Hanging on for late, late show

THIS was the perfect example of a scoreline offering a distorted picture of a game of rugby.

By now, the Clermont Auvergne players, management and supporters are back in France, wondering how they lost Saturday’s Heineken Cup game at Thomond Park by 10 points.

It was nothing short of daylight robbery.

Munster skipper Paul O’Connell admitted that he saw the spectre of “a very lonely rest of the season” looming large with his side trailing entering the final minutes but somehow the champions saved the day in a devastating finish.

The French side played for all but 18 minutes with 14 men after Jamie Cudmore was red carded by referee Chris White after a brawl in front of the West Stand that saw O’Connell receive yellow. The decision seemed to leave the hosts with a massive advantage, more so when Ronan O’Gara knocked over the resultant penalty to put his side three points ahead.

When David Wallace forced his way over for his 10th Heineken Cup try and O’Gara converted to make it 11-3 at the interval, the home fans began to dream of a bonus point. But for some inexplicable reason, Munster went off the boil and, as in Clermont six days previously, the French took command on the restart.

The 14 Clermont players upped the tempo and again took the champions by surprise. Brock James landed his second penalty and Tomas O’Leary produced a heroic tackle to prevent Benoit Baby from steaming over between the posts.

It didn’t help when O’Gara missed a penalty but there was no denying the inspired Frenchmen and fragile Munster tackling in midfield paved the way for a splendid try in the left corner by Julien Malzieu which James converted.

Munster rang the changes, Paul Warwick for Barry Murphy, Tony Buckley for John Hayes, later still Peter Stringer for O’Leary, but as the minutes ticked away, it hardly seemed to matter.

Somehow and typically, though, they picked themselves off the floor and with four minutes to go, advanced into enemy territory and for the second time in less than a week, Marcus Horan crossed the whitewash for a try.

It wasn’t a done deal yet — but it was when Niall Ronan claimed the restart and began a move down the left wing which he finished with a deft chip ahead that surely owed much to the gaelic football prowess of his younger days.

He won the race for the touchdown with ease. O’Gara converted to bring his tally of Heineken Cup points to 1,001 and see his side home by a grossly flattering 23-13 score line.

And so ended another Heineken Cup game that will go down in the ever growing legend of Thomond Park.

But this was a day when the better side lost — even the most ardent Munster supporter would probably agree. Little wonder Munster coach McGahan admitted he “was glad to see the back of them”.

Clermont dominated possession even if the Magnificent Seven gradually felt the inexorable pressure imposed on them as the minutes ticked by. The introduction of Mario Ledesma and David Zirakashvili at the start of the second half lent serious impetus, Julien Bonnaire was imperious at the back and scrum-half Pierre Mignoni was a constant threat.

With considerable justification, McGahan praised his players for the manner in which they absorbed the bombardment and did enough to steal the four points at the death. He also had good reason to be satisfied with a penalty count of seven against and it seemed as if a lesson had been learnt after the profligacy of the previous Sunday.

The dates and times for the remaining Pool 1 games will be announced tomorrow with Munster, however fortunately, in pole position, all the more so after Sale’s shock 16-12 defeat in Montauban.

Victory over Sale and Montauban will do the trick and for these games, the Munster medical team will race to have Rua Tipoki fit to join his fellow Kiwi Lifeimi Mafi in the centre.

It is unlikely that Munster could have prevailed without Tomas O’Leary’s tackle on Baby. It was just one of his many invaluable contributions to the cause and yet Peter Stringer’s bullet-like passes in the closing minutes seemed to give O’Gara and his outsides that extra split second in which to operate. One of McGahan’s most important tasks has to be to figure out how best to use the totally contrasting talents of the two.

While Doug Howlett’s recent form hasn’t been quite what one would expect of a player of his class and reputation, Keith Earls again used his pace and impressive lines of running to open up the Clermont defence with one spectacular first-half counter attack. Earls and Mafi were the two Munster players with the capacity to make potentially decisive line breaks. You have to believe this will happen sooner rather than later.

MUNSTER: K Earls; D Howlett, B Murphy, L Mafi, I Dowling; R O’Gara, T O’Leary; M Horan, J Flannery, J Hayes, D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell (c), A Quinlan, N Ronan, D Wallace.

Replacements: P. Warwick for Murphy (62); D. Ryan for Quinlan (57); T. Buckley for Hayes (67); P. Stringer for O’Leary (73).

ASM CLERMONT AUVERGNE: A Floch; J Malzieu, M Joubert, B Baby, N Vonowale Nalaga; B James, P Mignoni (c); L Emmanuelli, B Cabello, J Roux, J Cudmore, T Privat, J Bonnaire, A Audebert, E Vermeulen.

Replacements: M. Ledesma and D. Zirakashvili for Cabello and Roux, (half time); S. Bai for Baby (53); C. Samson for Privat (68); E. Etien for Vermeulen (72).

Referee: Chris White (England).