Munster's play-off hopes take serious blow as Bulls storm Thomond for historic win

BLUE ROAR: Vodacom Bulls' Ruan Nortje celebrates at the final whistle after the BKT United Rugby Championship clashe between Munster and the Bulls at Thomond Park. Pic: INPHO/James Crombie

URC: MUNSTER 13 BULLS 16

Munster’s URC play-off hopes were dealt a serious blow on home soil on Saturday as they came out on the wrong side of a low-quality arm-tussle with the Bulls.

A 72nd-minute penalty from Keegan Johannes was the difference after a first-half try apiece from Bulls’ back-rower Marcel Coetzee and Munster full-back Thaakir Abrahams and two penalties each from Johann Goosen and Jack Crowley.

Munster had been knocked down to eighth place from fifth ahead of kick-off after victories earlier in the day from the Stormers, Cardiff and Benetton and though they picked up a losing bonus point to climb back to seventh they face a fight over the remaining three rounds of the regular season to hang onto a play-off spot.

There will be questions asked of the match officials after Munster were forced to play 13 minutes of the second half with 14 men when Alex Kendellen was mistakenly forced off by referee Andrea Piardi following injuries to both tightheads, starter Oli Jager and his replacement Stephen Archer. Yet the defeat, seven days on from a Champions Cup quarter-final exit in Bordeaux, leaves Munster’s 2024-25 campaign in danger of complete collapse unless they can quickly rebound next Friday at Cardiff.

Munster’s pre-game preparations had been disrupted when Craig Casey and Peter O’Mahony were both withdrawn from the starting line-up, the scrum-half due to illness while the veteran flanker picked up a leg injury. Conor Murray and Jack O’Donoghue came off the bench to fill the voids, the latter, wearing seven, at No.8, with Alex Kendellen moving to the openside to cover O’Mahony’s absence.

There was a further blow when starting tighthead Jager failed to return from a Head Injury Assessment after 14 minutes with Munster having taken a 3-0 lead six minutes earlier through a Crowley penalty.

It proved to be a tightly contested opening period, Munster spending long periods without the ball and trapped inside their own half. They conceded the opening try when the Bulls struck from a scrum inside the home side’s 22, No.8 Cameron Hanekom carrying off the back to advance his team to the line and with back-row partner Marcel Coetzee finishing the job from close range, Goosen’s conversion and then a penalty on 22 minutes extended the visitor’s lead to 10-3 as Munster’s lineout problems once again undermined the rare attacking opportunities they managed to create.

The misfiring set-piece had been a major contributory factor to their Champions Cup quarter-final exit to Bordeaux-Begles seven days earlier and there were two malfunctions inside the Bulls’ 22 in the first half at Thomond Park.

Yet there was a much-needed breakthrough as half-time approached and a lineout finally stuck. Munster pressure brought consecutive penalties, both of which were tapped from short range and patient phase play along the Bulls’ five-metre line created an opening on the left. Abrahams rounded the final defender for the try with Crowley levelling the scores at 10-10 from the conversion.

Munster started the second half brightly as the rain returned following a dry first half and a yellow card for offside from a quickly-taken Murray penalty earned his opposite number Embrose Papier a yellow card on 44 minutes.

Yet again, Munster failed to take advantage with the Bulls stealing the resulting five-metre lineout. Their inaccuracy was punished soon after when Goosen kicked the South Africans back in front with a 47th-minute penalty.

The game took a strange turn when Archer, Jager’s replacement, was forced off injured forcing hooker Lee Barron on for an unexpected debut as a stand-in tighthead. Piardi took the game to uncontested scrums with the incoming player not a recognised prop. The knock-on consequence of that was that Munster were told to remove another forward for what appeared to be the remainder of the game. That fate fell to Kendellen, though it took 13 minutes of touchline debate involving the fourth official and Munster team manager Niall O’Donovan to restore the home side to their full complement as the laws do not require a player to be withdrawn if the initial injury was an HIA.

Back came Kendellen and the return of contested scrums with a clearly baffled Piardi heard muttering over the ref’s mic that there were “too many rules”.

With justice finally done, Munster received another boost with a missed penalty from Goosen’s replacement Keegan Johannes as the game edged into it’s final 10 minutes still deadlocked at 13-13.

Johannes was given another opportunity on 72 minutes when Kendellen was penalised for a high tackle and the replacement fly-half this time found his range to push the Bulls in front at 16-13.

Two kicks out on the full from the Pretorians gifted Munster attacking platforms inside the Bulls half in the final three minutes and raised the decibels from the 14,733 crowd inside Thomond Park with the home side presented with a final chance to rescue things.

From the lineout, Munster kept the ball alive for almost three minutes only to come up short, a knock-on ending the game as the Bulls celebrated a valuable away victory, the first for a South African side at Thomond. It was also one which consolidates their third place in the standings and keeps them on course for a home quarter-final at the end of May.

MUNSTER: T Abrahams; S O’Brien, T Farrell, A Nankivell (R Scannell, 73), A Smith (D Kilgallen, 52); J Crowley, C Murray (P Patterson, 73); J Wycherley, N Scannell (M Donnelly, 60), O Jager (S Archer, 14 – HIA; L Barron, 52); J Kleyn (F Wycherley, 66), T Beirne - captain; T Ahern (R Quinn, 66), J O’Donoghue, A Kendellen (withdrawn, 52-65).

BULLS: D Williams; S de Klerk, D Kriel, H Vorster, C Moodie; J Goosen (K Johannes, 65), E Papier (Z Burger, 65-79); J Wessels (S Matanzima, 68), A van der Merwe (J Grobbelaar, 57), W Louw (M Smith, 57); C Wiese (JF van Heerden, 64), R Nortje – captain; M Coetzee, J Kirsten, C Hanekom. Yellow card: E Papier 44-54 Replacements not used: N Carr, S Jacobs.

Referee: Andrea Piardi (Italy)