Magners League - Munster 11 Ospreys 15: A BACKWARD step for Munster, a significant leap for the Ospreys. Those Limerick taxi drivers know their stuff, all right. Munster rarely play well before Euro resumptions and this was their fifth defeat of five in the League before Heineken Cup games – two to Leinster, two to the Ospreys and one to Ulster. This one, however, may even have hurt as much as the Leinster ones.
First and foremost, at a stroke the holders have probably cost themselves a home semi-final in the Magners League and therefore bade a disappointing adieu to their home faithful for the last time this season.
Given Jean de Villiers and others will move on at the season’s end, that will rankle.
This was the first time Munster had lost successive home League games, their first home defeat to a Welsh side in over six years and was the Ospreys’ first win in five attempts at Thomond Park.
Furthermore, with an in-form Cardiff to come away on the last weekend, Munster may not even make the play-offs now.
Of course, they’ve bigger fish to fry but it’s the nature of this defeat that will also grate. In a pretty poor match until Munster roused themselves in the final quarter, their lineout was excellent, they were much the more positive side and created more opportunities but were undone by a litany of errors.
Even then, they scored the game’s only try, but whereas Dan Biggar extended his run of successful place-kicks to 16 with a five from five haul Ronan O’Gara (who also went into the game on a run of 11 successive kicks in the league) landed only two from six. Therein lay the rub, really.
Had O’Gara landed the first two of those missed penalties (one of which was a gimme by his extraordinary standards) it would have pushed Munster 9-3 in front and given the game a different complexion. Instead Munster practically invited the Ospreys into the game by incurring the displeasure of the overtly fussy Neil Paterson and coughing up soft three-pointers.
Only when 15-3 behind and down to 14 men did Munster up their intensity at the breakdown and begin counter-rucking. They scored a superb try after clever hands and lines of running by Lifeimi Mafi, Tom Gleeson and Scott Deasy, which O’Gara finished off by switching to the blind side and even if O’Gara had just converted that instead of hitting the upright for a second time, then instead of twice kicking to the corner in the frenetic late siege they could have had a shot at goal to win the game.
In truth, the Ospreys were unusually lacking in ambition, and were largely content for Biggar, especially, Lee Byrne and Mike Phillips to kick the leather off the ball. When twice creating overlaps in the first half, even Shane Williams, of all people, butchered both of them.
Tommy Bowe’s most notable contribution was a huge, try-saving hit on de Villiers. But they will feel the ends justified the means and as a win at home to the Dragons will ensure a home semi-final they are possibly favourites to win the league now.
Since that acutely disappointing Heineken Cup quarter-final defeat to Biarritz in San Sebastian, the Ospreys have had three trips to Ireland to face Ulster (within 48 hours), Leinster (another three days later) and now Munster, from which they have taken 10 points.
That’s a pretty impressive return which rather gives the lie to the notion that they lack bottle, especially away from home.
Admittedly they didn’t have to play brilliantly here. When even the cultured boot of Paul Warwick sliced his first two line-kicks out on the full you sensed there might be something amiss. There were smatterings of individual excellence, which increased after the interval, but curiously they rarely amounted to anything sustained or significant.
Tellingly, though Alan Quinlan had another prominent game and David Wallace carried well, again it was the young tyros like Deasy and Gleeson, or those with a point to prove, who caught the eye.
Into this category fell the hard-running Mafi (whether on the right wing, occasionally in the centre, and once packing down in the backrow) along with Peter Stringer and the rest of the bench.
Until James Coughlan’s sin-binning, needless interruptions and pile-ups, and aimless kicking, proliferated. Mr Paterson also relented in the final quarter or so, stopped yapping and reduced the number of unnecessary stoppages (for scrums when the ball was free, or then for re-setting scrums when the ball was again free) having previously seemed to think the paying customers and television audience were there to watch him.
Following on from James Jones’ performance on Friday night, it was a further reminder that the League’s biggest problem is the standard of refereeing, especially in Scotland and to a lesser degree Wales.
Recalling those recent air traffic restrictions which ensured home referees in these parts, it’s an ill wind and all that.
Scoring sequence:11 mins: O'Gara pen 3-0; 23: Biggar pen 3-3; 31: Biggar pen 3-6; (half-time 3-6); 42: Biggar pen 3-9; 48: Biggar pen 3-12; 52: Biggar pen 3-15; 54: O'Gara pen 6-15; 71: O'Gara try 11-15.
MUNSTER:P Warwick; T Gleeson, L Mafi, J De Villiers, S Deasy; R O'Gara (capt), T O'Leary; M Horan, J Flannery, J Hayes; D O'Callaghan, M O'Driscoll; A Quinlan, D Wallace, J Coughlan. Replacements:D Hurley for Warwick (59 mins), N Ronan for Wallace (62 mins), D Varley for Flannery, J Brugnaut for Horan, P Stringer for O'Leary (all 65 mins). Not used: B Holland, S Zebo. Sinbin:Coughlan (51-61 mins).
OSPREYS:L Byrne; T Bowe, A Bishop, J Hook, S Williams; D Biggar, M Phillips; P James, H Bennett, A Jones, I Gough, J Thomas, J Collins, M Holah, R Jones (capt). Replacements:A Wyn Jones for Gough (half-time), S Parker for Byrne (62 mins), R Bevington for James (72 mins), F Tiatia for Holah (76-78 mins) and for Thomas (78 mins). Not used:E Shervington, J Nutbrown, N Walker. Sinbin: R Jones (68-78 mins).
Referee:Neil Paterson (SRU).
