Last-minute Trenholm try upsets perfect start for McMillan's Munster
Munster's Paddy Patterson is tackled by Josh Hathaway of Gloucester. Pic: Billy Stickland/Inpho
The reign of new coach, Clayton McMillan, began with a disappointment as Gloucester’s flanker, Will Trenholm, scored a last-minute try converted by George Barton to deprive Munster of a morale-boosting victory.
Unsurprisingly it was a disjointed encounter with new coach, Clayton McMillan, having much to work on ahead of next Friday’s clash with English champions, Bath at Virgin Media Park but one of the positives was a successful try-scoring return for wing, Shane Daly.
Daly said:”It’s great and it felt good but it’s disappointing to be on the wrong end of the result as there were a number of positives out there as we showed some good attacking play and were resolute in defence.
“We did enough to win it but weren’t clinical enough in taking our chances and a lapse in concentration unfortunately let them in.” The former Chiefs coach, McMillan will be officially unveiled on Tuesday but he will reflect on the lack of accuracy in his side’s play and for large parts of the game, Gloucester had the edge up front to secure territorial dominance and by the time these two sides meet again in European competition in December, he will hopefully have his men at full throttle.
Both sides agreed to field completely different line-ups for each of the halves but Munster opted not to include any of their Ireland and Ireland U20 internationals, they having only recently returned to the province for pre-season training following their summer call-ups.
Gloucester were without their newly appointed captain, Tomos Williams, who still hadn’t recovered from the hamstring injury sustained on Lions’ duty in July but they were able to include former Leinster and Ireland fly half, Ross Byrne, who made his debut for the club.
A knock-on from Jeremy Loughman and the concession of a scrum penalty gifted Gloucester an early platform with the home side turning down a simple penalty kick in favour of more attacking options.
It appeared to be correct call when former London Irish wing, Ben Loader, held off a number of defenders to crash over but the referee deemed the scoring pass to be forward.
Munster were slow into their stride with a weak kick from Ethan Coghlan, which went straight into touch, not helping, but they were still first on the scoresheet.
Their marquee signing from Leicester, centre Dan Kelly, stole possession in the tackle to begin an impressive counter-attack. The pressure was maintained and an excellent cross-field kick from Tony Butler was touched down by Andrew Smith with Butler nailing the touchline conversion.
Munster should have extended their lead when Tom Farrell intercepted a telegraphed pass but despite support from Kelly and Shay McCarthy, they couldn’t capitalise as a crucial pass went astray.
They were made to pay when the hosts broke out to win a 5 metre scrum. From there the Munster pack were sent rapidly backwards for No 8 Jack Mann to pick up and score with Byrne’s conversion bringing the scores level.
Gloucester suffered a blow when Mann was led off in discomfort with an arm injury with their opponents using the break in play to replace the whole of their front row with seven minutes of the half remaining.
There was there to be addition to score in that time so the half finished at 7-7 with Gloucester having marginally the better of it in terms of territory and possession. No 8, Brian Gleeson with the pick of Munster’s forwards with Butler and Smith the stand-outs behind the scrum.
For the second half, the returning J.J. Hanrahan and newcomer, Conor Ryan, were introduced with Daly, in action for the first time since badly damaging his hamstring, playing for Ireland A at Bristol back in March.
Daly was soon required to come to his side’s aid by covering impressively to secure a mark on his own line as Gloucester were again quicker out of the traps.
Once again the hosts failed to capitalise with erratic handling and stout Munster defence the cause of their frustration.
The third quarter looked set to finish scoreless but Munster broke out with some neat handling creating a simple run-in for Daly to celebrate his return.
A yellow card was then issued to Lee Barron, for a deliberate knock-on but Gloucester remained error-ridden and looked to have missed their chance when the replacement hooker returned.
However Munster lost concentration in the dying to concede energy-sapping penalties and finally Gloucester’s pressure told and were able to seize victory when Trenholm dived over a ruck to touchdown with Barton kicking a straightforward conversion.
It was rough justice on Munster as their second half performance was clearly an improvement on the first with a draw perhaps being the fairest result on a night of high endeavour but few thrills.
C Atkinson (J Hathaway 40), B Loader (J Morris 40), W Joseph (J Edwards-Giraud 40), W Butler (M Knight 40), O Thorley (J Cotgreave 40), R Byrne (G Barton 40), C Englefield (M Austin 40), C Knight (H Bellamy 40, A McCarthur 62), J Singleton (J Innard 40), K Gotovtsev (J Benz-Salomon 40), F Thomas (D Gwynne 40), C Jordan (M Alemanno 40), J Basham(W Trenholm 40), L Ludlow (c) (J Venter 40), J Mann(H Taylor 33, J Clement 40).
M Haley (T Abrahams 40), A Smith (S Daly 40), D Kelly (S O’Brien 40), T Farrell (A Nankivell 40), S McCarthy (D Kilgallen 40), T Butler (JJ Hanrahan 40), E Coughlan (P Patterson 40), J Loughman (M Donnelly 33, J Wycherley 50), N Scannell(c) (M Clein 33, L Barron 50), J Ryan (K Ryan 33, O Jager 50), E O’Connell (C Ryan 40), F Wycherley (E O’Connell 60), R Quinn (S Edogbo 40), B Gleeson (J O’Donoghue 40,) J Hodnett (R Quinn 60).
Dan Jones
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