Champions Cup Round of 16: La Rochelle 24 Munster 25
As Ronan O’Gara knows as well as anyone, there’s something about the Champions Cup that brings something special out of Munster and their fans. The province he piloted to their trophy wins in 2006 and 2008 may not have added a third triumph since those halcyon days but, all the more so in warm French air, Munster are still inspired to produce extraordinary wins on unforgettable days.
They survived La Rochelle storms at the start and at the end but did enough in between to strike stealthily, as well as scrambling for their lives in defence. The second of La Rochelle’s back to back triumphs was less than two years ago and they probably possess a more expensive and celebrated squad than Munster these days, but for the umpteenth time they defied the odds away from home.
Munster were likes dogs with a bone in withstanding spells of ferocious home pressure, nobody epitomising their resilience more than Tadhg Beirne. But this was very much a team effort featuring special displays by unsung heroes such as Andrew Smith and Seán O’Brien, as well as more obvious ones like Gavin Coombes and John Hodnett in the backrow, and the excellent Calvin Nash, as well as Craig Casey and Jack Crowley at halfback.
In a contest that throbbed from start to finish, their calmness and game management were crucial. Munster also edged the kicking and aerial games.
This evoked some of the great days since the Red Army came into being a quarter of a century ago. An estimated 3,000 Munster fans could make themselves heard among the din created by the home crowd in the Stade Deflandre’s 105th full-house in succession.
Everybody wore red or yellow, and roared. In temperatures of 18 degrees at the kick-off time of 6.30pm this was not a place for the faint-hearted or a neutral, and in sea of yellow and pockets of red, there was certainly none of the latter.
Some of the Round of 16 scorelines leading into this game had arguably brought the competition into disrepute, but after the first four ties averaged 80 points this was real, proper knock-out Champions Cup rugby. Cue the 10-7 half-time scoreline in favour of the home side.
La Rochelle were quicker into their stride with Teddy Thomas, notionally named at outside centre but popping up everywhere including customary position on the touchline, clearly in the mood.
Jack Nowell was also proving elusive on the right edge and Ihaia West pulled the strings. And with both Uini Atonio and Will Skelton being used as distributors as much as carriers, La Rochelle were able to bunch Munster defenders and find space out wide.
This appeared to have yielded a try in just 45 seconds for Tawera Kerr-Barlow but after the missed conversion the Italian TMO Matteo Liperini correctly alerted his compatriot Andrea Piardi to Thomas’s right heel brushing the touchline when seeking to avoid the diving tackle of Thaakir Abrahams.
The first period pivoted on two soft yellow cards, especially the first one against Smith after he briefly planted his hand on the ground before competing for a jackal after a good covering tackle. Although the ensuing maul was well defended, Grégory Alldritt released UJ Seuteni into space and after beasting one tackle he offloaded out of another for Levani Botia to score. West converted.
Munster somehow held on for the remainder of Smith’s binning thanks in the main to their scramble defence, typified by Hodnett snaffling a loose offload by Skelton and Beirne’s covering tackle to force a knock-on by Seuteni.
Whereupon the momentum shifted when West was binned for an upright, high tackle on O’Brien, albeit there was little or no force in the contact.
Munster immediately brought their fans to vibrant, flag-waving life. Crowley fielded a fairly aimless kick by Dillyn Leyds but the chase was at best perfunctory. So, when Abrahams took Crowley’s pass he weighed up his options before suddenly stepping in and out again between Botia and Thomas to break clear, the alert Casey quickly alongside him in support to score by the posts.
In truth, Munster then left a couple of chances behind, albeit La Rochelle responded to the roars of their supporters with some meaty defensive sets, typified by Jean Kleyn losing the ball when hit hard by Thomas Lavault.
After Beirne nearly picked off a pass by Kerr-Barlow, a sequence of penalties and come curious decisions by Piardi helped La Rochelle generate a head of steam, and after a vital tackle by O’Brien on Thomas close to the try-line, conceding a tap over penalty to West with the last kick of the half was not a bad outcome for Munster.
