URC: Munster 23 Cardiff 20
Munster celebrated head coach Clayton McMillan’s first home competitive fixture in the URC with a victory. It mattered little in the immediate aftermath that the performance was scratchy; of far greater import that they found a way to win when they weren’t at their best.
They did produce flashes of excellence but in the end were reliant on Cardiff’s disciplinary foibles to get over the line, literally and metaphorically. The blustery conditions made it challenging but neither side will have been happy with their ball retention and accuracy.
Jack Crowley stepped up when the game was in the balance, Alex Nankevill and Dan Kelly had their moments, Ben O’Connor composed in his duties while Thaakir Abrahams was a handful for the visitors but it was the Munster pack that eventually prised open up the result, while the bench brought energy and momentum at a crucial time, especially Diarmuid Barron and Paddy Patterson.
The match began at a helter-skelter pace with the visitors initially the sharper. Dan Kelly hustled to shut down a Cardiff attack with a scrag tackle, while Ben O’Connor was assured in taking a high ball as the visitors took to the sky.
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Munster finally got some traction on five minutes when they won a ruck penalty, Tom Ahern claimed the lineout in the Cardiff 22 but after three phases the ball was spilled in contact and the Welsh side cleared from the resultant scrum.
The home side tried to set up another maul from a lineout but that too came a cropper, Cardiff managing to force a turnover. It was a scrappy and cautious start to the game, the box-kick a favoured gambit.
On nine minutes Shane Daly caught a box-kick, from the next phase Jack Crowley manufactured a delicate chip and then followed up with a gorgeous cross-kick.
Dan Kelly showed great pace in a footrace with Josh Adams to claim possession and his momentum took him sliding to the try-line. Referee Griffin Colby asked the television match official Chris Allison to review the “grounding”. The adjudication was “no try”.
However, Allison drew attention to a tackle by Cardiff secondrow Josh McNally on Daly earlier in the play – the Munster wing didn’t return from the HIA – and referee Colby awarded a yellow card and a penalty to the home side. Munster though quickly forfeited possession in conceding two quick penalties, gaps on the fringe defence allowed the visitors access to the home side’s backfield.
From the second transgression, Cardiff pummelled the Munster line until outhalf Callum Sheedy’s diagonal grubber kick enabled wing Josh Adams to dot down for a try. Two things stood to the visitors in the opening quarter, the lineout maul defence and the ability to force a couple of penalties at the breakdown in their 22.
Little errors thwarted Munster, Crowley missed a penalty to touch, and the home side again had their pockets picked at a breakdown.
On 28 minutes the rumbles of frustration in the stands changed to shouts of exultation as Munster produced 60-seconds of glorious attack, using the full expanse of the pitch to switch from one touchline to the other, with Thaakir Abrahams giving Ruadhán Quinn a try-scoring pass.
Sheedy had a chance to push Cardiff back in front but smothered his penalty attempt. Crowley kicked the restart out on the full. Munster conceded another penalty. Cardiff kicked to the corner, lost the lineout but a knock-on gave them a scrum: as an extended passage of play it summed up the half.
Munster number eight Gavin Coomes received a yellow card for playing the Cardiff scrumhalf Johan Mulder in the shadow of the posts but Cardiff, having taken a scrum, wasted the opportunity when Rory Jennings threw a pass to no one, as Harri Millard had come short to receive the ball. The visitors probably had more to rue in terms of chances that went abegging.
However, on the resumption it was Cardiff that took the initiative, hooker and captain Liam Belcher broke through in midfield, Adams made further inroads, and a flicked pass allowed wing Tom Bowen to slide over in the corner.
Coombes’ return from the sin bin was timely. Cardiff conceded two quick penalties, and from the second, tapped by replacement hooker Diarmuid Barron, Coombes burrowed over for a try which Crowley converted to push the home side out to a 12-10 lead on 52 minutes.
The teams exchanged tries in a four-minute spell. Bowen’s second try, finished acrobatically from a Sheedy cross-kick, was followed by one for Barron, who tapped a five-metre penalty and burrowed under the defence with a little help from his team-mates.
Crowley tagged on a penalty as Cardiff’s discipline became an issue, one that undermined their spirit of adventure. Kudos to the Munster scrum, that forced a couple of those transgressions. Munster’s outhalf signed off on the win with a smartly taken drop goal, making the final throes of the contest more enjoyable for the 12,003 who found their voice to celebrate the triumph.
Not even Bowen’s hat-trick of tries with the last play of the game could dampen their ardour. If anything, it served to tantalise Cardiff about what might have been on the night.
Scoring sequence – 14 mins: Adams try, 0-5; 28: Quinn try, 5-5. Half-time: 5-5. 43: Bowen try, 5-10; 52: Coombes try, Crowley conversion, 12-10; 56: Bowen try, 12-15; 60: Barron try, 17-15; 65: Crowley penalty, 20-15; 75: Crowley drop goal, 23-15; 80: Bowen try, 23-20.
Munster: Ben O’Connor; Shane Daly, Dan Kelly, Alex Nankivell, Thaakir Abrahams; Jack Crowley, Ethan Coughlan; Jeremy Loughman, Niall Scannell (capt), Oli Jager; Jean Kleyn, Fineen Wycherley; Thomas Ahern, Ruadhan Quinn, Gavin Coombes. Replacements: Sean O’Brien for Daly 9 mins; Diarmuid Barron for Scannell 24-38 mins and half-time; Paddy Patterson for Coughlan 53 mins; Jack O’Donoghue for Quinn 54 mins; Josh Wycherley for Loughman 57 mins; Brian Gleeson for F Wycherley 57 mins; Ronan Foxe for Jager 70 mins; Tony Butler for Crowley 76 mins.
Yellow card: G Coombes 38 mins.
Cardiff: Jacob Beetham; Josh Adams, Harri Millard, Rory Jennings, Tom Bowen; Callum Sheedy, Johan Mulder; Danny Southworth, Liam Belcher (capt), Javan Sebastian; Josh McNally, Teddy Williams; Alex Mann, Dan Thomas, Alun Lawrence. Replacements: Daf Hughes for Belcher 44 mins; , Rh, Barratt for Southworth 54 mins; Ben Donnell for Mann 57 mins; Taine Basham for Thomas 57 mins; Sam Wainwright for Sebastian 65 mins; Aled Davies for Mulder 65 mins; Ioan Lloyd for Sheedy 66 mins; Steff Emanuel for Millard 72 mins.
Yellow card: J McNally 9 mins.
Referee: Griffin Colby (South Africa)
