Munster 31
Scarlets 15
Murray Kinsella reports from Thomond Park
MUNSTER SECURED CHAMPIONS Cup rugby for next season with a bonus-point 31-15 victory on the final day of what has been a disappointing 2015/16 season.
Anthony Foley’s men ensured they will be playing at the premier level of European club competition again with a five-try success in front of just under 12,000 people at a wet Thomond Park.
Breakaway tries from Francis Saili and Ronan O’Mahony in either half were the highlights in a performance that Munster will admit was not perfect. However, ending the campaign in a positive fashion will have come as a relief, with The Fields of Athenry ringing around the Limerick venue late on.
Foley’s era as the top man ends in victory and a sixth-placed Guinness Pro12 finish, with the former number eight now looking towards working under new director of rugby Rassie Erasmus.
The South African will have seen more examples of quality from the likes of Saili, Rory Scannell, Jack O’Donoghue, Keith Earls, Dave O’Callaghan and barnstorming captain CJ Stander in this contest and supporters will certainly look forward to seeing what Erasmus can bring to this group.
Foley will have taken great satisfaction from the fact that Munster did not need the favours of others to secure their Champions Cup spot, even if rivals the Ospreys and Edinburgh did contrive to lose on the final day of the regular season.
The Scarlets, for their part, missed out on the Guinness Pro12 play-offs but they too will be playing Champions Cup rugby next season.
Munster started poorly in the wet conditions, with their loose kicking game and passive linespeed inviting the Scarlets forward and leading to Steve Shingler’s opening penalty success of the afternoon in the ninth minute.
The game was being played in the Munster 22 but the Welsh side were not error-free and Munster punished them with a stunning counter-attack soon after.
O’Donoghue – who was superb after replacing the injured Tommy O’Donnell – turned over John Barclay 10 metres from Munster’s tryline and Saili pounced, grubbering short up the left for Earls to retrieve.
The Ireland wing beat one tackle as he burst towards the halfway line, drew in the final defender and found Saili working hard to support on his inside shoulder. The All Blacks-capped centre streaked clear to finished for a gorgeous score converted by Holland.
The Scarlets almost responded with a try of their in the 18th minute, left wing Steff Evans crossing in the corner, but referee Nigel Owens cancelled it out in conjunction with his TMO as Shingler stood over the conversion. Hadleigh Parkes’ final pass was forward and Owens correctly chalked off the try he had initially awarded.
However, the Welsh side did get three points after Dave Kilcoyne knocked on as Munster looked to exit, Owens pinging the province for failing to roll clear. Singler made it 7-6.
Munster again found a try-scoring response, with Rory Scannell the man to smartly finish their 23rd-minute effort, following some big carries by Stander, Mike Sherry and Kilcoyne under the posts. Holland again converted for the home side.
Foley’s men gave up another penalty in the 29th minute as their count rose in that department, Shingler rewarding openside James Davies for one of his breakdown turnover penalties after a powerful Stander carry left him isolated.
The Welsh region drew closer to Munster again with four minutes of the half remaining, Saili failing to roll away after his choke tackle attempt had failed and Shingler again slotting the three points, leaving the visitors 14-12 behind at the interval.
A superb Earls tackle directly from the restart, forcing Scarlets to dive off their feet in desperation to secure the ruck, gave Holland a penalty shot at goal but the Cork man missed from the left of the posts.
A big break from openside Davies reminded Munster of their need to focus, before the southern province lost a five-metre lineout that eventually saw Shingler chip over their defensive line from close in.
The Scarlets out-half claimed to have been tripped by Stephen Archer as he chased the ball towards the tryline, but a TMO check confirmed there was little or no contact.
Another five-metre lineout loss, near the Scarlets’ tryline this time, saw Munster give up an attacking opportunity with 55 minutes gone and then they lost the influential Conor Murray to injury heading into the final quarter.
Murray followed O’Donnell, Niall Scannell and Andrew Conway off injured, with Simon Zebo soon joining them.
That could have upset Foley’s men, but instead they pounced on yet another Scarlets handling error. The superb Rory Scannell scooped the loose ball up near the halfway line, drew a tackle and offloaded inside for sub wing Ronan O’Mahony to sprint clear.
Holland was wide with the conversion effort, before the Scarlets opted to go for goal with a penalty and draw back with within four points at 19-15.
Munster essentially wrapped up the win in the 68th minute as that man Stander barrelled over from close range, the TMO Marshall Kilgore confirming the score.
Holland was wide with his conversion attempt again, but made no such mistake after inside centre Scannell dove over for his second in the final minute to send Munster fans home happy.
Munster scorers:Tries: Francis Saili, Rory Scannell [2], Ronan O’Mahony, CJ Stander
Conversions: Johnny Holland [3 from 5]
Penalties: Johnny Holland [0 from 1]
Scarlets scorers:
Penalties: Steve Shingler [5 from 5]
MUNSTER: Simon Zebo (Ian Keatley ’64); Andrew Conway (Ronan O’Mahony ’24 to ’31, permanent ’38), Francis Saili, Rory Scannell, Keith Earls; Johnny Holland, Conor Murray (Duncan Williams ’58); Dave Kilcoyne (James Cronin ’56), Niall Scannell (Mike Sherry ’3), Stephen Archer (John Ryan ’71); Dave Foley (Robin Copeland ’62), Billy Holland; Dave O’Callaghan, Tommy O’Donnell (Jack O’Donoghue ’8), CJ Stander (captain).
