Magical Munster see off Stormers to win URC title and end trophy drought
RED REDEMPTION: Munster captain Peter O'Mahony, left, and Keith Earls lift the trophy as teammates celebrate after winning the United Rugby Championship Final match between DHL Stormers and Munster at DHL Stadium in Cape Town, South Africa. Pic: Nic Bothma/Sportsfile
Munster were crowned BKT United Rugby Championship champions on Saturday, completing a stunning return to form over the last seven weeks with a thoroughly deserved victory against the odds at DHL Stadium, ended a 12-year wait for silverware in the process.
Defeating the defending champions on their home turf for the second time in six weeks and in front of a sell-out 56,344 crowd was nothing short of a remarkable achievement to cap Graham Rowntree’s first season as head coach and they did it the hard way — playing their last six games of the season away from home, winning four and drawing one in their last five since a 50-35 Champions Cup hammering in Durban on April 1. The province has clocked up close to 100,000 kilometres before their flight back to Ireland on Sunday.
A 78th-minute try from John Hodnett, converted from the touchline by Jack Crowley sealed the deal, Munster having trailed 14-12 since the 49th minute.
Rowntree’s team had led 12-7 at half-time but had had two tries ruled out in the opening 40 minutes, settling for a single maul try from Diarmuid Barron that cancelled out Manie Libbok’s fifth-minute intercept try. They lost Mike Haley to a yellow card early in the second half as a Deon Fourie try on 49 minutes seized the initiative once more. But Munster held firm and got the trophy their efforts deserved to the delight of upwards of 2,000 travelling supporters.
In a breathless opening period Munster dominated with the lion’s share of possession, a powerful maul and composed game management by half-backs Conor Murray and Crowley. Yet they had conceded the first try on five minutes when Stormers number 10 Manie Libbok intercepted a wayward offload from Antoine Frisch, running 60 metres to draw first blood to the delight of the huge home crowd, also adding the conversion.
Munster were quickly back on the front foot however, matching the Stormers’ physicality in contact with flankers Hodnett and captain Peter O’Mahony leading the charge. When Crowley kicked a penalty to the left corner on 10 minutes the Munster pack took charge, driving the lineout maul to the line and drawing the home side offside before striking with their second drive, hooker Diarmuid Barron touching down to get his side up and running.
Crowley missed the touchline conversion amid a loud chorus of boos but Munster had fired their first shot. The Stormers were under constant pressure and it told when Springbok No.8 Evan Roos was yellow carded for killing the ball at a ruck as Munster laid siege to the Capetonian’s tryline.
The visitors unleashed another lineout attack from five metres out and when the maul splintered, Gavin Coombes prised open a gap between desperate defenders to plant the ball on the line, only for referee Andrea Piardi to rule out the score after a lengthy deliberation, judging the Munster No.8 had been crawling on the deck.
The Stormers were off the hook but not for long, Frisch pouncing on a kick ahead from Mike Haley and sliding over the line only to be called back for a knock-on on 24 minutes. Munster were denied again when Malakai Fekitoa found a gap after a lengthy lateral carry, the ball finding O’Mahony who advanced into the 22 then released Haley to run the ball in. Yet again, the try was not given, this time for a forward pass from O’Mahony.
Mercifully, Munster finally got their reward on six minutes later when after another period of sustained pressure, Crowley sent a crossfield kick into the corner, Calvin Nash judging the bounce perfectly to slide in behind the posts. This time the fly-half’s conversion found its target and Munster were 12-7 in front.
They were deserved leaders and very much in control despite the loss of O’Mahony to a Head Injury Assessment on 34 minutes from which he did not return. Rowntree sent on his own Springbok in RG Snyman with Tadhg Beirne moving back to fill the vacancy at blindside flanker.
The second half was no less frenetic, the Stormers now taking the initiative with their pressure seeing Munster having to defend deeply, their defence holding until Haley took out Angelo Davids after the wing had kicked passed him.
Haley’s absence from the resulting 49th minute yellow card will have had little to do with the try that followed for the Stormers but the momentum had shifted and when Fourie grounded a strong lineout drive, Libbok’s conversion atoning for a 42nd-minute missed penalty to send his side back in front at 14-12.
Munster saw out the remaining minutes of the sin bin without further damage as the game ebbed and flowed at a high tempo and the momentum swung with it, heightened by the excitable and deafening noise generated by a hyped-up crowd.
The Stormers were also benefitting from some generous officiating from Piardi, and advanced upfield courtesy of clear forward pass inside their own half. Still Munster held firm as the game reached its final 10 minutes, Keith Earls sent on for the limping Nash, and the Stormers withdrawing their captain, Springbok prop Stephen Kitshoff, to a standing ovation in his final game for his hometown club before a post-World Cup move to Ulster.
It was not to be the perfect send-off, though. Munster’s resilience proved its worth yet again, absorbing the everything the Stormers threw at them and then working their way back upfield. It was Coombes who shifted the balance, a giant arm deflecting a clearing kick to hand possession back to Munster.
It would have been easy to panic but first came a penalty advantage and then came the killer blow, Hodnett striking in the left corner after the ball was moved from right to left, through the hands of Earls, Alex Kendellen, Snyman, Tadhg Beirne and on until the openside flanker completed a stunning move. Crowley nailed the touchline conversion as nervelessly as he had delivered the semi-final-winning drop goal against Leinster seven days and 14,000 kilometres earlier.
There was one more nerve-jangling twist, a yellow card for Crowley for slapping the ball out of replacement Stormers scrum-half Paul de Wet’s hands with two minutes to go. It piled more pressure on Munster’s remaining 14 players but as the Stormers rolled upfield on the back of two penalties, the men in red reached deep into their reserves to conjure a maul turnover just as the final hooter sounded.
Arms flew up into the air, the Munster bench cleared and Rowntree and his assistants embraced each other in the coaches box as the celebrations erupted in front of a stunned Cape Town crowd. Munster were champions.
D Willemse; A Davids, R Nel, D du Plessis, L Zas (C Blommetjies, 78); M Libbock, H Jantjies (P de Wet, 65); S Kitshoff – captain (A Vermaak, 72), J Dweba (JJ Kotze, 61), F Malherbe (N Fouche, 61); R van Heerden (M Theunissen, 78), M Orie; D Fourie (W Engelbrecht, 57), H Dayimani (B-J Dixon, 49), E Roos.
Roos 18-28
M Haley; C Nash (K Earls, 70), A Frisch (B Healy, 62), M Fekitoa, S Daly; J Crowley, C Murray (C Casey, 65); J Loughman (J Wycherley, 61), D Barron (N Scannell, 61), S Archer (R Salanoa, 61); J Kleyn (A Kendellen, 68), T Beirne; P O'Mahony – captain (RG Snyman, 34 - HIA), J Hodnett, G Coombes.
Haley 51-61; Crowley 78.
A Piardi (Italy)
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