Leicester raid Thomond Park to pile more misery on Munster

By Simon Lewis, Thomond Park

Munster 19 Leicester 31

Munster's Champions Cup hopes were left hanging by a thread after a home defeat to Leicester Tigers in Limerick as the English side made it two wins from two visits to Thomond Park.

This reunion of the two-time Heineken Cup winners ended the same way as their first meeting on Irish soil in 2007, when the Tigers closed the old Thomond with a first European win at Thomond by a visiting side. And this victory was no smash and grab as Munster lost on home soil in round three for the second year in a row.

Twelve months ago their defeat by Clermont led to elimination after the pool stage as Anthony Foley's team failed to make up lost ground on the road, and with trips to both Leicester, next weekend, and Stade Francais in January before visiting Treviso in round six, qualification this year already looks a tall order after another desperately disappointing performance.

Munster slumped to their third defeat in succession having fallen to Connacht and Newport Gwent Dragons in the Pro12, but this one will hurt most of all as Leicester outgunned them in a three-tries to two victory.

Despite falling behind to an Owen Williams penalty inside two minutes, Munster quickly gained back the initiative and put Leicester on the back foot.

Blindside flanker Robin Copeland showed the home side's intent with a big carry to get into the visitors' 22 and when James Cronin followed suit with a clean break on halfway, the Tigers' conceded one of many first-half penalties, Keatley slotting to level the scores on 13 minutes.

The Munster fly-half added another six minutes later, only for Williams to level with a penalty from close to halfway.

When Keatley missed his third shot at goal from a central position just outside the 22 on the half hour it proved a momentum shifter as Leicester finished the half on top with two killer tries from Vereniki Goneva after a strong driving maul, the powerful wing eluding Keatley's tackle in the left corner to put the Tigers 11-6 ahead.

To compound the problem, Munster messed up a lineout on five metres with lock Mike Fitzgerald catching at the back to dive over for a second try in five minutes, Williams' conversion handing Leicester an 18-6 half-time lead.

Munster needed a big response after the break and they got it from the off when they harried a Leicester lineout on the visitors' five-metre line, Conor Murray pouncing on slow ball at the back of the ensuing ruck to get the home side up and running inside two minutes to the delight of the 22,261 crowd.

The feelgood factor continued three minutes later when Marcos Ayerza was sin-binned for taking out Murray and Keatley added a penalty to make it a four-point game at 14-18.

But joy turned to dismay when Ben Youngs made the most of turnover ball after Keith Earls was left unsupported in contact by breaching a huge gap at the fringe to streak over the line from 20 metres out, Williams taking the conversion to give the Tigers a 25-14 lead with less than half and hour to play.

Mike Sherry, off the bench for hooker Niall Scannell, gave renewed hope after Munster broke down the left through Conway, finishing the move with a try on 67 minutes but Keatley missed his second conversion of the night and things got worse when sub fly-half Tommy Bell kicked two penalties to seal a deserved Leicester victory.

MUNSTER: A Conway; K Earls, F Saili, D Hurley (L G Amorosino, 64), S Zebo; I Keatley (R Scannell, 73), C Murray (T O'Leary, 69); J Cronin (D Kilcoyne, 55), N Scannell (M Sherry, 51), BJ Botha (J Ryan, h-t); D Foley (M Chisholm, 55), D Ryan; R Copeland, D O'Callaghan (J O'Donoghue, 71), CJ Stander - captain.

LEICESTER TIGERS: T Veainu; A Thompstone (G Camacho, 79), M Smith, S Bai, V Goneva; O Williams (T Bell, 60), B Youngs (S Harrison, 68); M Ayerza (M Aguero, 76), T Youngs (H Thacker, 78), D Cole (F Balmain, 73); G Kitchener, M Fitzgerald (D Barrow, 71); E Slater – captain (L Pearce, 68), B O'Connor, L McCaffrey.

Yellow card: Ayerza 45-55.

Referee: Romain Poite (France).