Johann van Graan era ends in a whimper as Ulster hammer Munster

United Rugby Championship Quarter-Final, Kingspan Stadium, Belfast 3/6/2022. Ulster vs Munster. Ulster’s Robert Baloucoune celebrates after Stewart Moore scored his second try. ©INPHO/James Crombie

ULSTER 36 MUNSTER 17 

Johann van Graan’s tenure as Munster head coach came to a crashing halt in Belfast on Friday night as his side was blown away by Ulster in the United Rugby Championship quarter-finals.

The South African had announced in December that he was quitting the province after five seasons at the helm to join English Premiership side Bath for the next season but he will not have envisaged a hammering in front of a baying crowd as the epitaph to his Munster career.

In truth, though, another trophyless campaign was no more than Munster deserved as they exited 2021-22 with a whimper, outgunned and outclassed by a rampant Ulster side who must now go on the road themselves next week to face either the Stormers in Cape Town or Edinburgh in the semi-finals.

They had surrendered second place in the URC table with a tame defeat to a second-string Leinster side on the last day of the regular season and with it ceded home advantage for the play-offs. And so the final chapter of the van Graan era was played out in Belfast rather than at Thomond Park. Assistants Stephen Larkham and JP Ferreira also ending their times at Munster far from home comforts, outscored by five tries to three.

Having been forced onto the road in pursuit of success, Munster’s away-day record in play-off games in this competition of played seven, lost seven, was an ominous sign of things to come.

So too was an error-strewn opening quarter from the visitors, which started with a knock-on from the kick off, progressed to a charged-down clearing kick and culminated in an alarming lack of concentration in the concession of the opening try on nine minutes. Ulster had been sharper from the off and it could not have been any more apparent when they won a penalty five metres form the Munster tryline. 

As the majority of Munster’s pack got dragged into a bout of pushing and shoving behind the ball, James Hume saw the opportunity and his quick tap and pass to John Cooney on his left saw the scrum-half scamper over untroubled as the team in red who had been engaged beseeched referee Jaco Peyper to overturn the score as their team-mates sheepishly shuffled back into the line. 

“The ball is live,” Peyper had said as Cooney scored and the South African referee was not changing his mind, the scrum-half adding the simple conversion on his 100th Ulster appearance.

Munster were stung into action and replied through some encouraging phase play which saw Jean Kleyn score next to the posts on 18 minutes, Joey Carbery converting to level the scores at 7-7 but it was a temporary reprieve.

Ulster’s sharpness was forcing Munster into mistakes and penalty concessions and the home side were playing to the edge with apparent ease as Moore scored in each corner before the half was out.

He had come in at full-back to replace the injured Mike Lowry, forced out with a fractured cheekbone sustained against the Sharks in the final round of the regular season, and though the Ireland rookie was a big loss, his replacement more than made amends.

First finishing off an excellent break by Robert Baloucoune and receiving an offload in the left corner from Etan McElroy on 23 minutes, then taking a flat pass from centre Hume to touch down in the right corner despite the best efforts of Keith Earls.

Cooney converted both and Ulster took a 19-7 lead into the interval, further boosted by the withdrawal of Munster scrum-half Conor Murray to injury.

When Ulster also proved faster out of the traps at the start of the second half, Nick Timoney scored after a break from midfield by Stuart McLoskey on 42 minutes. Cooney’s conversion opened the lead to 26-7, Munster looked in desperate need of a spark.

Gavin Coombes, playing his first game since April 2, looked to have provided it when he charged down a Cooney box kick and followed up to score only for the TMO to rule out the try for a failure to ground the ball.

It was another moment for the Kingspan Stadium to erupt, and there had been plenty of cheers given the home support’s raptures at every Munster error and van Graan was forced into further change when he withdrew Andrew Conway on 44 minutes. This sent Carbery to full-back and Mike Haley to the right wing as Ben Healy took over at fly-half.

Earls closed the gap with an acrobatic score in the left corner on 54 minutes but the touchline conversion was missed and Ulster soon stretched their lead once more, a Cooney penalty making it 29-12 two minutes later before he was withdrawn to a standing ovation, replaced by Nathan Doak.

One of Doak’s first acts was to convert Ulster’s fifth try of the evening just a minute later as the home side hammered another nail in the coffin of Munster’s season.

Earls did grab a second try late on but even that was eclipsed by a deserved try for man of the match Hume as the home faithful rose to stand up for the Ulstermen one more time.

ULSTER: S Moore; R Baloucoune, J Hume, S McCloskey, E McIlroy (B Moxham, 80); B Burns (I Madigan, 67), J Cooney (N Doak, 57); A Warwick (E O’Sullivan, 19), R Herring (J Andrew, 63), T O’Toole (G Milasinovich, 74); A O’Connor (K Treadwell, 65), I Henderson – captain; Marcus Rea, N Timoney, D Vermeulen (M Rea, 71).

MUNSTER: M Haley; A Conway (B Healy, 44), C Farrell, D de Allende, K Earls; J Carbery, C Murray (C Casey, 39); J Wycherley (J Loughman, 50), N Scannell (D Barron, 62-74), S Archer (J Ryan, 50); J Kleyn (J Jenkins, 62), F Wycherley; P O’Mahony - captain, A Kendellen, G Coombes (T Ahern, 62, C Cloete, 71).

Referee: Jaco Peyper (South Africa).