Llanelli Scarlets 20 Munster 22:Defending champions Munster used an early-season get out of jail card at Parc Y Scarlets tonight as two tries from Denis Hurley helped them get past Llanelli and move up to fifth spot in the Magners League.
Munster trailed 20-15 going into the last throes of the game, before Hurley latched on to a flat pass from substitute Tomás O’Leary. The home defence looked well set but the winger shrugged off some poor tackles to get over with two minutes to go.
Jeremy Manning, who had earlier hit the post from a routine conversion, kept his nerve to slot over the extras before Munster ran down the clock.
Luck was also on their side for Toby Morland’s 53rd-minute try, with Irish referee Alain Roland awarding the score despite replays showing that the scrumhalf knocked on while grounding the ball.
Munster skipper Mick O’Driscoll put his hands up and admitted his side got the rub of the green on a night when both Denis Leamy and Donnacha Ryan were sin-binned in the first half.
“I’ll be honest, we were second best in most aspects of the game, except the scoreboard. We hung in there though and one or two things went our way at the end,” said O’Driscoll.
“We’re absolutely delighted with the win, we knew it would be a tough place to come and get a result. We’ll take it but there’s a lot of work to do,” he added.
Despite playing 20 minutes of the first half with 14 men, Munster still went into the break on level terms at 10-10.
Rhys Priestland missed two penalties in the first six minutes as a ragged Munster were constantly pinged for indiscretions. The outhalf made no mistake third-time around as he gave the Welsh side the lead after 12 minutes.
Manning missed his opener, but drew Munster level three minutes later, before a sweet pass from Morland sent Hurley over for his first try on 24 minutes, with Manning making the conversion to put Munster 10-7 ahead.
The Scarlets took advantage of Ryan’s sin-binning to draw level on 32 minutes when Deacon Manu got over for a try that Priestland converted to square things up.
Scarlets:D Evans; S Lamont, G Maule, J Davies, M Jones; R Priestland, M Roberts; I Thomas, K Owens, D Manu, L Reed, D Day, S Easterby, D Jones, D Lyons. Replacements:P John for Thomas, V Cooper for Reed, R Pugh for D Jones (all 52)
Munster:F Jones; D Howlett, B Murphy, L Mafi, D Hurley; J Manning, T Morland; J Brugnaut, D Varley, J Hayes, D Ryan, M O'Driscoll, A Quinlan, N Ronan, D Leamy. Replacements:T O'Donnell for Ronan (41), T Buckley for Brugnaut (47), D Fogarty for Varley (54), T O'Leary for Morland (65), T Gleeson for Murphy (68).
