Munster keep doing it the hard way

FRUSTRATING, sloppy, tight and an uncomfortable finish — and those are the words of the winning captain.

What a Christmas conundrum Munster have given their supporters to ponder over the sherry and mince pies this festive season. Closing out, just, this fourth straight Pool One victory to leave the province sitting pretty at the top of the group with two games to play is surely a cause for celebration.

Yet the post-match analysis of Paul O’Connell, his head coach Tony McGahan and hooker Damien Varley would have made Ebenezer Scrooge’s demeanour appear like a ray of winter sunshine.

“We’ll take it,” said Varley, sensibly, while McGahan bemoaned his team’s failure to control both the scoreboard and the clock.

For the fourth Heineken Cup game in a row, Munster diced with danger, flirted with failure and somehow defied the odds to emerge the right side of the result. This latest win may have produced the biggest margin of victory of the campaign and Ronan O’Gara’s game-winning points are coming much earlier in the second half than was necessary at home to Northampton and away to Castres but defending a six-point lead does not make for a comfortable finale and that is what is understandably vexing McGahan and O’Connell.

As well as another sloppy start — eight days ago in Llanelli, Munster had trailed 8-0 after just nine minutes, while in Castres last month it was 11-0 after 12 minutes and 18-10 at half time.

To their relief this time, the opening 40 minutes at Thomond Park did not leave them chasing the game but still only 6-3 ahead at the break, Scarlets falling foul of Dave Pearson’s whistle and Stephen Jones missing an early penalty.

Yet the knock-ons were still there, the lineout wobbled early on and once again Munster were grateful for two missed penalty kicks from Jones, who went off at half time with a neck injury, and Rhys Priestland.

“Frustrating really,” O’Connell said.

“We were determined not start like we did the previous week and you can talk all you want about defensive systems but you’ve got to make those first-up tackles and probably didn’t do that a lot.”

Munster did not exactly charge loose after the break but they looked far more composed, got lots more front-foot ball and made some smart breaks, not least when man of the match Conor Murray got on the end of O’Gara’s 22m dropout following a Priestland missed penalty and kick started a move that took the home side to the Scarlets line, saw flanker Jonathan Edwards yellow-carded and James Coughlan finish off a drive from the lineout with his first try of the season.

O’Gara’s conversion, which added to his four penalties from five attempts, left Munster 16-3 up with less than 30 minutes remaining but instead of kicking on, Scarlets got their tails up, setting up a nervy closing segment after substitute hooker Ken Owens scored a try for the visitors, converted by Priestland.

So where does this leave the pool as Munster prepare to welcome French outfit Castres to Thomond Park in mid-January in their penultimate group game before heading to England to face Northampton Saints?

The province may be five points clear but O’Connell is taking nothing for granted.

“It’s hard to say really because four [wins] from four, you’d think we’ve been really dominant, but we haven’t,” he said. “Every game has been really tight, there have been very narrow winning margins in all of them so we won’t be getting ahead of ourselves.

“It’s kind of a strange pool in that everyone is capable of beating everyone.

“You look at what Castres did to Northampton and Northampton nearly won the tournament last season, so these are our two games coming up and they’re going to be two very tough games.

“We know as well as anyone how tight they’ve been and we could easily be in a lot worse situation here.

“So we’ve just got to keep our heads down and make sure we fight for everything again in January.”

Sounds like Munster are prepared to keep doing things the hard way, and who could argue if they keep grinding out victories.

MUNSTER: D Hurley, J Murphy, K Earls, L Mafi, S Zebo, R O’Gara, C Murray; W du Preez (M Horan, 70), D Varley, B Botha, D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell (capt), D Leamy, N Ronan, J Coughlan (T O’Donnell, 76).

Replacements: T O’Leary for Murray (63), D Ryan for Leamy (63), M Horan for du Preez (70), T O’Donnell for Coughlan (76).

Penalties conceded: 7.

SCARLETS: R Priestland, L Williams, S Williams, J Davies, S Lamont, S Jones, G Davies; R Jones, M Rees (capt), R Thomas, L Reed, D Welch, R McCusker, J Edwards, B Morgan.

Replacements: V Longi for S Jones (41), G Maule for Williams (64), K Owens for Rees (64), T Knoyle for G Davies (66), S Timani for Welch (66), P John for R Jones (66), K Murphy for Edwards (70), D Manu for R Thomas (80).

Yellow card: J Edwards 50-60 .

Penalties conceded: 11 and two free-kicks.

Referee: Dave Pearson (England).