Champions Cup: Munster 31 Gloucester 3
By no stretch of the imagination could Munster’s first Champions Cup foray into Páirc Uí Chaoimh be described as a great occasion. In truth, Munster laboured for much of an uninspiring match and the crowd were somewhat subdued until the home team found their mojo and home supporters found their voice in the final quarter.
Although the heavy rain never quite materialised, the blustery conditions were probably a factor in an error-strewn, stop-start match. With half an hour remaining they only led a weakened, second-string Gloucester by 7-3 but an important chase and tackle by Ben O’Connor will be singled out by Clayton McMillan in the review.
Although their attack promised much more than it delivered, Munster scored immediately when Alex Nankivell set up Mike Haley – the two were probably Munster’s best backs – and with some palpable impact off the bench from Conor Bartley (the 30-year-old Young Munster prop who scrummed big on his belated debut), Edwin Edogbo, Ruadhán Quinn and Tom Farrell, Munster pulled clear with three more tries in the final dozen minutes to seal an eighth successive win over the Cherry and Whites, and their biggest.
After making nine changes in personnel, McMillan and the brains trust will be relieved as much as anything else.
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Munster kicked off into the wind from the City End and had little or no territory to speak of in the opening exchanges. They also had breakdown issues from the very first opening phase of the match, Michael Ala’alatoa going off his feet for George Barton to open the scoring from 40 metres.
Although Gloucester had all the territory in the blustery conditions to begin with, Munster pinched the visitors’ first three lineouts, while both looseheads were penalised in turn at the first two scrums, namely Dian Bleuler – who made a strong impression at Munster when playing seven games in a brief loan spell early last season – and Michael Milne.
Even allowing for the stiff wind against them, Munster possibly overplayed their hand at times. But even bearing in mind the conditions, their handling wasn’t precise enough. Although the half a dozen or so handling errors didn’t lead to turnovers, save for a couple of Jean Kleyn knock-ons, too many times the ball hit the deck and having to retreat and regain possession stymied any attacking momentum.
After about 15 minutes of this, the crowd became audibly restless, both with the painfully set scrums and Gloucester’s interminable lineouts, as well as Munster’s uninspiring display. The visitors over-used the wind with over-long kicks which put little pressure on the Munster back three, whereas O’Connor reclaimed a couple of Craig Casey bombs.
Jack Crowley tried to inject some urgency with a quick tap after Gavin Coombes’s strength over the ball earned a penalty but when tackled the outhalf’s pass went to ground, which rather summed things up.
Finally, Munster made their first visit to the Gloucester 22 when Niall Scannell won a penalty at the breakdown which Crowley kicked to touch. The drive rumbled forward at a good lick, but Scannell became detached. And though he broke strongly infield, when Jack O’Donoghue missed the clearout the Gloucester openside Harry Taylor was over the ball to win a relieving penalty.
When Munster did make the breakthrough soon after, it again emanated in Gloucester kicking the ball long and there was also an element of luck to it. Crowley and Dan Kelly combined to find Haley in space on the right touchline and his attempted chip ricocheted off both Charlie Atkinson and himself to land in the hands of the Munster fullback. He beat one defender and was tackled by another but had Kelly in support for the finish, Crowley converting.
But they could not generate any momentum from that or when the Gloucester tighthead Jamal Ford-Robinson was binned for catching Crowley on the head with his clearout. After Crowley missed the penalty and an attacking lineout went awry, the crowd became becalmed again before Munster produced their best move of the half by a distance with the clock in the red.
Nankivell carried strongly for a scrum inside halfway and Haley kept taking good lines as Munster built through the phases, Coombes a couple of times, Kelly, Shane Daly, Milne and Tadhg Beirne all making inroads before Casey attempted to burrow over and then Kleyn was held up over the line.
The game meandered along on the resumption until Gloucester kicked the ball away again, Haley reading a chip to gather and from the ruck Casey’s box-kick found grass and bounced, O’Connor following up to make a fine tackle on Barton, and his offload was knocked on by Mike Austin.
On such moments – especially chasing what might seem like a lost cause – do games turn. Sure enough, from the scrum Kelly was cleverly launched up the middle and O’Connor came off his wing for the next carry before Nankivell’s lovely offload enabled Haley to beat Rob Russell and score.
After good work by Coombes over the ball again, Munster went to the corner and built up a head of steam through 10 close-in charges. But when Casey passed to Farrell he knocked on and Gloucester’s scrum won a relieving penalty.
Again, though, Gloucester kicked the ball away, not even contesting their own box kick and Casey was a split-second ahead of everyone else when reading the bounce to latch on to the ball in space and release Haley. Although he was collared by Russell, Caio James was binned for killing the ball and when Coombes shaped to carry from Diarmuid Barron’s tap penalty, he instead passed inside for Quinn to finish well.
With that, Munster sniffed and quickly sealed the bonus point, a monster Munster scrum leading to Paddy Patterson hitting Nankivell, which he had to take side on, but flicked a no-look one-handed pass out the back for Farrell to score.
After Patterson sniped and kicked up the right touchline, Beirne picked up an overthrow to add a gift-wrapped fifth. All’s well that ends well.
SCORING SEQUENCE – 3 mins: Barton pen, 0-3; 21: Kelly try, Crowley con, 7-3; (half-time 7-3); 50: Haley try, 12-3; 68: Quinn try, Crowley con, 19-3; 73: Farrell try, Crowley con 26-3; 76: Beirne try, 31-3.
MUNSTER: Mike Haley; Shane Daly, Dan Kelly, Alex Nankivell, Ben O’Connor; Jack Crowley, Craig Casey; Michael Milne, Niall Scannell, Michael Ala’alatoa; Jean Kleyn, Tadhg Beirne (capt); Tom Ahern, Jack O’Donoghue, Gavin Coombes.
Replacements: Tom Farrell for Kelly (54 mins); Diarmuid Barron for Scannell, Josh Wycherley for Milne, Edwin Edogbo for Kleyn, RuadhÁn Quinn for O’Donoghue (all 61); Conor Bartley for Ala’alatoa (70); Paddy Patterson for Casey, JJ Hanrahan for Haley (both 71).
GLOUCESTER: George Barton; Josh Hathaway, Will Knight, Max Knight, Rob Russell; Charlie Atkinson, Mike Austin; Dian Bleuler, Jack Innard, Jamal Ford-Robinson; Cam Jordan, Arthur Clark (capt); Josh Basham, Harry Taylor, Jack Clement.
Replacements: Afolabi Fasogbon for Basham (40-42 mins) and for Ford-Robinson (50); Ciarán Knight for Bleuler (50); Danny Eite for Clark, Caio James for Clement, Rhys Price for Austin (all 64); Kealan Freeman Price for Innard, Hugh Bokenham for Jordan, Rhys Price for Austin (all 69).
Sinbinned: Ford-Robinson (32 mins), James (68).
Referee: Ben Breakspeare (Wales).
