Munster masterclass

Castres Olympique 9 Munster 46

This was the kind of display skipper Anthony Foley has been promising for a month or more and its timing could hardly have been better.

They now wait to see how erstwhile Pool One leaders Sale Sharks fare against the Newport Dragons at Sale tomorrow. The teams are tied on 18 points but assuming the English league leaders score their anticipated victory against the Welsh, they will come to Thomond Park next Saturday in pole position for one of the most mouth-watering occasions Munster and their wonderful supporters have experienced.

For Munster to score seven tries in such a huge game last night was nothing short of staggering, and, without exception, all were beautifully crafted and executed. It was by a distance the biggest winning margin enjoyed by Munster on their many sorties into France and possibly the largest by any travelling side in the history of the Heineken Cup.

There were many stars out there last night, with the magnificent Paul O’Connell helping himself to two tries. Barry Murphy in the centre was a revelation, his midfield partner Trevor Halstead had easily his best game in the red jersey and was voted man of the match while winger Ian Dowling fully justified his surprise inclusion.

Perhaps most important of all, Ronan O’Gara was back to his imperious best at out-half.

If Castres believed Munster could be unsettled by playing mind games, it certainly looked that way. They made a total of five changes from the side they had announced only 24 hours previously with Romain Teulet, chosen at out-half, and prop Carl Hoeft among those relegated to the bench. Laurent Marticorena, whose accurate right boot had hurt Munster in the past, wore the number ten jersey.

Interestingly, Munster won the toss and gave the near galeforce, bitterly cold wind to the home side. Considering their desperate need for a good start, it was a questionable tactic but one that worked wonderfully well.

Within seconds, Munster were hammered by Chris White for pulling down a Castres maul and Marticorena knocked over the penalty. There were shades of the recent Leinster game when Dowling and Halstead played a lead part in a superb attack only for Shaun Payne to be penalised for not releasing right under the posts.

This time, though, points immediately resulted from an O’Gara penalty and on 15minutes things brightened still further when Jeremy Castex, brought into the side for Hoeft, was yellow carded for illegally stopping a powerful Munster maul.

Munster had failed to capitalise on a similar advantage in each of their two previous matches and it was no different on this occasion. But Castres were held scoreless as well, a decent return in the conditions. And with half an hour played, Flannery lunged for the Castres line only to have the ball dashed from his grasp. A penalty ensued, O’Gara kicked to the corner and even though O’Connell somersaulted as he gathered the throw, the ball came back swiftly and after Denis Leamy was checked initially, Marcus Horan forced his way over for a try.

Munster were back again on 38 minutes. Stringer launched a big kick downfield from within his own 22, the bounce favoured Foley and he linked with Stringer and after that Wallace, John Kelly, Horan and Stringer again combined before the ball was swung left and Halstead had the presence of mind and the skill to loop a pass over a defender into the path of Shaun Payne who crossed wide out with a man to spare.

When Castres were awarded a penalty close to the Munster posts, it was notable that they kicked for goal when you might have expected them to be chasing seven pointers. Even though Marticorena landed both to narrow the gap to 13-9 at the interval, the strategy smacked of a certain lack of ambition in the home side.

Munster’s cup of joy was full to overflowing within 100 seconds of the restart when the hugely impressive Halstead broke clean through some poor Castres tackling. Rapid possession from an ensuing ruck close to the posts saw O’Gara place an inch-perfect little chip into the path of John Kelly and he touched down in the corner.

O’Gara banged over the conversion and within another five minutes the bonus point was in the bag. This time Barry Murphy spreadeagled the Castres defence with a dazzling 50 metres burst and even though Stringer appeared to take the wrong option from the recycle, Flannery did marvellously well to keep the ball alive and this time the scrum-half found O’Connell with a little pop pass and the second row reached out and just made the line.

O’Gara’s conversion stretched Munster’s lead to 27-9.

Worse was to follow for the hapless Frenchmen. Another canny O’Gara kick carried to Dowling on the left, he used his strength to cross the gain line, and when ruck ball again came quickly, O’Gara despatched a glorious pass over several heads, and who should be waiting in the extreme right corner but O’Connell, who gleefully touched down for his second try.

This time O’Gara couldn’t add the points but in the 66th minute he cheekily intercepted a pass by Teulet, who had only just come in as a replacement, and ran from just outside his own 22 to within a few metres of the French posts before unselfishly handing the scoring pass to another recent arrival, Tomas O’Leary.

O’Gara tapped over the points and, incredibly, Munster were 39-9 to the good. By this point, the French had lost all control and Teulet found himself in the bin after taking out Dowling. Manning, who came in late on for O’Gara, then produced a smashing inside pass for O’Leary to weave his way through for try number seven and his second of the night.

Manning added the points and the rout was complete.