SCARLETS: Liam Williams; Gareth Owen, Steff Hughes, Hadleigh Parkes, Steff Evans (Aled Thomas ’72); Steve Shingler, Aled Davies (Gareth Davies ’53); Rob Evans (Dylan Evans ’75), Ken Owens (captain), Peter Edwards (Rhodri Jones ’68); Jake Ball, David Bulbring (Morgan Allen ’55); Lewis Rawlins (Tom Price ’64), James Davies, John Barclay.
Replacements not used: Ryan Elias, Jordan Williams.
Referee: Nigel Owens [WRU].
Attendance: c. 12,000.
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Leinster, Connacht & Ulster in the last 4 & Munster in Europe next year. A good day to be an Irish rugby fan. Fair play to all 4 provinces.
Yeah enough great individual and team displays to give Schmidt some selection headaches for the summer tour squad to Africa
Jimmy at least you said it was a good day not a great day to be an Irish rugby fan , Europe has and always will be our standard bearer , when we all think about it we have fallen off big time , our clubs have played in 9 HC finals and the last one was an all Irish final , look at how our clubs have regressed in Europe since, Munster and Leinster in the RCC this year were pathetic to say the least to the standard that was set before , only 4 years ago Leinster were tearing teams to shreds , no one wanted to play them but that has all changed , no team fears Leinster or Munster anymore and it’s a pity because they both brought something special t it, looking back at the 2 semi finals that we played against each other in 06 and 09 , need I say anymore .
Please don’t.
Well done to the four proud provinces. I watched the Connacht match and will watch Munster later. By all accounts one of my tips for the very top of world rugby,Jack O’Donoghue ,had a superb game. I am still sticking to my opinion that he can be as good as McCaw and this is coming from a Leinster supporter.
Tom I fully agree with you , my Munster back row all fit = Pom @ 6 , JoD @ 7 and CJ @ 8 , that’s a serious back row and we have very good back up in all of those positions too , tom I think it will be an ulster Glasgow final and ulster to win it , would be great to see Connacht win it out but Glasgow played the last half an hour with 14 men and Connacht spent a lot of time defending and that will be a worry for them, I think the ulster backs are far superior to leinsters and I think that this is will be the difference between the two sides . Great to see all four proviences in Europe next year and hopefully we all will give a better account of ourselves than we did this year !
Murphy you hate JOD with a passion don’t you , You never have a good word to say about the young man always running him into the ground , I can’t stand people like you who always disrespect . JOD is only 21 years old . Your a stones
Pub Murphy , with you no more conversions your a dose
I played at 7′, I played in the position , I don’t have to explain what I already know , I can see he has everything to be the complete 7!, you can’t , by the way what position do you play or have played in ?
he was blown out of it at ruck time , but you stated before it was the break down , what do mean it would be detrimental to his career, Alan quinlian played at 6 and 7 for Munster and Ireland , so has SOB , POM has played all back row for Munster , David Wallace played HC at 8 for Munster and was always a 7 for Ireland , the claw started as a 6 up to under 20 and then moved to tight head for Munster amd ireland and then to loose head for Munster , john Hayes played second row before he changed to to tight head prop at 21 , detrimental me hole , oh by the way you still didn’t answer my other question
Ya because you can’t answer it , you can’t give out that information over the Internet my hole , oh it’s classified is it ? Maybe the CIA might want to know , the vast majority of open sides you say are playing there since they were kids , ok name them , know what don’t bother as you can’t give out that info over the Internet , God I was not wrong about you , you most certainly are a dose
Happy days !!!!!!!!!!!
“…a five-try success in front of just under 12,000 people at a wet Thomond Park.”
Just for a little perspective. Leinster haven’t broken 12k at the RDS since 2015.
Encouraging performance to close off that frustrating, difficult season. Really believe there’s the potential to develop a decent, competitive team from that squad of players, but it’ll take a lot of smart, intelligent coaching that Erasmus will hopefully bring next season. Well done to the 4 Provinces today, and best of luck to Leinster and Connacht in their Semi-Finals.
I really don’t think that Champions Cup qualification will be seen as a successful season by most in Munster .
Badly need to work on the tight t for next season bar donncha ryan its pretty paltry…decent squad besides that just need to dump kealtey and williams
At the end of the day the 3teams above munster only won 1 game more and Connaught 2games more so they weren’t that much behind!!
Why does murray kinsella have to start off his report on the munster crowd every time,they average one of the highest in the pro 12 every week,it’s a Saturday 3pm in limerick,we does have the Luas and dart to travel 15mins to a match!!!
Considering he is from Waterford and also was a Munster academy player. No conspiracy there
Why though? Same table points but much better PD. Is it because one less win than Scarlets?
Yep. Games won is the first deciding factor.
Thanks, didn’t know. Suppose it doesn’t make a difference to the seed.
Munster finished 5 right? The tables still all have them 6th
Missed out to Scarlets for 5th place.
I’d imagine both 5th and 6th will be seeded last in their pool, seeing how there’s only 4 in each pool. Fair play to them for making it though. All 4 provinces in Europe is fantastic
6th will definitely be 4th seeded. 5th in the any of the 3 leagues have a 33% chance of being 3rd seeded. Ironic that the English complained about meritocratic qualifications and now we have a seeding system where 9 out of the 20 teams that qualify will find out their seeding…literally from a coin toss.