Glasgow punish Munster errors to halt champions' URC defence
BOWING OUT: Simon Zebo of Munster waves to supporters as he leaves the pitch for the last time before retirement. Pic: Brendan Moran, Sportsfile
Munster’s reign as URC champions came to a shuddering halt at Thomond Park on Saturday night as Glasgow Warriors upset the odds and the seedings to reach next weekend’s Grand Final.
Their win, thanks to tries from captain Kyle Steyn and fellow wing Sebastian Cancelliere and inspired by centre Sione Tuipulotu stunned all but a handful of the 20,052 crowd and means the Warriors must now travel to Pretoria to face the Bulls next Saturday, following the South African side’s home semi-final victory over Leinster earlier in the day.
Glasgow, despite losing two players to the sin bin in the opening 40 minutes had led 7-3 at the break after Steyn’s 24th minute try, converted by George Horne, had gone against the run of play following Jack Crowley’s 12th-minute penalty with the visitors down to 14 men.
Munster, who had won 10 games in a row coming into the semi-final, also failed to make the sin-binning of Matt Fagerson count in the first 10 minutes of the second half, Cancelliere’s try also coming when Glasgow were short-handed.
Antoine Frisch gave the defending champions a lifeline, with Crowley’s conversion making 14-10 but the Scottish side managed the end-game superbly well, aided by a 74th-minute red card for Munster centre Alex Nankivell and earned every bit of their post-match celebrations.
It marked a deeply disappointing end to Simon Zebo’s playing career having announced he would retire at the end of the season at the age of 34 while it also marked the final game for RG Snyman, who will join Leinster this summer after four injury-hit seasons in red.
Prospects for an all-Irish Grand Final next Saturday had disappeared before kick-off after Leinster’s season was ended by South Africa’s Bulls at altitude in Pretoria, Jake White’s side winning 25-20 at Loftus Versfeld and Munster knew they also had a battle on their hands to secure an instant return to the decider they won in Cape Town in May 2023.
Top seeds and with home advantage, they faced a Glasgow team who were fourth in the league table but just three points behind first place and with recent memories of a 38-26 league victory at Thomond Park in March 2023.
Munster had lost just once in the URC since that day, against Leinster on December 26, and had won all four of their previous league semi-finals in Limerick yet this proved to be a far from straightforward assignment.
Munster made all the running in a bad-tempered opening half in which the Warriors saw Richie Gray yellow-carded on 12 minutes and Matt Fagerson follow him off just before half-time, yet the home side found themselves trailing 7-3 at the interval.
Jack Crowley had missed a close-range penalty on four minutes and his side were guilty of squandering several more opportunities created during long spells of possession.
Gray’s sin-binning allowed Crowley to make amends from in front of the posts but as Munster sought to extend their lead, a mix-up in midfield between Antoine Frisch and Alex Nankivell saw Glasgow captain and left wing Kyle Steyn pounce on the loose ball and race under the posts for the opening try on 24 minutes, scrum-half George Horne converting.
Neither side was playing with fluency, the visitors not helping themselves with their poor discipline while Munster’s lineout was proving to be their Achilles’ heel as they failed to take advantage of their territorial advantage on the scoreboard.
The well-documented ill-feeling between the clubs had also resurfaced, spearheaded by Peter O’Mahony and Matt Fagerson’s running battle throughout the opening 40 minutes.
It was largely restricted to verbals but when the Warriors flanker high-tackled his nemesis just before the break he became the second Glasgow player to be sent to the bin by referee Andrea Piardi.
It handed Munster a golden 10-minute opportunity to strike back after the break but instead, they conceded consecutive penalties and found themselves defending their tryline from a five-metre Glasgow lineout and maul which led to another penalty, kicked back to the corner.
Yet Munster escaped, their captain Tadhg Beirne stealing the lineout and then following up with a jackal to win a ruck penalty.
Graham Rowntree’s decision to remove big guns RG Snyman and Gavin Coombes from his starting pack and stack his bench with six forwards had not produced dividends from the start but the former was part of a three-man cavalry alongside Oli Jager and Diarmuid Barron introduced on 45 minutes.
That move was quickly followed by another setback for the champions, Sebastian Cancelliere breaking free to score a second Warriors try.
George Horne had missed a penalty moments earlier but made no mistake with the conversion as the visitors opened up a 14-3 lead as Fagerson returned from the sin-bin.
On came Coombes as Munster searched for a spark to ignite the required fightback but it was Snyman who delivered, his line break carving Glasgow open before feeding Jeremy Loughman, the loosehead prop’s strong and pacy carry getting the home side into the left corner from where the ball was quickly recycled and Craig Casey’s pass found Frisch to score on 55 minutes.
Crowley converted from close to the touchline to narrow Glasgow’s lead to 14-10 and Munster were back in the hunt.
Yet Munster’s eagerness, though, led to handling errors, playing into Glasgow hands as they gratefully took every opportunity to slow the game down and eat up the clock.
Winning their first scrum penalty of the match on 73 minutes further aided the cause as they entered the Munster 22 and eked another penalty, Alex Nankivell in at the side, and then on the TMO’s prompting, red carded for shoulder-to-head contact on Horne as he stooped to collect the ball.
Munster were down to 14 for the final six minutes and now needing a converted try to tie the game after Horne slotted the penalty from in front of the posts.
Munster worked their way upfield and into the Glasgow 22 only for replacement John Ryan to spill a Snyman offload as the clock edged past the 78-minute mark.
Glasgow played the scrum to perfection, running down the remaining time with resets past 80 minutes as Thomond Park fell eerily silent as Piardi called time, Munster’s tenure as champions brought to a deflating end.
M Haley; S Daly, A Frisch, A Nankivell (S O’Brien, 46-57 - blood), S Zebo (S O’Brien, 62); J Crowley, C Casey (C Murray, 57); J Loughman (J Ryan, 66), N Scannell (D Barron, 45), S Archer (O Jager, 45); F Wycherley (RG Snyman, 45), T Beirne - captain; P O’Mahony, J Hodnett (A Kendellen, 72), J O’Donoghue (G Coombes, 54).
A Nankivell 74
J McKay; S Cancelliere (J Dobie, 56), H Jones, S Tuipulotu, K Steyn – captain; T Jordan, G Horne; J Bhatti (O Kebble, 70), J Matthews (G Turner, 56), Z Fagerson (M Walker, 75); S Cummings, R Gray (M Williamson, 56); M Fagerson (E Ferrie, 61-71 - HIA), R Darge (H Venter, 56), J Dempsey.
R Gary 12-22, M Fagerson 40-50
Andrea Piardi (Italy)
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