Error-prone Munster let Ospreys offthe hook
Only 10,000 of those who purchased tickets actually attended, and the Welsh visitors plundered a victory to enhance their perfect record and consign champions Munster to a second disappointing defeat inside a week.
There will be justified claims that Welsh referee James Jones had too much influence on the individual battles in this tight struggle but Munster must look at themselves, conceding a crucial second-half intercept try when they lost a glaring scoring opportunity that would have put an end to any doubt.
Munster forwards coach Anthony Foley bit his lip on the official but he expressed annoyance at the number of penalties conceded in the set-pieces.
Foley said: “We didn’t execute when we were camped on their line, there was a bit of indiscipline and we conceded an intercept try when we had a three-man overlap. So all the errors are really down to ourselves; in a good way, that can be resolved. Ospreys came out and did a number on us, they managed to get over the line and we have to take our hats off to them, but we will see them again.”
However, Foley did describe the scrum battle, and some of the decisions therein, as “bizarre”.
“The last couple of weeks our scrum has being going one way and that’s forward. I don’t see why in a few weeks’ time when we play Aironi that it can’t be the same; one person’s decisions are things that I can’t tell you [about] but I would like to have a chat with him to see what they were about.
“He obviously was going to go one way or another and it went the wrong way from our point of view. Our ball was pretty solid, pretty straight; their ball seemed to be all over the place.”
Foley referred to one first-half scrum: “Before half time, we were going forward and we were square and their hips were facing the touchline but they got a penalty; whether he [Jones] saw something different, he’s closer to it than I am and I can’t tell, maybe that’s a question you could ask him.”
Munster had a dream start with a try inside three minutes from Danny Barnes. Johne Murphy and Doug Howlett helped create it when breaking out of defence but Barnes did the grunt by blocking down an attempted clearance from winger Hanno Dirksen to get in for a score that Ian Keatley converted.
The Ospreys responded with an eighth-minute penalty from Dan Biggar but Keatley was back on song six minutes later to stretch the lead back out to seven points at 10-3. He might have kicked another in the 19th minute, almost miraculously after Munster had lost their own lineout throw, but he struck an upright.
Biggar also hit the woodwork before cutting the deficit before the break.
The out-half narrowed the gap to a point early in the second half and then came the 58th-minute turning point. As Munster launched a furious assault on the Ospreys line, Barry Davies managed to sneak an interception and with the help of Dirksen, Rhys Webb went in for a try to give the visitors a 14-10 lead against the run of play.
Keatley slotted another penalty and Munster were now exerting some authority at scrum time following the arrival of Springbok international BJ Botha for Archer.
A hat-trick of struck posts was completed when Biggar just missed with a drop goal attempt but Mr Jones’ next intervention wasn’t far away as he awarded two free-kicks in succession against Munster. Biggar’s last-minute penalty, awarded for another collapsed scrum, sealed the visitors’ win.
MUNSTER: J Murphy, D Howlett, D Barnes, L Mafi, D Hurley, I Keatley, D Williams, W du Preez, D Fogarty, S Archer, B Holland, M O’Driscoll, D O’Callaghan, P O’Mahony, N Ronan.
Replacements: BJ Botha for Archer (53). M Horan for Du Preez, I Nagle for Holland (both 61), P Stringer for Williams (67), S Zebo for Murphy (71); T O’Donnell for Ronan (blood 5-14).
OSPREYS: B Davies, H Dirksen, T Isaacs, A Bishop, R Fussell, D Biggar, R Webb, D Jones, R Hibbard, C Griffiths, I Gough, I Evans, J Bearman, J Thomas, J Tipuric (captain).
Replacements: A Jarvis for Griffiths (53), Parker for Bishop (58)T Smith for Gough (58), J King for Evans (72).
Referee: J Jones (Wales).
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