This was even truer on the resumption when Nash followed up the restart to win a penalty in the jackal over Alldritt and Crowley drew the sides level. Nash then followed that up with a try-saving tackle on Oscar Jegou before La Rochelle hammered at the Munster line and Leyds’s long pass gave Thomas a routine run in on the left wing. Or it would have done if Thomas had not stepped back into traffic to be tackled by Tom Farrell before the home side were held up over the line.
That seemed even more significant when in Coombes raced on to West and extended himself to make the charge down before showing neat football skills and composure to gather and score under pressure.
A penalty try for Munster might have followed after some lovely handling on the left edge ended with Leyds being binned for a one-handed knock-down of O’Brien’s pass inside for Abrahams.
Never mind. Munster went to the corner, Coombes sprang from the maul and though held up inches short, presented the ball – thanks to a good clearout by Peter O’Mahony, Oli Jager and Hodnett – for Casey to give Smith a close-range touchdown by the corner flag.
Chants of Munster and a rendition of The Fields could now be heard above a subdued home crowd, but they and the home team were revived by another questionable scrum penalty and West pinning the penalty into the corner.
After a second drive appeared to be brilliantly and legally held up, an interminable amount of replays eventually culminated in Piardi awarding a penalty try and sinbinning an understandably mystified Alex Kendellen.
Cue the calming presence of Conor Murray, Munster’s chase forcing a scrum from a perfectly weighted box kick and after O’Brien, Beirne and Stephen Archer carried, Crowley dropped into the pocket to make it an eight-point game with a 40-metre drop goal.
But Antoine Hastoy, who had a dramatic impact on his introduction, drew in the Munster defence with a strike play off a lineout before crosskicking with the outside of his boot for Hoani Bosmorin to score.
Hastoy also landed the difficult conversion to make it a one-point game and when a scrum penalty gave them one last attacking effort, it all came down to one final defensive set by Munster and Fineen Wycherley’s tackle on Jegou. The latter was rightly pinged for holding on after the tackle but only after home players, crowd and big screen producer compelled him to loom again at the tackle amid desperate howls that it was a neck roll.
It wasn’t and justice was done.
SCORING SEQUENCE – 12 mins: Botia try, West con, 7-0; 24: Casey try, Crowley con, 7-7; 40 (+3): West pen, 10-7; (half-time 10-7); 42: Crowley pen, 10-10; 48: Coombes try, Crowley con, 10-17; 52: Smith try, 10-22; 66: Penalty try 17-22; 69: Crowley drop goal, 17-25; 77: Bosmorin try, Hastoy con, 24-25.
LA ROCHELLE: Dillyn Leyds; Jack Nowell, Teddy Thomas, UJ Seuteni, Hoani Bosmorin; Ihaia West, Tawera Kerr-Barlow; Reda Wardi, Pierre Bourgarit, Uini Atonio; Thomas Lavault, Will Skelton; Levani Botia, Oscar Jegou, Grégory Alldritt (capt).
Replacements: Quentin Lespiaucq for Bourgarit, Judicael Cancoriet for Botia, Jules Favre for Nowell (all 48 mins); Aleksandre Kuntelia for Atonio, Antoine Hastoy for Seuteni (both 53); Alexandre Kaddouri for Wardi (55); Ultan Dillane for Lavault (56); Matthias Haddad for West (65).
Yellow cards: West (23 mins); Leyds (51 mins).
MUNSTER: Thaakir Abrahams; Calvin Nash, Tom Farrell, Seán O’Brien, Andrew Smith; Jack Crowley, Craig Casey; Jeremy Loughman, Diarmuid Barron, Oli Jager; Jean Kleyn, Tadhg Beirne (capt); Peter O’Mahony, John Hodnett, Gavin Coombes.
Replacements: Josh Wycherley for Loughman (12 mins); Stephen Archer for Jager, Fineen Wycherley for Kleyn, Tom Ahern for O’Mahony (all 54); Rory Scannell for Abrahams (56); Alex Kendellen for Hodnett (64); Niall Scannell for Barron, Conor Murray for Casey (both 67).
Yellow cards: Smith (10 mins); Kendellen (66).
Referee: Andrea Piardi (Ita).
