A statement of intent or act of survival?

WHETHER it was a desperate act of survival or a statement of intent, it did not really matter as Ronan O’Gara sent over that overtime drop goal to claim another epic Heineken Cup victory for Munster.

Yet in the cold light of a Monday morning, and with a tough trip to Castres in the offing this weekend, the Munster players and management must be wondering if that almighty effort to beat Northampton with the last kick of the game at Thomond Park on Saturday can possibly be replicated another, potentially, five times between now and January — just to get out of the pool stages.

Nothing should be taken away from the Herculean intensity that was summoned by Munster to withstand a quality Northampton side that twice came from behind to rattle the Fortress Thomond defences and almost inflict a second consecutive win by visiting English sides in the last seven months. And perhaps it was the bitter and painful memory of that sorry Amlin Challenge Cup semi-final defeat by Harlequins last April that helped fuel the willpower to not just lie down again but to keep striving for the remarkable victory that ensued.

To have to dig that deep in round one of the pool stages, though, will either be the making of this new European campaign or the high point of an exhausting and ultimately losing slog around France, Wales and England that will leave Munster out on their feet and out of the Heineken Cup at the first opportunity for the second season in-a-row.

Those are the uncomfortable concerns but at least Munster are not today assessing the debris of a campaign for which qualification for the knockout stages is already out of reach. That would surely have been the case if Northampton had prevailed in Limerick on Saturday.

As it is, Munster live to fight another day and kudos goes to the province’s director of rugby Tony McGahan, not only for the bold selection decisions he made in starting Danny Barnes, Conor Murray and Peter O’Mahony on their Heineken Cup debuts but also for the way he used his experienced replacements off the bench to engineer an heroic victory.

O’Mahony played a game for the ages and beyond his 22 years as he and fellow back-rowers James Coughlan and Niall Ronan as well as Paul O’Connell and Donnacha Ryan led the way in upping the intensity at the breakdown that had been so lacking the previous week against Leinster at the Aviva Stadium. He was up in the faces of the Northampton forwards throughout and harrassing their backs in open play, signalling his arrival as he bundled Chris Ashton out of his way with a charge down the left wing in the third minute that forced Saints onto the back foot and led to the opening pushover try from Damien Varley.

The second try also had its genesis in youth, as first Murray and then Barnes made telling advances before Doug Howlett used all his nous to dance around Roger Wilson and the otherwise excellent Ben Foden to dive over next to the posts and give Munster a crucial score just before the interval, O’Gara’s conversion handing the home side a 17-13 half-time lead as the leading all-time points scorer in competition pushed his tally past the 1,200 mark.

It was one of those nights for O’Gara, whose tactical kicking was virtually flawless and whose penalty within a minute of the restart, when Vasily Artemyev knocked on his kick-off, stretched Munster’s lead to 20-13.

Northampton, though, were far from out of it and having dominated the scrum and shown flashes of genius out wide to rebound from 7-0 down with an exhilarating Chris Ashton try made by Artemyev and Foden, they rallied again, first through Lamb’s third successful penalty kick of the night and then through former Munster centre James Downey’s try that gave Saints a 21-20 lead with 23 minutes left to play.

Eventually they needed 27 minutes to hang on, though, as Munster doggedly, patiently and superbly went through those 41 phases, expertly managed by Murray’s replacement Tomás O’Leary and with telling contributions from O’Mahony, Leamy and Will Chambers in particular before O’Gara delivered his killer blow. Those 41 phases of nerve-jangling possession, as the line ebbed either side of the halfway line before manouevring into that match-winning position, will live long in the memory.

As will the impressive defensive effort from Munster that matched a thundering offensive performance from Northampton, who, after a third Thomond Park defeat in 24 months will wonder what they have to do to win in Limerick.

They join a long list and once again they will reflect ruefully the passionate support Munster stir in their fans, who more than earned their corn as the province’s 16th man on Saturday night.

Though their new generation will undoubtedly benefit from their experience, the Thomond faithful will be hoping they do not have to go through it too often in the coming weeks because no team, not even Munster, can keep going to the well the way they did on Saturday night.

MUNSTER: J Murphy; D Howlett, D Barnes (W Chambers, 67), L Mafi, D Hurley; R O’Gara, C Murray (T O’Leary, 62); W du Preez, D Varley, B Botha (J Hayes, 72), D Ryan (D O’Callaghan, 55), P O’Connell, P O’Mahony, N Ronan, J Coughlan (D Leamy, 66)

NORTHAMPTON SAINTS: B Foden (G Pisi, 73); C Ashton, J Clarke, J Downey, V Artemyev; R Lamb, L Dickson (M Roberts, 66); S Tonga’uiha (A Waller, 66), D Hartley, B Mujati (P Doran-Jones, 72), C Lawes (S Manoa, 66), M Sorenson, C Clark, T Wood (P Dowson, 66), R Wilson

Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)