Munsters set up Con showdown
They were 12 points down at the interval in Clifford Park but produced their best in a seven-minute spell early in the second half to turn the tables and — with a little help from Old Belvedere elsewhere — secured a place in the knock-out stages.
The joy was clearly evident at the end of a pulsating contest, with Garryowen going in search of an equalising try and Young Munster equally determined not to yield anything.
A week ago, Young Munster coach Mike Prendergast had to watch aghast as Alan Kingsley rattled an upright in the narrow defeat to Dolphin but he had a much happier post-match report on Saturday.
“The one thing this team has shown in the last 12 months is durability, the team doesn’t do panic either.
“We got a quick penalty in the second half to get us off the mark, the crowd got behind us and it went from there,” he said.
“I threw a few comments their way at half time, strong comments, for a couple of minutes and then left them to work it out themselves. A lot of things went wrong in that first half, our kicking, our tackling wasn’t good, we kicked a few balls into touch directly and I think the boys knew what had gone wrong. But they did work it out, got themselves a platform and deserved to win, I think.”
He had no argument on that score from Garryowen’s Paul Cunningham.
“We coughed up our 12-point lead too easily and Young Munster were worth the win. We knew the first 10 minutes of the second half were going to be critical and that was the key to the whole game.
“They’re (Young Munster) a very good pack, well coached, well trained. They have a very strong set piece, know exactly what they’re doing, when they’re doing it, all over the field and good luck to them.”
Although Young Munster had enough territory in that opening half, Garryowen took the lead through the boot of Declan Cusack with a seventh-minute penalty.
Garryowen went further in front eight minutes from the break when Cusack dropped a goal, another score somewhat against the run of play, but not entirely undeserved either given their sharpness when occasion for attack arose.
The out-half took more advantage to push the lead out to 12 points with another couple of penalty strikes before the interval, and Young Munster were left wondering just what they had to do to get back on track.
Clearly, they figured it out at the break and the game turned on its head within four minutes of the restart as they pulled back three points through Kingsley and another seven when Craig O’Hanlon took advantage of a kind bounce from Willie Staunton’s kick into space. Kingsley kicked the conversion and then added a penalty to give the home side a remarkable 13-12 lead. The light blues responded positively with another penalty from Cusack before Young Munster struck with the second try of the game, Matt Costelloe scything his way through for a great individual score that Kingsley converted.
It got better when Staunton dropped a goal with 17 left on the clock for a 23-15 advantage.
That was cut by a 68th-minute penalty from Cusack, leading to a nervous finish but the home side held out to keep their campaign alive.
YOUNG MUNSTER: I Cross, M Doyle, M Costello, R Moloney, C O’Hanlon, W Staunton, A Kingsley, A Cotter, G Slattery (c), H McGrath, N Melville, S O’Neill, L Óg Murphy, S Hassett, J O’Neill.
Replacements: B Guilfoyle for Murphy (42), G Flaherty for McGrath (52), G Jones for Cross (79).
GARRYOWEN: C Burke, A Goughan, C Hircock, C Doyle (c), R O’Mahony, D Cusack, A Griffin, J P Cooney, J Rael, D Lavery, S Buckley, A McCloskey, P. Neville, D Sherry, A Kavanagh.
Replacements: F McKenna for Buckley (46), D McCarthy for Gaughen (50), R Meyer for Rael (63), C Hartigan for Sherry (66).
Referee: O Hodges (IRFU).
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