Glasgow 18; Munster14: Munster crashed out of the Celtic Cup last night to a Glasgow side that made their defence count throughout. But Munster will look back on this quarter-final tie as a match of missed opportunities, the most obvious of which were the two off-target penalty attempts by outside half Jeremy Staunton.
Of the two sides, Munster looked much the more assured on the ball, their back line thrusts, particularly those of Mike Mullins and Shaun Payne, causing Glasgow problems.
Munster, however, had not reckoned on the dogged defence of Glasgow who showed why they are such an improved side this year after a wretched spell last season.
The Irish side's defence had to work overtime in the opening minutes as Glasgow piled on the pressure, but to no avail. In the event Munster broke free with a great run by Jerry Flannery and from an ensuing penalty they went through a number of phases before prop Simon Kerr barged over for the opening try, which was clinically converted by Jeremy Staunton.
Almost immediately the outhalf was again addressing the posts, this time with a penalty effort after Glasgow centre Gareth Maclure was yellow-carded for preventing release of the ball. But his kick fell just short.
Munster, looking threatening whenever they moved the ball, triggered an audacious attack from their own 22-metre line area that gave winger Shaun Payne a 40- metre infield run that almost produced a try for Mossie Lawlor.
However, Glasgow had transgressed in stopping the move but again Staunton failed to find the target with his penalty attempt.
Sensing they had been thrown a lifeline, Glasgow regrouped and after a series of driving runs by the forwards the ball was released for Scotland wing Rory Kerr to sprint over for his side's first try, Parks' conversion levelling the scores.
Having absorbed heavy pressure Glasgow made a rare visit to the Munster 22-metre area and when Dominic Crotty attempted to run the ball out of defence the full back was penalised for not releasing, allowing Parks to slot a difficult kick for a 10-7 interval lead.
It was Glasgow who looked the hungrier early in the second half as they applied continuous pressure, the reward coming eight minutes in when scrumhalf Kenny Sinclair and Maclure combined cleverly for number eight Paul Dearlove to crash over for an unconverted try.
Glasgow then extended their lead to 11 points when Parks landed a second penalty following a ruck offence by Munster. It seemed Staunton had immediately clawed back three points with a drop goal effort but referee Hugh Watkins signalled a no score.
However, Munster did not have to wait long, David Wallace and Jim Williams thrusting for the line before the ball was released to the right for Mullins to squeeze in for a try, Staunton's conversion reducing Glasgow's lead to just four points.
Now chasing the game, Munster put themselves into a choice attacking position with a perfectly-placed punt from Staunton, but, again, Glasgow escaped with tidy line-out work.
Minutes later, after wonderful ball retention, Munster won a line-out in the corner but the throw-in was deemed crooked and another chance was missed.
GLASGOW: S Moffat; R Kerr, G Maclure, A Bulloch, D Millard (S Lamont 59); D Parks, K Sinclair; M Proudfoot (E Murray 50), S Gunn, L Harrison, L Harrison, A Hall, N Ross (J Beardshaw 60), C Mather, D Macfadyen, P Dearlove. Scorers: Kerr, Dearlove tries; Parks 2 pens, con
MUNSTER: D Crotty (M McPhail 45); M Lawlor, M Mullins, J Jones-Hughes, S Payne (M Prendergast 82); J Staunton, E Reddan; S Kerr (F Roche 63), J Flannery, J Danaher (M Cahill 50), T Hogan, D Pusey, S Keogh, D Wallace, J Williams. Scorers: Kerr, Mullins tries; Staunton, 2 cons
Referee: H Watkins (Wales)
