binned for foul play.
It looked like Lille all over again as Munster moved the ball to the wing and as the ball was reaching John Kelly he was held back before receiving it. The offence went unnoticed by both the referee and the linesman – who was mere feet away from the incident.
With five minutes remaining and the full compliment of players on the pitch, Diego Dominguez – who so often has terrorised Irish sides landed a massive penalty five metres inside his own half.
With two points between the sides and refereeing decisions going against the Irish, the sizeable travelling Munster support rose to urge on their hero’s, who, like so many times in the past, became a brick wall in defence and played the game out to go into the semi-final draw in two weeks.
Is it their turn this year?
Scorers Stade Francais
Tries:Juillet 47'
Conversions:
Penalties:Dominguez 22', 56', 77'
Drop Goals:
Scorers Munster
Tries:Horgan 19'
Conversions:O'Gara 20'
Penalties:O'Gara 6', 37'
Drop Goals:O'Gara 25'
STADE FRANCAIS: S Jonnet; M Williams, F Comba, N Raffault, R Poulain; D Dominguez, F Galthie; S Marconnet, M Blin, P de Villiers; D Auradou, M James; R Martin, C Juillet (capt), P Rabadan. Replacements: B August, P Lemoine, H Chaffardon, C Moni.
MUNSTER:D Crotty; J Kelly, R Henderson, J Holland, A Horgan; R O'Gara, P Stringer; P Clohessy, F Sheahan, J Hayes; M Galwey (capt), P O'Connell; J Williams, A Foley, D Wallace. Replacements: M Horan, J Blaney, M O'Driscoll, A Quinlan, M Prendergast, M Mullins, K Keane.
Referee:N Whitehouse (Wales).