Munster 22 Glasgow 20:NOT THE type of performance to give Mourad Boudjellal and Philippe Saint-Andre undue nightmares perhaps, but a useful workout nonetheless for Munster ahead of Sunday's trip to the south of France.
Tony McGahan labelled his side’s efforts as a “step-up on the last three weeks”, and in particular in regards to his side’s attacking play, which was slightly odd given Glasgow outscored their hosts two tries to one.
In the end, Munster had to rely on the precision of Ronan O’Gara, who kicked six from six to see his side over the line, including a late three-pointer which he landed with typical aplomb. Glasgow were suitably annoyed with referee James Jones for awarding the late, game-deciding penalty.
With Munster coming on strong, fullback Bernardo Stortoni committed himself to a tackle on Keith Earls, but knocked-on as the Limerick man attempted to play in the supporting Denis Hurley.
After consultation with his touch judge, Jones adjudicated that the knock-on had been deliberate and sent Stortoni to the bin.
It was, in every sense, a loose decision, but one which was totally in keeping with what went before.
Barely 10 minutes had elapsed when Richie Gray found himself sitting in the bin for thwarting Munster momentum whilst Earls followed him on the stroke of half-time for illegal entry to a ruck, when, in fact, his approach had been text book.
The referee, it must be said, had rather a large bearing on the game as a whole. He awarded 11 penalties against Munster in the first half as they struggled to find their rhythm. O’Gara traded early penalties with Ruaridh Jackson, but was partly culpable for Colin Gregor’s 37th-minute try, having missed an earlier tackle on Max Evans, who also evaded the efforts of James Coughlan.
And so Munster went into the interval trailing 10-3 and one man short. Cue a change of tack from the referee, who awarded six consecutive penalties against Glasgow in the opening stages of the second half. By the time Earls had returned, O’Gara had kicked Munster into a 12-10 lead, and all momentum was now behind the Irish province.
“We gave away a lot of penalties on our own ball in the first half,” acknowledged McGahan afterwards. “We were the ones that had to change, and so we changed it in the second half, and the penalty count went our way accordingly.”
Munster extended their lead with a try by David Wallace on 62 minutes, but Glasgow responded with a try of their own by DTH van der Merwe, before Jackson put them back in the lead with a drop goal 12 minutes from time.
But there was something inevitable about the result, which crystallised when O’Gara backed himself to land the winning score. Ten metres in from the sideline, on the 22, he split the posts majestically to edge his side home, again.
The Cork man’s performance should possibly have been enough to earn him the man-of-the-match award, but that went to Donncha O’Callaghan, who had a fine game, particularly in the lineout.
Amongst other players to impress, Paul Warwick once again showed up well, even if his dithering late on put Munster under unnecessary pressure.
Lifeimi Mafi also had a strong influence on his return to midfield, tying up multiple defenders every time the ball came his way.
McGahan later said he hadn’t yet made up his mind regarding selection for Toulon, but, on Saturday’s evidence, a restoration of the Mafi-Earls axis which started against Perpignan 12 months ago might not be a bad idea.
Sammy Tuitupou was unable to stake his claim for a place due to illness which forced him to withdraw from the squad. Tony Buckley was also ill, which is a slight concern given John Hayes retired with a back injury and Peter Borlase is, as of yet, unregistered to play in the Heineken Cup.
McGahan has until tomorrow to make any adjustments to his ERC panel ahead of what he describes as a season-defining sequence of games. “It’s all on the line, there’s no doubt about that. One side will go through, but due to the nature of the group it could even go to the last weekend, which no doubt it will.”
MUNSTER: P Warwick; D Hurley, K Earls, L Mafi, J Murphy; R OGara, P Stringer (T OLeary 62); D Hurley, D Varley, J Hayes (P Borlase 44), D OCallaghan, M ODriscoll, J Coughlan (D Ryan 62), D Wallace (N Ronan 67), D Leamy.
GLASGOW WARRIORS: B Stortoni; A Dunbar (D McCall 56), M Evans, P Murchie (P Horne 9-16, 51-60), DTH van der Merwe; R Jackson, C Gregor; R Grant (J Welsh 52), D Hall (P MacArthur 59), M Low (K Tkachuk 67), R Gray, A Kellock, R Harley, J Barclay, J Beattie (R Wilson 69).
Referee: James Jones (WRU).
