Keatley stars as Munster go top

WITH the future of Ronan O’Gara uncertain, Munster at least had the satisfaction of watching new signing Ian Keatley pick up a man of the match award as they climbed to the summit of the RaboDirect Pro12 at Musgrave Park on Saturday night.

Munster’s coach Tony McGahan was left to try figure out the implications of O’Gara’s suggestion that he will retire from international rugby at the end of the current World Cup and whether his present contract with the Irish Rugby Football Union would allow the out half continue to play for the province only.

“It’s news to me,” said McGahan when questioned about O’Gara’s revelations following Ireland’s historic triumph over Australia earlier on Saturday.

“I never heard anything and we have got no notification. I haven’t seen the interview. He (O’Gara) is an Irish Rugby Football Union contract, and if it’s an Irish Rugby Union contract I don’t know whether he has anything worked out with regards to that.”

McGahan will have been happy with the display of Keatley, who kept the scoreboard ticking over as Munster put a nervous first-half performance behind them to claim a deserved bonus point and leadership of the competition after three rounds.

If Keatley made his mark with 15 points of Munster’s total, McGahan was even more pleased with the demolition of Llanelli’s highly respected pack by his tight five. Munster could afford to change the entire front row and continue a scrum dominance that left the Welsh side in total disarray.

Constantly penalised for collapsing a retreating scrum, it was inevitable that the visitors would also concede a penalty try as Munster punished them with a series of scrums in a six-minute spell between the 25th and 30th minutes.

McGahan was satisfied overall with the display against a team they will also meet twice in the Heineken Cup: “Considering the conditions and the way we played in the first half, to come away with a bonus point was a tremendous effort. The front row (x two) provided an excellent platform. There was great ascendancy there, they gave us the ability to get out of our own area but also to put pressure on them, to drain them of energy which must have been the case based on being at the receiving end of a few of those scrums.”

The coach will also have been relieved to see his charges go through a full game without picking up yellow cards. “Yes, that was a big improvement; we can take something out of that for sure.”

Munster dominated the opening exchanges even though the visitors had a couple of breakaway opportunities early on. Dan Newton kicked them into the lead but Keatley responded and then added the conversion to an excellent try from Doug Howlett, the product of good work from Mick O’Driscoll, Peter Stringer and Peter O’Mahony, before each of the goal kickers exchanged penalties to leave the score 13-6 to Munster.

The dominance continued when Munster were awarded the penalty try in 30 minutes after a succession of powerful scrums, Keatley kicking the easy conversion.

Dale Ford’s mammoth penalty from his own half gave the Scarlets something to aim for and Munster’s Keatley was unable to respond from a similar distance with the last kick of the opening half, as Munster led 20-9.

Despite Munster’s early second-half dominance, the first strike went to the visitors with another penalty from out half Newton to peg back the deficit to eight points. Munster continued to set the pace but had what seemed to be a legitimate try by Marcus Horan ruled out by the TMO after a long deliberation. A successful Keatley penalty settled the nerves and Duncan Williams made it even better when he galloped in for a try to stretch the lead out to 28-12. Replacement Tommy O’Donnell scored the fourth try six minutes from the end to give Munster a most deserved bonus-point victory, with Keatley’s conversion putting the icing on the cake.

MUNSTER: J Murphy; D Howlett, T Gleeson, L Mafi, D Hurley; I Keatley, P Stringer; M Horan, M Sherry, J Hayes; D Foley, M O’Driscoll; P O’Mahony (captain), J Coughlan, N Ronan.

Replacements: B Holland for Foley (45), W du Preez for Horan (50), BJ Botha for Hayes (53), D Williams for Stringer (59),B Holland, T O’Donnell for Ronan (64), D Fogarty for Sherry, S Deasy for Mafi (both 67), S Zebo for Howlett (71).

SCARLETS: D Ford, L Williams, R Gomer Davies, G Maule, A Fenby, D Newton, R Tipuna, I Thomas (captain), K Myhill, R Thomas, L Reed, D Day, R McCusker, B Moran, J Turnbull.

Replacements: E Phillips for Myhill (45), A Shingler for Day (56), J Edwards for Thurnbull, G Davies for Tipuna (both 63), P John for Thomas, R Jones for Thomas (both 66), L Rees for Fenby (71), P John, R Jones, A Shingler, J Edwards, G Davies, A Thomas, L Rees.

Referee: A Macpherson (Scotland).

Picture: Munster's Mick O'Driscoll climbs for a line out as the rain falls. Picture: INPHO