Scarlets just out of reach for Munster

Scarlets 18 Munster 13

Three times in the second half, Munster crossed the home line, yet on all three occasions the Irish referee, Dudley Phillips, and his Welsh TMO ruled out a score.

Those decisions, along with two terrible fumbles by Gerhard van den Heever with the line at his mercy, conspired to send Munster tumbling to their third defeat of the season.

Not only that, with Leinster beating Glasgow, they lost their grip on top spot in the RaboDirect Pro12.

They also missed out on a small slice of history — they could have become the first team in the league to whitewash all four Welsh regions home and away. As much as that was a small spur for Munster it proved, on St David’s Day, to be a massive motivation for the Scarlets to avoid becoming the team to concede that eighth defeat.

With six games to go, there is certainly no reason to panic, and the reality is that this level of performance would usually have been good enough to win nine out of 10 games in this competition.

As head coach Rob Penney conceded, the rub of the green just went against his side.

“We made a couple of crucial errors, didn’t get the rub of the green with some official calls and, in tight games, they are going to cost you,” said the Munster coach.

“Scarlets played really well in the first quarter and put us under the pump, but our defence was bloody good and I was very proud of that.

“Once we started to put a few phases together we were creating some opportunities and we went into half-time feeling pretty good.

“We got Gerhard’s rather fortuitous try, which put us into quite a strong position, and then we dominated the second half. You get over the line three times, none of which are awarded, and a couple of crucial calls that don’t go for you, a couple of bonuses just elude you, and that’s the ball game.”

The Scarlets started strongly, but ran into a brick-wall Munster defence which meant the only scores in the opening quarter were a penalty apiece. Then came a moment of magic from the home scrum-half Gareth Davies after the Scarlets had set-up a lineout 10 metres out for a potential drive. Instead, Davies darted to the narrow side, fended off James Coughlan, then sidestepped inside both Johne Murphy and Duncan Williams to cross for a brilliant individual score. That gave the Scarlets renewed confidence, yet by half-time they blew their lead.

A dropped pass in midfield allowed Van den Heever the chance to nip in and race 35 metres to the posts for a sucker try that Ian Keatley converted and then the Munster No 10 banged over a penalty with the last kick of the half to make it an unlikely 13-8 for the visitors at the break.

Keatley had a long-range shot to extend the lead from a penalty awarded at the restart, but was wide. Then the Scarlets turned the game on its head again with a 10-point burst in two minutes.

Aled Thomas kicked a penalty and then Scottish back row expert John Barclay flew off the back of a lineout won at the front by Coughlan intercepting Williams’ pass before it reached Keatley. He ran 60 metres unopposed to the line and Thomas added the conversion to make it 18-13 on 52 minutes.

“We knew they would come up very quick off the back of the line out and, fair play to John, he had been chasing me all game and he finished that try very well. But we shouldn’t be giving up those silly mistakes and allowing someone to catch a ball like that off a front of the line take,” said Keatley.

“We let one slip and it is a frustrating result for us. Our attitude and our breakdown work, and our physicality and aggression were the reasons we didn’t win.

“Teams are going to come after us, so we have to be ready for those battles. Maybe this is the spark we need.”

The rest of the game after that Barclay try was a tale of almost total domination by Munster but, as chance after chance went begging, you just got the feeling it wasn’t going to be Munster’s day.

“There is a lot of football to go yet. We have Treviso at home then Leinster, Ulster and Glasgow, so we aren’t certain to be anywhere yet,” added Penney. “There was no lack of focus. I thought we deserved a better outcome. It just wasn’t to be.”

Scorers for Scarlets: Tries: G Davies, J Barclay; Con: A Thomas; Pens: O Barkley, A Thomas.

Scorers for Munster: Try: G van den Heerden; Con: I Keatley; Pens: I Keatley 2.

SCARLETS: J Williams; K Phillips, J Davies (G Maule 64), O Barkley, F Climo; A Thomas, G Davies (R Williams 64), Phil John (R Evans 71), E Phillips, S Lee (J Adriaansee 71), G Earle, J Snyman, J Turnbull (S Timani 76), J Barclay, R McCusker (capt).

MUNSTER: S Zebo; G van den Heever, C Laulala, D Hurley, J Murphy (R O’Mahony 67); I Keatley (JJ Hanrahan 61), D Williams (G Hurley 76); D Kilcoyne (J Cronin 70), D Casey, S Archer (BJ Botha 4-13, 64), D O’Callaghan (D Foley 55), D Ryan; CJ Stander (S Dougall 65), T O’Donnell, J Coughlan (capt).

Referee: Dudley Phillips (IRFU)