Masterful O’Gara lifts Munster

FOR a team reportedly reeling from the trauma of a third successive loss to arch-rivals Leinster, it was the day to stand up and fight.

Munster, even without the influence of injured skipper Paul O’Connell, deemed it inconceivable that they should lose a second successive competitive match at Thomond Park.

Their response to a huge Northampton challenge was a timely reminder of their measured best; they knew what they had to do and knew how to do it.

The alarm bells rang when Northampton struck a blow on the cusp of half-time to secure a fortuitous interval lead; it was the Leinster game all over, only with the stakes doubled.

At this stage of the tournament there are no excuses and no second chances and Northampton had the whip hand. But they reckoned without the influence of stand-in captain Ronan O’Gara.

“We were very pleased with the way we came back to score that try before half-time,” said Saints coach Jim Mallinder, “and at the interval we talked about what O’Gara was likely to do in the second-half and how we would react; unfortunately, talking isn’t quite good enough and O’Gara is the master. It was quite windy out there and he controlled that second-half very, very, well.”

O’Gara didn’t single-handedly put Northampton to the sword but he did play a huge role from the moment he launched his first second half wind-assisted missile that sent the visitors reeling back the bones of 70 metres.

From then on, the visitors found it very hard to extricate themselves from defensive territory in the face of what amounted to be an increasingly smart and clinical Munster performance.

That began with some excellent box-kicks from Tomás O’Leary and impressive chasing and harrying from Doug Howlett, Jean de Villiers and Ian Dowling.

The much maligned front row clearly benefited from the intensity of training over recent weeks – the introduction of scrum specialist Paul McCarthy, working alongside forward coach Laurie Fisher, surely played a part too.

There were other factors on a day when Munster scored four tries to highlight their ability behind the scrum. Dylan Hartley, Courtney Lawes, Neil Best and Roger Wilson were always in the thick of the forward battle but Munster had more power and class up front.

James Coughlan played a significant role at number eight, Mick O’Driscoll fitted seamlessly into the second row alongside Donncha O’Callaghan and Alan Quinlan (despite conceding two silly penalties) again proved a huge influence in a Munster pack whose intensity grew as the minutes ticked by.

The back division hummed with O’Leary’s box kicking at 90% premium and the chasers, mainly Dowling, Howlett and de Villiers, were especially prominent. Keith Earls, at 13 and on the wing after injury to Dowling, was superb in his vision of what Munster needed in attack.

Yet, for all Munster’s success going forward, moments of defensive inspiration were decisive against a Northampton side generally kept under wraps.

While Jon Clarke has an unopposed run-in for the first half injury time try and Stephen Myler knocked over penalty chances at will, Ben Foden and Chris Ashton remained peripheral. The importance of perfectly-timed tackling was graphically highlighted as Northampton launched a rare second half offensive that provided room for Juandre Kruger to gallop unopposed up the right wing. Inches from the line, Warwick hit the big second row and knocked him into touch to win a defensive line out. Two minutes later and a mere 15 metres from the home line, Northampton flanker Best, with support to his right, left and behind, was dispossessed on his feet by David Wallace. Typical Wallace. For Northampton it effectively signalled the end of their challenge.

Munster coach Tony McGahan was not surprised with such interventions: “Such things are what you need in big games to get the required result,” he said, and there wouldn’t be one dissenting voice amongst Munster supporters as both incidents proved to be a huge after-match talking point.

Munster’s whirlwind start yielded eight unanswered points inside five minutes with a penalty from O’Gara and Warwick’s excellently worked try. Northampton, however, displayed enough desire and nous to inch their way back with a brace of penalties from Myler before Howlett grabbed Munster’s second try midway through the half. Myler kicked his third penalty and then converted Jon Clarke’s injury time try to leave Munster, down 13-16, with a lot to think about at the break.

Happily, the interim post-mortem had a beneficial effect as the pack upped the tempo and the unflappable O’Gara took control of territory with a succession of perfectly-weighted and cleverly-angled line kicks.

It took a while for Munster to wrestle back control which, in truth, was never total as Northampton clung to the belief they could come up with an unprecedented Thomond Park quarter-final upset.

But it was not to be. Coughlan and O’Leary combined to send Jean de Villiers surging through at the posts for a try that O’Gara converted for a 20-16 lead, and the out half responded quickly to restore the four points advantage after Myler kicked his fifth penalty. O’Gara made it 26-19 to give Munster breathing space with a 68th-minute penalty and he completed the scoring when he converted Howlett’s brilliantly finished 74th -minute try – courtesy of O’Leary’s super pass under pressure.

It might not have happened six weeks ago.

MUNSTER: P. Warwick, D. Howlett, K. Earls, J. de Villiers, I. Dowling, R. O’Gara (captain), T. O’Leary, M. Horan, J. Flannery, J. Hayes, D. O’Callaghan, M. O’Driscoll, A. Quinlan, J. Coughlan, D. Wallace.

Replacements: L. Mafi for Dowling (42), N. Williams for Coughlan (62), T. Buckley for Hayes (74), N. Ronan for Quinlan (74), P. Stringer for O’Leary, B. Holland for Howlett (both 78)

NORTHAMPTON: B. Foden, C. Ashton, J. Clarke, J. Downey, B. Reihana, S. Myler, L. Dickson, S. Tonga’uiha, D. Hartley (captain), E. Murray, C. Lawes, J. Kruger, P. Dowson, R. Wilson, N. Best.

Replacements: B. Mujati for Murray (56), S. Geraghty for Myler (65), J. Ansbro for Clarke, M. Easter for Dowson (both 75).

Referee: N. Owens (Wales).