Family fortunes at all-time high for Scannells at Munster

Rory Scannell is warming to the challenge of becoming Munster’s emergency out-half.

Scannell was called on to replace the injured Tyler Bleyendaal after just seven minutes of Saturday night’s Guinness PRO12 clash with Glasgow at Musgrave Park and it was his second half penalty that ultimately secured a narrow but deserved 10-7 win to keep Munster on course for a home semi-final.

“My introduction was unexpected, it was early doors when I came on and we looked in control. Then they scored late on, we had had a few mistakes in attack and in the end we had to produce a huge defensive performance to hold out. But credit to our guys and especially the younger guys like Conor Oliver, these guys really stood up in our defensive performance.”

It was a big day for the Scannell family, with brother Niall joining Rory against the Warriors, while younger brother Billy was over in Cardiff with the Irish Under-18 schools. “They beat Italy and we got a win on my 50th cap so it was a good day out.”

The game further underlined the wealth of talent Rassie Erasmus can now call on, as Munster stay in the hunt for two trophies.

“It’s great to have depth in our squad. We had a very strong bench tonight and a few lads were given a go and they really stood up. Conor (Oliver) had a fantastic performance, Jean Deysel came in for his first game and he was outstanding.”

“Glasgow are a class team and they have pretty much the whole Scottish team there; we knew it was going to be a tough ask because we had seen that in the three games previous, so I think we have to take great pride in our performance.

“It’s not going to get any easier in the run-in of three games. We have Ulster next week who are fighting for top four as well, so that’s going to be a very tough game and we’re really only looking at that at the moment. But it’s good to be in the semi of Europe the following week and in the hunt for the two trophies, three in fact when you count in the B&I Cup.”