Munster - 33 Connacht - 3:A compelling effort by a dominant Munster pack at Musgrave Park last night earned the home side a Celtic League semi-final at Thomond Park against Glasgow or Ulster. Eventually, the dam burst, and Connacht leaked four tries in the final quarter, though 12 points in injury-time ensured the scoreline gave a false gloss to proceedings.
It was a game effort by the under-pressure westerners, given they've half the financial resources and were outnumbered in internationals by 11 to one. Class told ultimately, though.
When the going and Connacht were at the their hardest, no-one got tougher than Donncha O'Callaghan (admittedly after conceding two early penalties) and no-one's influence grew more as the night wore on than Alan Quinlan. Trademark charges, even on the counter-attack, galvanised his team and crowd alike, while he was as reliable a source of line-out ball as ever.
Nothing stirred the home team more than Paul O'Connell's sinbinning, and upon his return he was excellent. Outmauling their visitors and punching holes incessantly around the fringes, in truth it was the pack's cumulative effort which eventually wore Connacht down.
The game was trundling along nicely when it was rudely interrupted by a 12-minute power failure less than 13 minutes after the kick-off. During the hiatus, the thought occurred that as part of the IRFU's cutbacks, they were now literally turning out the lights on Connacht.
The interruption did the game few favours. Earlier, Eric Elwood had hit the upright with a 45-metre penalty before an excellently worked 30-metre maul by Munster earned a close-range line-out off an ensuing penalty. A seven-pointer seemed a near certainty, whereupon Damien Browne took a mighty two-handed steal.
Upon the resumption, O'Gara opened the scoring before Mark McHugh levelled with a 50-metre penalty after John O'Sullivan had the temerity to make a turnover tackle on big Jim Williams. Munster's response was to put about 12 phases together.
Connacht's tackling was every bit as intense as Munster's, and despite O'Gara landing his 12th kick out of 12 in November with a penalty after an offside, the visitors would have taken as much heart from that absorbing spell.
Their response was almost to score a stunning try, when Darren Yapp's kick, chase and gather, and Ted Robinson's pacey burst stretched the Munster defence.
From the recycle, an unmarked Gavin Duffy was crying out for a cross-kick, but instead the laboured transferring of the ball through the hand resulted in the winger being tackled into touch beside the flag by the drifting Mossie Lawlor.
Munster owned the ball for the rest of the half, Mike Mullins twice threatening to carve Connacht open, but there was an undercurrent of bad blood which spilled over in injury time with the packs scuffling off the ball and O'Connell being sinbinned. If anything, that galvanised Munster more than any other moment on the night, and they rolled up their sleeves to boss the next 10.
O'Connell got company after the interval following some scrummaging shenanigans by opposing props, Marcus Horan and Peter Bracken, but the comings and goings had little effect. Munster's pressure remained virtually unbroken, O'Gara nearly cutting through himself before tagging on a penalty.
A cameo from the resultant kick-off summed up Connacht's predicament. Their pack managed to muscle some scarce ball off the restart, but a risky offload went to ground around Chris Keane's ankles, by no means an unusual sight on the night, and by the time they got another look at the ball they were 21-3 adrift.
First, incessant pressure yielded a harsh looking penalty try when O'Sullivan contested Munster ruck ball on the Connacht line.
Then O'Callaghan stole a poor throw by Jerry Flannery and O'Gara and Holland shipped the ball along for Lawlor to step inside Duffy in claiming his sixth try of the tournament.
In injury time, the talented Denis Leamy initiated a sweeping counter-attack which culminated in a forward rumble and a try for Mullins of all people, the elusive, hard-running centre then making a big break before the deserving O'Connell ploughed over.
SCORING SEQUENCE
16 mins: O'Gara pen 3-0; 20 mins: McHugh pen 3-3; 22 mins: O'Gara pen 6-3; (half-time 6-3); 54 mins: O'Gara pen 9-3; 62 mins: pen try, O'Gara con 16-3; 68 mins: Lawlor try 21-3; 83 mins: Mullins try 26-3; 86 mins: O'Connell try, O'Gara con 33-3.
MUNSTER: K Keane; C McMahon, M Mullins, J Holland, M Lawler; R O'Gara, P Stringer; M Horan, F Sheahan, J Hayes, P O'Connell, D O'Callaghan, J Williams, A Foley, A Quinlan. Replacements: (temp) S Kerr for Williams (48-58 mins) for Horan (77 mins), Leamy for Williams (70 mins), M O'Driscoll for Quinlan (77 mins), J Blaney for Sheahan, C Mahony for Keane (both 79 mins), M Prendergast for McMahon, D Malone for Stringer (both 80 mins).
Sinbinned: O'Connell (40-50 mins), M Horan (48-58 mins).
CONNACHT: M McHugh; G Duffy, D Yapp, S Moore (capt), T Robinson; E Elwood, C Keane; R McCormack, M Uijs, P Bracken; D Browne, R Frost; P Neville, J O'Sullivan, J O'Connor. Replacements: F Boiroux for Neville (48-58 mins), J Flannery for Uijs (52 mins), E Peters for Neville (58 mins), E Reddan for Keane (59 mins), J Norton for Yapp (75 mins).
Sinbinned: Bracken (48-58 mins).
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales).
