Munster 35 Ulster 10:MUNSTER'S VICTORY was ridiculously distorted by the final seven minutes of this clash, during which they scored three converted tries to propel them from a narrow, 14-10 advantage to a bonus-point win.
The only blight on the night was another calf injury sustained by the luckless Jerry Flannery in the final throes of the contest.
Their success, if not the margin, was thoroughly merited on the strength of an excellent second-half performance, facilitated by Munster coach Tony McGahan’s prescience in periodically freshening his team during that period; the effect of those alterations was evident in the lucrative end game.
Every one of the Munster replacements helped to build momentum, and three of them, Tommy O’Donnell, Barry Murphy and Lifeimi Mafi, crossed for tries.
But it was the introduction of Tony Buckley, Flannery and Tomás O’Leary that provided the transformation.
Buckley gave the home side a pronounced advantage in the scrum until fellow replacement, Ulster’s Tom Court, switched sides, effectively, to negate his influence. Flannery provided a coruscating presence in the loose, linking play intelligently, while O’Leary’s physicality on the fringes, work-rate and power tied in Ulster defenders.
It guaranteed more room farther out, which the home side exploited against a tiring Ulster side.
It was a far cry from Munster’s first-half performance, a largely one-dimensional, ponderous, physical assault of solitary runners charging into contact. Those patterns lacked cohesion and dynamism, reliant on the individual rather than a team ethic.
The display was also pockmarked by errors, a fact which McGahan acknowledged. “In the first half I thought we showed some good effort in what we were trying to do. We probably lacked a little bit of ambition. We got some good roll-on at times; it was a lineout there, a scrum here, off our feet there, a kick here that took away a lot of momentum. That’s the nature of it, you really need to finish things off.
“We worked hard to get into positions but let ourselves down with those small errors.
“In the second half we put together some good field positions and good phases, really put some good pressure on them and played for the full 40 minutes.”
Ulster, backed by a strong wind, began brightly, the exuberance of a young team manifest in the way they looked to put width on the ball. Scrumhalf Paul Marshall was a catalyst for their enterprise and his namesake, centre Luke, and right wing Tommy Seymour helped provide a cutting edge to those expansive patterns.
Luke Marshall underlined his burgeoning promise, complementing a lavish skill-set by standing up physically to the challenge.
It was his beautifully timed inside pass that put Seymour racing through a gap in midfield, a move that eventually culminated in flanker TJ Anderson touching down for a well-worked try. Paddy Wallace, at outhalf, added the conversion, having earlier kicked a penalty, and at 10-0 the visitors couldn’t have been happier.
Paul Warwick reduced the deficit with a penalty that preceded a seminal moment in the contest. Paul Marshall tapped a penalty to himself, made decent yardage and two rucks later broke on the fringes, scampering to within five metres of the Munster line: with the home side stretched Wallace inadvertently ran into prop Bryan Young and the opportunity evaporated, and with it the prospect of a 17-3 lead.
Warwick kicked a second penalty – Wallace missed one from long range just before the interval – to leave the home side trailing 10-6 at half-time.
Ulster made a couple of changes before the restart, bringing on Neil McComb and Tom Court, but Munster dominated from the whistle. Warwick kicked a third penalty and provided the cut-out pass for Denis Hurley’s try after a fine break by Scott Deasy.
The home side’s pack wrested control, led by captain Denis Leamy and ably assisted by Donnacha Ryan, Mick O’Driscoll, Niall Ronan and Billy Holland in particular. Behind the scrum, Keith Earls was enjoying a burgeoning influence as he sought and found more space. Ulster were guilty at times of running when they should have kicked, and vice versa.
They also suffered in terms of referee Dudley Phillips’ interpretation of the breakdown: the penalty count was harshly one-sided.
Ulster survived losing McComb to the sinbin, but the wall of resistance sundered in those final seven minutes as O’Donnell forced his way over from close range, Murphy hacked on to score following a Paul Marshall fumble and Earls’ slaloming break from his 22 paved the way for Mafi’s bonus-point try.
Munster will reflect on a productive festive period, while there were enough positives from Ulster to suggest negotiating a path to the Heineken Cup quarter-finals is not beyond them.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 8 mins: Wallace penalty, 0-3; 13: Anderson try, Wallace conversion, 0-10; 17: Warwick penalty, 3-10; 34: Warwick penalty, 6-10. Half-time: 6-10. 43: Warwick penalty, 9-10; 52: Denis Hurley try, 14-10; 78: O'Donnell try, Warwick conversion, 21-10; 82: Murphy try, Warwick conversion, 28-10; 85: Mafi try, Warwick conversion, 35-10.
MUNSTER: S Deasy; D Howlett, K Earls, S Tuitupou, Denis Hurley; P Warwick, P Stringer; W du Preez, D Varely, P Borlase; D Ryan, M O'Driscoll; B Holland, N Ronan, D Leamy (capt). Replacements: T Buckley for Borlase (51 mins); J Flannery for Varley, T O'Leary for Stringer (both 54 mins); L Mafi for Tuitupou 56 mins; Darragh Hurley for du Preez, T O'Donnell for Ronan (both 76 mins); B Murphy for Denis Hurley, P Butler for Holland (both 79 mins).
ULSTER: J Smith; T Seymour, I Whitten, L Marshall, S Danielli; P Wallace, P Marshall; B Young, R Best (capt), D Fitzpatrick; T Barker, R Caldwell; TJ Anderson, W Faloon, R Diack. Replacements: T Court for Fitzpatrick, N McComb for Barker (both h-t); C Henry for Diack (51 mins); Fitzpatrick for Young (68 mins); D McIlwaine for Smith (74 mins); A Kyriacou for Best (83 mins).
Referee: D Philips(IRFU).
Yellow cards: N McComb (Ulster) 62 mins; D Howlett (Munster) 81 mins.
