EUROPEAN CUP POOL ONE MUNSTER V CLERMONT:Munster 23 Clermont 13 EVEN BY their standards of defeat-defying acts of escapology, this was something special by the masters of Heineken Houdinis.
When Tony McGahan went into the home dressing room he was perhaps as much in awe of his Munster players as everyone else in Thomond Park. He told them that very few teams in the world would have the inner belief they had just demonstrated.
McGahan and his staff, along with Declan Kidney and Jim Williams, have done a remarkable job in transforming Munster's game. Even so, as their supposed second-stringers demonstrated against the All Blacks, some things remain sacred.
When all else fails they can fall back on their immense character, honesty of effort and calmness in a crisis, albeit with a little help from the greater width they've applied to their running game.
Of course, being the Drama Kings that they are, Munster don't do dull, don't do routine, don't do normal and are often at their best when in a crisis. They even defy logic.
Clermont were unquestionably the better side over the 80 minutes in both matches, yet with the Fat Lady clearing her throat, Munster once again clawed victory from the jaws of defeat by simply digging into that bottomless well of belief and togetherness of theirs.
It's probably fair to say that everyone in a mostly stunned crowd of nearly 26,000 were fully convinced that Clermont were about to become the first French side to win in Thomond Park entering that fateful last five minutes. The try they contrived at that juncture would have been brilliant under any circumstances.
Coming from where they were made it even more remarkable. Forced to live off scraps for much of last week and again in the first half here, in the second Clermont limited them to starvation rations.
They needed a break or two, and that came by dint of Brock James, who missed what for him should have been a relatively routine drop goal attempt that his forwards and Pierre Mignoni had set up on a veritable plate.
As the sides lined up for the restart, Peter Stringer replaced Tomás O'Leary. The transformation wrought by Stringer in the last eight minutes was quite extraordinary.
O'Leary had another good game, and his physicality in defence was at times invaluable. He sweeps behind the line superbly, never better than when putting his body on the line with a try-saving 53rd minute hit on Benoit Baby that also ended the centre's involvement in the game.
Almost as good was the manner he swiftly and conclusively brought down Marius Joubert after Reggie Corrigan's favourite centre had burst through O'Gara's tackle.
Yet his service is still nowhere near as quick as Stringer's, and not only did the latter immediately beginning spinning the ball away from the base without a mini-second to spare, he was also barking instructions at his forwards to clear out the ball quicker.
That they did, suddenly finding their intensity and, suddenly, too, O'Gara appeared to have more time and room on the ball. It helped that, at long last, they were able to get their mits on the leather.
To this end, they had a little bit of a break when, immediately after James' miss Donncha O'Callaghan or Paul O'Connell might have nudged the ball forward from the ensuing restart before Julien Malzieu fumbled.
Nearing the 75-minute mark, an O'Gara penalty earned them a lineout 40 metres out. Exactly 60 seconds from Jerry Flannery's accurate throw to the tail, and eight phases later, they had conjured one of their wonder scores.
Critically, Keith Earls's superb footwork from Lifeimi Mafi's skip pass took them 15 metres over the gain line.
As important as the carries by Marcus Horan, Ian Dowling, David Wallace, Jerry Flannery and Paul O'Connell, were the clear-outs by Donncha O'Callaghan, Niall Ronan and O'Connell, until finally Mafi flicked on O'Gara's pass to Horan who burrowed under Mario Ledesma for the try in the corner.
Ronan, having made the second of two superb and identikit restart takes, underlined his Gaelic football skills with another covering catch and chip and chase for his try.
Critical to this had been the chase by Warwick and Wallace from O'Gara's kick which forced Floch to kick under pressure.
Now, understandably punch drunk and deflated, Clermont finally gave way to the huge odds of playing an hour of the game with 14 men after their Canadian hard man, Jamie Cudmore, had lost the plot.
Suddenly, only replacement prop Davit Zirakashvili was in front of Ronan, and it was O'Gara who had seen the possibilities in urging the flanker to kick ahead. This he did, weighing it to perfection as he made the Georgian prop look like he was being towed when cruising past him.
It seemed scripted for O'Gara to become the first man to pass the 1,000-point milestone in the Cup with, perhaps, a late drop goal. In the event, the win was varnished with the conversion which put him past that milestone. But who writes their scripts anyway?
A measure of how tough an afternoon it had been for Munster was that O'Gara, clearly targeted, had to make a dozen tackles. When Wallace had somehow ploughed through Jacobus Roux, Thibaut Privat and Elvis Vermeulen as only he can to push Munster 11-3 ahead at the break, it seemed Clermont's goose had been cooked.
Cudmore received a month's ban last season for punching Wasps' Tom Payne and having blatantly continued his barrage on O'Connell in front of the touchjudge and after the whistle, O'Connell exacted revenge before Cudmore did his cause no help by having a few jabs at O'Callaghan. Chris White's red for the Canadian and yellow for O'Connell was spot on.
But Cudmore's minute of madness had contrived to concentrate Clermont minds.
They played wonderfully for the first 33 minutes of the second half, virtually controlling the ball up front, cleverly varying their game through Mignoni and James, with Napolioni Nalaga about as easy to stop as a train and Anthony Floch and the midfielders also carrying tellingly.
It's doubtful that any other visiting side have ever played better in the circumstances at the Thomond Park bear pit, even Leicester.
Clermont deserved better but then as others before them have discovered, you don't always get what you deserve against Munster.
SCORING SEQUENCE:20 mins: O'Gara pen 3-0; 22 mins: James pen 3-3; 26 mins: O'Gara pen 6-3; 39 mins: Wallace try 11-3; (half-time 11-3); 50 mins: James pen 11-6; 60 mins: Malzieu try, James con 11-13; 76 mins: Horan try 16-13; 79 mins: Ronan try, O'Gara con 23-13.
Tries:Wallace, Horan, Ronan Con: O'Gara Pens: O'Gara 2
MUNSTER:K Earls; D Howlett, B Murphy, L Mafi, I Dowling; R O'Gara, T O'Leary; M Horan, J Flannery, J Hayes, D O'Callaghan, P O'Connell (capt), A Quinlan, N Ronan, D Wallace. Replacements: D Ryan for Quinlan (56 mins), P Warwick for Murphy (62 mins), T Buckley for Hayes (67 mins), P Stringer for O'Leary (73 mins), D Fogarty for Flannery, J Coughlan for Wallace (both 79 mins). Not used: K Lewis. Sin-binned: O'Connell (19-29 mins).
ASM CLERMONT AUVERGNE:A Floch; J Malzieu, M Joubert, B Baby, N Vonowale Nalaga; B James, P Mignoni; L Emmanuelli, B Cabello, J Roux, J Cudmore, T Privat, J Bonnaire, A Audebert, E Vermeulen (capt). Replacements: M Ledesma for Cabello, D Zirakashvili for Roux (both 46 mins), S Bai for Baby (53 mins), C Samson Privat (66 mins), E Etien for Vermeulen (72 mins). Not used: J Senio, G Esterhuizen. Sent-off: Cudmore (29 mins).
Referee:Chris White (England)
