Munster now have a useful benchmark for their huge week ahead after a flawed but high quality game which was assuredly better than 100 training sessions. As a bonus they can also now relish two wins on the spin against the rest of the country, though the `visitors' are in good company, as this latest scalp maintained Munster's five-year unbeaten record in Thomond Park.
About the only blemish on a fine occasion enthusiastically supported by a 10,000 or so of Limerick's rugby-starved (or thirsty?) fans was a hip injury sustained by Dominic Crotty which will take 48 hours to assess. But he should be okay. Alas, his desperately unlucky counterpart Girvan Dempsey sustained a suspected fractured cheekbone while Victor Costello dislocated a finger.
As an aside David Wallace returned to light training yesterday after his recovery from a knee ligament strain, prompting Kidney to give him a "25 per cent chance" of making the Stade Francais game. In the absence of his dynamic ball carrying, the Munster management managed to have a look at three opensides yesterday, Jerry Murray, Dion O'Cuinneagain and Colm McMahon, though the opposition's Andy Ward made the biggest impression of all.
Considering where O'Cuinneagain came from, it was a pretty remarkable effort nonetheless. He carried a good deal of ball, looked for work and looked physically fit.
The Lions' manager Donal Lenihan said they were essentially present to monitor fitness levels and well-being, and Graham Henry thoughtfully admitted it was "difficult" to make judgements on several of the Irish Lions' candidates.
The props, Peter Clohessy and John Hayes, went well over the 80, Hayes having a storming second half, while the positives outweighed the negatives in one of those mercurial Ronan O'Gara performances. Anthony Foley, a dark horse admittedly, got through his usual trojan workload but as Henry also said, next week is the more telling test for them.
On an individual basis therefore, this possibly made the stakes higher for the Rest's hopefuls, primarily Denis Hickie and Eric Miller. It undoubtedly went better for Miller, one costly missed tackle apart, as he gave a committed and good quality ball-carrying performance but Hickie is better than he looked here, cautiously declining a four on two break-out near the end. He was possibly a bit out-psyched by the in-form Anthony Horgan who, along with his opposite number Tyrone Howe, were the more menacing.
Munster drew first blood when Foley scored from close-range after a line-out drive off John Langford's take, but a stunningly incisive counter-attack seemed almost to numb the home crowd when Howe ran crossfield off a missed touch to link with Hickie before Miller ran in a three-to-one overlap.
O'Gara doubled the lead with a penalty for a ridiculous high tackle decision at the behest of touchjudge Sean Flannery against Brian O'Driscoll, who promptly took the game to a different stratosphere, as he does.
Shane Horgan was the creator in chief as Humphreys moved line-out ball from inside their 22 which Horgan took up the middle, spinning out of a tackle and then offloading for O'Driscoll to make one of his lighteningly quick, trademark support lines and leave the initial red line for dead. Arcing around Jereny Staunton (who had replaced Crotty) on halfway, O'Driscoll pinned his ears back and was chased to the corner by Mike Mullins.
In response, O'Gara pulled the strings stylishy as first O'Cuinneagain made some good yards off his inside shoulder and then the impressive and pumped up Mick Galwey rumbled up the touchline. Held short, he layed the ball back for the well positioned Staunton to pick up and score by the flag, O'Gara adding the conversion.
In the second half, Costello rumbled through O'Cuinneagain's tackle, Howe then outstripping the defence when taking Humphreys' long pass before the outhalf supported on the inside for a fine try.
Staunton then crashed through from Tom Tierney's scooped pass off a wheeled scrum but Howe exposed a soft Munster centre when picking up Horgan's lay-off along the ground to skip through. But importantly Munster then had the resilience to tough it out.
Scoring sequence: 8 mins: Foley try, O'Gara con, 7-0; 12 mins: Miller try, 7-5; 26 mins: O'Gara pen, 10-5; 33 mins: O'Driscoll try, 10-10; 35 mins: Staunton try, O'Gara con, 17-10; 46 mins: Humphreys try, 17-15; 51 mins: Staunton try, O'Gara con, 24-15; 57 mins: Howe try, Humphreys con, 24-22.
MUNSTER: D Crotty (Garryowen); J Kelly (Cork Constitution), M Mullins (Young Munster), J Holland (Midleton), A Horgan (Cork Constitution); R O'Gara (Cork Constitution), T Tierney (Garryowen); P Clohessy (Young Munster), F Sheahan (Cork Constitution), J Hayes (Shannon), M Galwey (Shannon, capt), J Langford (Shannon), D O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution), A Foley (Shannon), J Murray (Cork Constitution). Replacements: J Staunton (Garryowen) for Crotty (15 mins), D O'Cuinneagain (Ballymena) for Murray (27 mins), C McMahon for O'Cuinneagain (65 mins), J O'Neill (Shannon) for Mullins (67 mins).
REST OF IRELAND: G Dempsey (Terenure College); D Hickie (St Mary's College), B O'Driscoll (Blackrock College), S Horgan (Lansdowne), T Howe (Ballymena); D Humphreys (Dungannon) (capt), B O'Meara (Cork Constitution); J Fitzpat- rick (Dungannon), S Byrne (Blackrock College), S Best (Belfast Harlequins), G Longwell (Ballymena), M O'Kelly (St. Mary's College), E Miller (Terenure College), V Costello (St Mary's College), A Ward (Ballynahinch). Replacements: J Bell (Dungannon) for Dempsey (40 mins), T McWhirter (Dungannon) for Costello (54 mins), P Smyth (St Mary's College) for Byrne, M Cahill (Buccaneers) for Fitzpatrick, B Casey (Blackrock College) for Longwell, G Easterby (Llanelli) for O'Meara (all 65 mins).
Referee: A Lewis (IRFU).
