Gloucester - 35 Munster - 16:RUGBY/European Cup: Losing retreats from England always seem worse than anywhere else for some reason. But whereas thumpings at Twickenham and in Paris are one thing, the sight of Munster - of all teams - getting a sound beating even on the road is quite a shock to the system.
Nothing had prepared us for this, not in the last four years nor this season. Kingsholm was as heady a brew as anything Thomond Park has thrown, with chants of "Gloucester" reverberating from a packed shed for a four-man warm-up along the touchline fully an hour before the kick-off. And when Gloucester turned up the heat and the shed turned up the volume in the third quarter, it simply became too hot for Munster to handle.
You could see why Gloucester are the unbeaten form team in England this season. They are an excellent front-foot team who, right from the kick-off, played with incredible width. When the ball was being rucked on one touchline, three big forwards were retreating to hug the touchline from the previous ruck on the other side and Henry Paul would act as auxiliary playmaker with long skip-passes to transfer the point of attack from one flank to the other. Then, for variety, they started punching up the middle in the third quarter.
There's two ways of preventing them from getting on the front foot: either keep the ball for longer or tackle big. Munster did neither. They couldn't construct much through phases themselves as Gloucester competed for the ball in the tackle with huge success.
The origins of Marcel Garvey's electrifying, 33rd-minute try, when he latched onto Ludovic Mercier's kick through, provided a case in point, with Jeremy Staunton losing fourth-phase ball in contact, not for the only time.
Munster, as Alan Gaffney claimed, actually defended well for stretches and especially in the first half. But in over-committing to rucks they were then frequently outnumbered as they drifted across field, and the excellent Jim Williams and Anthony Foley apart, no one was making any offensive tackles.
In this regard and much else, the loss through injury of two dynamic locks, Donnacha O'Callaghan and Paul O'Connell, has left Munster as thin in the second row as they are for a genuine openside.
This was compounded when Rob Henderson first twisted an ankle and then damaged an arm. It's either a torn bicep or a snapped tendon but, pending a scan today, he's side-lined for a few weeks.
Gaffney pointed to the first 10 minutes of the second half as the period when the match slipped away from Munster. They either couldn't make things happen or little things went against them. Referee Joel Dume was hailed as "fantastic" by Nigel Melville; Gaffney responded with a knowing smile which read, "Well, he would say that wouldn't he."
The French official's range of hand signals, some of which were utterly baffling, brought to mind the mime artist Marcel Marceau.
Right from Ronan O'Gara's second-half kick-off it seemed obvious that the outstanding, livewire and elegant Andy Gomarsall had knocked on, but instead of an attacking scrum to Munster Monsieur Dume decreed "play on" and pointed his two hands skyward - his favourite gesture.
O'Gara was damned unlucky to see a diagonal kick roll into touch in goal, but even so it seemed that a slightly frenzied Gloucester couldn't close out the deal. Again though, Munster were authors of their own downfall, with Foley fumbling an attempted pick-up after Peter Stringer's good counter-attacking run, and, when Munster were penalised at the scrum, Mercier steered a long penalty into touch from which they rumbled over for Jake Boer's first try.
The game was up. When Alan Quinlan was taken out at a Munster lineout, Peter Buxton charged toward the line for Mercier to score off the recycle.
Munster also strongly disputed Boer's second try, but a couple of decisions went their way too, and there was a doubt about whether Stringer had grounded the ball on the line for his try.
It may be premature to start looking ahead and thinking of the ramifications this result may have in terms of qualifying for the quarter-finals. But by dint of Gloucester's four tries to one winning margin, it could mean Munster might have to beat Gloucester by at least three tries in the final round of pool games if they're to finish above them. Unless, that is, Gloucester drop more points than Munster do in the intervening four games.
Viewed in that light, Munster's chances of procuring a home quarter-final have already taken quite a blow. Not that it's all doom and gloom, by any means, but such is the slim margin for error in the European Cup that the visit of Perpignan has "must win" writ large all over it.
Even so, the thinly concealed glee within English newspapers yesterday over Munster's supposed demise may prove premature, and should also be quite a spur. Both Gaffney and Marcus Horan stressed this was their third away game in a row.
The comforts of home and their unbeaten record in Thomond Park will rarely be more welcoming. They can still do it.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 22: Mercier pen 3-0; 24: O'Gara pen 3-3; 28: Mercier pen 6-3; 33: Garvey try, Mercier con 13-3; 38: O'Gara pen 13-6; 39: Mercier pen 16-6; 40: O'Gara pen 16-9; (half-time 16-9); 57: Boer try, Mercier con 23-9; 62: Mercier try and con 30-9; 79: Boer try 35-9; 85: Stringer try, O'Gara con 35-16.
GLOUCESTER: H Paul; M Garvey, T Fanolua, R Todd, T Beim; L Mercier, A Gomarsall; T Woodman, O Azam, P Vickery, A Eustace, M Cornwell, J Boer, P Buxton, J Forrester. Replacements: E Pearce for Eustace (67 mins), J Simpson-Daniel for Beim (78 mins), C Fortey for Azam (80 mins).
MUNSTER: J Staunton; J Kelly, M Mullins, R Henderson, M Lawlor; R O'Gara, P Stringer; M Horan, F Sheahan, J Hayes, M Galwey, M O'Driscoll, J Williams (capt), A Foley, A Quinlan. Replacements: J Holland for Henderson (34 mins), E Halvey for Galwey (61 mins), J Blaney for O'Driscoll (73-82 mins).
Referee: Joel Dume (France).
