Bath unable to contain Munster in full flow

It's as if they can turn it on like a tap. Be it that wondrous pitch-length try against Toulouse in last season's semi-final, last week's match-winner in Castres or many others, at some point the Munster musketeers up the tempo with a stirring drive for the line as if galvanised by a one-for-all, all-for-one rallying cry.

In Saturday's shuddering trench warfare two mighty traditional provincial hotbeds of the Irish and English games went toe to toe and every inch was hard-earned. After a tryless opening period, but no less engrossing for all of that, the first try was always going to be pivotal and sensing that Mark Regan's pre-interval sin-binning afforded them their chance, Munster turned on the tap.

The catalyst can be anyone, from anywhere on the pitch. And after successive hits by Anthony Foley and Mike Mullins had forced a penalty against Bath's reserve hooker Andy Long for not releasing, the man to light the torch paper was second row John Langford, of all people.

With Mick Galwey shouting "go for it, go for it", the ex Wallaby tapped and galloped into the retreating blues from inside his own 10-metre line to half-way, with Galwey in support. That was the cue for team and crowd alike. With each of the seven rucks which followed, the decibel levels heightened.

It looks almost manic and uncontrolled but it isn't. Alan Quinlan, Frankie Sheahan, Mullins, Langford again, Ronan O'Gara, Anthony Horgan, Jason Holland and Foley all handled in turn, and each ruck was hit with such force that Bath were on the back foot every time and Munster on the front. From eighth phase, Dominic Crotty sped onto Ronan O'Gara's cut-out pass and offloaded with perfect timing for Anthony Horgan to dive for the corner and for glory. Bath were still in the game with eight minutes left before finally the suffocating and unrelenting pressure of their first visit to the Thomond Park bearpit saws them crack completely, and by the end Munster were in full flow and running away with the game.

So, like so many other examples of Munster's uncanny knack for upping the tempo and striking stealthily, had it been a conscious decision taken during the interval, or was it off-the-cuff? "You know us, we don't do anything consciously," quipped Munster coach Declan Kidney.

"We just seem to do things, that's the unpredictable nature of this team and one of its strengths. Obviously Bath were down a man, you don't want to be putting a team under enormous pressure, it was a call that they made themselves, that they would look to make the most of being a man up, and so lifting the tempo of a game is one of many ways of doing it. Others are to use the scrum and the extra man around the fringes, I'm not too sure what the others are but I'll think of something."

Yet therein lies much of the key to Munster's remarkable success of the last three years. In a modern game which can be structured like chess, Munster are almost utterly unstructured, which means they have a greater capacity than most to strike anywhere, anytime. This in turn must be attributed to coaching methods which engender and encourage players to make decisions on their feet, and is thus a statement of faith in the innate footballing talents of Irish rugby players.

That ability to maximise their temporary numerical advantage, allied to their typical sleeves-rolled-up response to Alan Quinlan's second first-half sin-binning in successive games - they actually won that 10-minute period 3-0 - were possibly the deciding factors in the match, Kidney agreed.

No doubt his team-mates chided Quinlan by saying they're thinking of starting next week without him. But all relief aside, that Quinlan merely received a yellow card for stamping on Mark Regan (luckily missing him with his first attempt, landing on Regan's shoulder with the second, and well away from the ball) it was another untimely example of his short fuse when tempers and the tempo heighten. After describing Regan's later stamp on Anthony Horgan as "unacceptable" the Bath coach Jon Callard viewed Joel Dume's yellow card for Quinlan as "a cop-out to be honest with you. Any stamping around the head is a feature that's not acceptable". Bath would not be taking any action though. "Not at all. All I can say is we're blessed there was no serious damage and we're lucky. Everybody involved has been very lucky."

It doesn't belong in the game, and it certainly didn't in this one. Thomond Park was jammed on a still, sun-kissed afternoon and with a fair sprinkling of Bath's travelling support, the old ground hummed to a colourful backdrop as both defences remained fairly impenetrable despite long stretches of unbroken play.

Though Munster's passing from the base and out wide was a tad panicky and rushed, in loose combat Anthony Foley and his cohorts were the bosses, forcing countless turnovers in contact from Bath.

Peter Stringer's kicking game atoned for some unusually wayward passes, while O'Gara deftly mixed his game and pulled the strings like a classy playmaker. Centres Jason Holland and Mike Mullins, probing and largely impenetrable except for one late burst by Mike Tyndall, won the midfield duel while again the outside three were faultless.

With another two tries taking his tally to four, Horgan was the pick of them, also running the ball back well and covering crucially to deny Iain Balshaw a try.

"We're spreading the ball a bit more than last year. We decided that we were going to use the back three more and I think myself Dominic and John (Kelly) are getting a lot more opportunities," said Horgan. "Last season we were spectators for certain games."

Bath were bitterly disappointed. Callard spoke through gritted teeth as he couldn't bring himself to discuss the manner in which his team folded in the last 10 minutes, describing Phil de Glanville's handling error under his posts, which was the prelude to David Wallace's clinching try, and the missed throws as "suicidal" and "schoolboyish". Kidney had apologised for his tardiness at the post-match press conference, due to "an altercation in the dressingroom". This, it transpired, was Kidney's birthday "treat". Like the double birthday celebration of the previous home game against Bath for Mick Galwey and Mick O'Driscoll, the candlelit cake went to Kidney, but he didn't get to eat any of it.

SCORING SEQUENCE - 17 mins: Preston pen 0-3; 24 mins: O'Gara pen 3-3; 40 mins: O'Gara pen 6-3; 45 mins: Horgan try 11-3; 55 mins: Preston pen 11-6; 58 mins: O'Gara pen 14-6; 71 mins: Preston pen 14-9; 74 mins: Wallace try, O'Gara con 21-9; 79 mins: O'Gara drop goal 24-9; 82 mins: Horgan try, O'Gara con 31-9.

MUNSTER: D Crotty; J Kelly, M Mullins, J Holland, A Horgan; R O'Gara, P Stringer; P Clohessy, F Sheahan, J Hayes, M Galwey (capt), J Langford, A Quinlan, A Foley, D Wallace. Replacements: J Staunton for Mullins, K Keane for Holland (both 79 mins); M Horan for Clohessy, J Blaney for Sheahan, M O'Driscoll for Galwey, C McMahon for Wallace (all 80 mins).

BATH: M Perry; I Balshaw, P de Glanville, M Tyndall, K Maggs; J Preston, G Cooper; D Barnes, M Regan, C Horsman, M Haag, S Borthwick, A Gardiner, D Lyle, B Clarke. Replacements: A Long for Gardiner (41-49 mins); A Adebayo for de Glanville (77 mins).

Referee: J Dume (France).