Pressure builds for Munster Cup places

IT WAS a case of men against boys at Musgrave Park on Saturday night when Munster ran in six unanswered tries against Ulster to revive their outside hopes of challenging runaway Magners League leaders Leinster.

They are still 11points adrift, albeit with a game in hand, and no doubt are still regretting the late defeat to Cardiff Blues last month. However, the broader picture centres on Saturday week’s Heineken European Cup quarter-final against Gloucester at Kingsholm and while coach Declan Kidney rightly fretted about the many turnovers against Ulster, there is no doubt this result should imbue the squad with massive confidence.

In the final analysis, Ulster were weak and callow but they had won their previous outings against the Dragons and the Scarlets under new coach Matt Williams and had good reason to believe they could build on those results. However, apart from a 10 or 15 minute spell in the first half when, as Williams admitted, “Munster dropped their level of intensity”, that was rarely a possibility.

And the rationale was shattered after eight minutes when man mountain Tony Buckley rumbled over for a try and Ronan O’Gara converted.

Tomás O’Leary was already using his pace and impressive lines of running to embarrass the Ulster defence but, ironically, it was after this that Munster endured their poorest spell of an otherwise exhilarating display. Kidney agreed that “we will have to take a look at how we got turned over there so often and the video evidence will probably show one or two things we need to work on”.

Ulster deservedly narrowed the gap with a Niall O’Connor penalty before Munster re-energised themselves and a powerful 20-metre maul ended with a try for Mick O’Driscoll that O’Gara converted.

A second O’Connor penalty on the stroke of half time made little difference to the trend. Instead, Munster stepped up a gear and went on to dominate the second half. The sell-out crowd loved it, not least when a cynical and late body charge by Ulster prop Tom Court on Lifeimi Mafi led to a punch up involving 20 or more players inside the touchline right in front of the stand.

And then there were four further tries to enthuse over… O’Gara helped himself to the first after an appalling Rory Best line-out throw fell in the path of the hugely-impressive Niall Ronan. How the crowd howled their approval when Tony Buckley wrestled away possession from Ulster at a maul and O’Gara’s clever little kick through put the bonus point try on a plate for O’Leary, who was now operating on the right wing.

The sight of people like John Hayes, Donncha O’Callaghan and Peter Stringer being sprung from the Munster bench only served to add to Ulster’s misery. Donncha Ryan, Frankie Sheahan, James Coughlan and Paul Warwick all duly joined the fray and each and everyone got involved as if they had something very definite to prove.

Hapless Ulster, inevitably, had no response. Court’s indiscretion, the subsequent free-for-all and the prop’s 10-minute spell in the bin, were grist to the Munster mill.

Coughlan scored between the sticks and the icing was put on the cake when Doug Howlett romped over for his first Munster try after a superb piece of football by Alan Quinlan. Warwick added the points and one of Munster’s biggest ever victories over Ulster was entered in the record books.

“If you don’t get possession and give it to a good side like Munster with such potent runners and miss the tackles on top of that, it’s not going to work for you”, bemoaned Matt Williams. “I wouldn’t use the term reality check. There was a world-class team up against us tonight and we coped for a fair bit of it until we gave away soft tries five minutes before and after half time. That was game over and a good, hard lesson for those young guys to learn.”

Niall Ronan was voted ‘man-of-the-match, probably by no more than a fraction ahead of Quinlan.

Declan Kidney was already wondering about the composition of his back-row in Gloucester in 12 days time with the present incumbents, Denis Leamy, David Wallace and Anthony Foley now under pressure from Ronan, Quinlan and Donncha Ryan.

It’s a powerful sextet — and they’re all Irish!

Paul O’Connell completed another full 80 minutes in highly satisfactory fashion as he inches his way back to his awesome best at the best possible time for Munster while Tony Buckley seems to get better with every game.

If Tomás O’Leary’s distribution matched his electrifying running, then he would seriously challenge Peter Stringer for the number nine jersey but he remains an invaluable member of any 22-man squad.

As it was, the latter’s arrival and his immaculate passing saw the Munster back line move more dangerously than ever with Denis Hurley demonstrating his potential at full-back and the three-quarter line sure to be even more dangerous with the return of Rua Tipoki.

MUNSTER: D. Hurley; D. Howlett, K. Lewis, L. Mafi, B. Carney; R. O’Gara, T. O’Leary; M. Horan, J. Flannery, T. Buckley, M. O’Driscoll, P. O’Connell capt, A. Quinlan, N. Ronan, A. Foley. Replacements: J. Hayes, D. O’Callaghan and P. Stringer for Horan, O’Driscoll and Carney, 58 mins; J. Coughlan for Foley 65; D. Ryan for Lewis 60; P. Warwick for O’Gara 70; F. Sheahan for Flannery 70.

ULSTER: B. Cunningham; T. Bowe, A. Trimble, P. Wallace, M. Bartholomeusz; N. O’Connor, P. Marshall; J. Fitzpatrick, R. Best capt, T. Court, J. Harrison, R. Caldwell, N. Best, D. Pollock, S. Ferris. Replacements: M. McCullough for Caldwell 48; I. Boss for Marshall 50; R. Wilson for N. Best 60; R. Dewey for O’Connor 70; N. Brady for R. Best 70.

Referee: A. Rolland (Ireland).