Munster cling on for draw after Ulster's ferocious 21-point comeback
WHITE WAVE: Jacob Stockdale of Ulster celebrates with teammates Tom McAllister, left, and Rob Baloucoune after scoring their side's second try during the United Rugby Championship match between Ulster and Munster at Affidea Stadium in Belfast. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile
A draw and three URC match points apiece. Munster probably would have settled for that before they took the long road north on Friday. Not at half-time when they led by 21 points and had Ulster in all sorts of bother.
It looked then as if Clayton McMillan’s men would atone for their loss and abject display here last January. It was one of their lowest points last season and an experience that had been referenced in Limerick during the week.
For Ulster it is a second successive draw after their 33-33 epic in Glasgow last weekend. Frustrated as they were after the first 40 minutes, they were full value for their eventual haul in a second-half that they dominated as Munster had the first.
Munster sprung a surprise before kickoff, three of them actually, with Shay McCarthy replacing Shane Daly on the wing and Max Clein and Michael Foy added to the bench in place of Diarmuid Barron and Tim Ahern.
‘Knocks’, said the province. Both forwards would make their competitive debuts.
The tweaks didn’t bother them a jot. The visitors, so abject here nine months ago, were superb in so many departments in a first-half that produced four tries and a bonus point for them on the back of 76% possession and 86% territory.
For Ulster it was much too reminiscent of their first-half no-show on the opening day of the season here against Edinburgh. This time they found themselves 26-5 down at the interval and with another mountain to climb. Climb it they did.
The most pleasing thing for Munster for half this game? The sheer simplicity of what they were doing well. The scrum was rock solid, winning one against the head early on, and the lineout was mostly excellent while a danger on the opposition’s throw with it.
Three of those four first-period tries came from their pack, the first two with Kendellen and Marnus van der Merwe going over on the back of lineout mauls, and Kendellen grabbing his second with one last surge after multiple pick and goes.
There were some nitpicks.
Failure to exit from their 22 on the first two restarts gave Ulster their only ins through that 40 minutes, and they made the most of the first of them with Jacob Stockdale, earning his 150th cap, evading Ben O’Connor and JJ Hanrahan tackles to go over for his first of the night.
It was sloppy stuff from Munster and they deserved to be punished, but they might have felt hard done-by when the TMO decided Stuart McCloskey’s accidental bump into Shay McCarthy did not constitute sufficient off-the-ball interference.
That aside, Ulster’s ball handling and discipline was atrocious. Munster’s was so much slicker but they hadn’t managed much from open play until Cormac Izuchukwu earned a yellow card for a high clearout on Gavin Coombes on the half-hour.
He paid extra for that two minutes later when Hanrahan showed admirable patience and poise in a scrambled midfield to wait for the onrushing Dan Kelly whose line and pace tore through the Ulster centre and under the posts.
Ulster, back to 15 just before the half’s end, made a trio of changes to their pack before the restart and the expected retort left Munster having to roll up their sleeves. They did that by stemming early flows with a pair of breakdown penalties.
It took a superb passing move from Ulster to get them back into it, offloads in the tackle from Rob Baloucoune and Tom O’Toole allowing Stockdale to fall over the line with 53 minutes played and, more importantly, 37 still to go.
There were still a dozen of them left when Dave McCann went over from less than a metre out after a brilliant Jamie Benson kick deep into the 22 and a botched Munster lineout allowed Ulster set up the score from a close-in setpiece.
Jack Murphy’s two successful conversions meant it was now a seven-point game and the momentum was all in Munster’s face as they leaned more and more on a bench that had green replacements in Clein, Foy, Charlie O’Shea and Ben O’Donovan.
O’Shea, so impressive against Glasgow last week, skewed a difficult, long-range penalty shortly after coming on. A score of any stripe then would have been a nail in Ulster’s coffin but they grasped the lifeline with three minutes to go.
Stuart McCloskey was the man who went over after a punishing period of pressure deep in the visitors’ 22. Murphy was still left with the kick to draw them level. It was a tricky one under the circumstances, but he aced it.
There was time yet for another act but Ben O’Connor decided discretion was the better part of valour when, after a Baloucoune break into the Munster 22 that broke down, the full-back decided to hoof the loose ball into the stands.
Cue the boos from the home fans. They wanted more and who could blame them?
E McIlroy, R Baloucoune, J Benson, S McCloskey, J Stockdale, J Murphy, N Doak; E O’Sullivan, T Stewart, K Knox, B Donnell, E Snyman, C Izuchukwu, N Timoney, J Augustus.
D McCann for Snyman (19); T O’Toole for O’Sullivan, T McAllister for Knox and J McNabney for Augustus (all HT); M Devine for Doak (all 50); H Walker for Stewart (80).
B O'Connor, S McCarthy, A Nankivell, D Kelly, S O'Brien, JJ Hanrahan, C Casey; J Loughman, M van der Merwe, K Brookes, E O'Connell, T Beirne; J O'Donoghue, A Kendellen, G Coombes.
B Gleeson for Coombes and J Aungier for Brookes (both 50); J Hodnett for Kendellen (54); M Foy for O’Connell (61); M Clein for van der Merwe and J Wycherley for Loughman (both 66); C O’Shea for Hanrahan (70); B O’Donovan for Casey (73).
C Evans (WRU).
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