Munster scrummaged off the park

MAGNERS LEAGUE/Ulster 15 Munster 10:A NIGHT for the scrum. Nobody on the Munster side was making excuses afterwards, and it should be noted this was a full-strength Ulster pack, at home, against a Diet-Munster eight. Still, their set-piece collision was worryingly substandard.

Tony Buckley will not want to revisit this nightmarish Ravenhill experience, but he must. The former secondrow is lined up in many quarters to be John Hayes’ eventual successor at tighthead, not just at Munster but for Ireland as well.

Tom Court destroyed him on nearly every put-in. It is well-established BJ Botha is one of the best in the business, so that hardly helped matters as he minced into fellow countryman Wian du Preez.

It was a collective destruction, but Court deserves the lion’s share of praise for his night’s work. It was a shame the return to form of Andrew Trimble was recognised with the man-of-the-match accolade. This was a freezing night in front of an 11,800 Belfast crowd perfectly set up for the scrummaging prop to be crowned king, not a frostbitten winger.

Granted, Trimble’s renewed candidacy for international recognition was reflected by freeing his arms to send Simon Danielli clear for the second try. He went at or smashed into the equally-eager Ian Dowling whenever possible, having added a serious aggressive streak to his repertoire.

On general reflection, however, this was a dour battle. No scores came in the second half as Ulster, led ably by the ferocity of Stephen Ferris and Chris Henry, strangled the life out of Munster.

When, inevitably, it went to the scrum, the Ulster frontrow looked overjoyed.

On some occasions stand-in referee Dudley Philips, after Alan Lewis cried off, awarded Munster the free-kick, but besides his letter-of-the-law interpretation Ulster were in utter control.

“The scrum was outstanding,” said Ulster coach Brian McLaughlin, “and I felt that we didn’t get exactly what we deserved, but the referee’s got to make his call and it’s never easy. There were a couple of times when I thought the free-kicks could have gone either way or the penalties could have been turned around. That’s just the way the scrum is now, you’ve got to make your luck there and, all credit, I thought our frontrow scrummaged exceptionally well, and the pack in general.

“And it gave us an advantage there and it stood to us in the last 10-15 minutes. We were under pressure then and our scrum dug in and put them under pressure, which eventually ended up with us getting out of our own 22.”

At least two of the three old guard of Marcus Horan, Hayes and Jerry Flannery are desperately required when the rampaging Northampton Saints come seeking a Thomond Park scalp later this month.

“They (Ulster) are an excellent scrummaging side,” agreed Munster coach Tony McGahan. “They put us under immense pressure tonight. They talked about it all week leading up to the game. You know, it’s always an ongoing process with the set-piece, and we’ve been pretty solid for the last three or four weeks. We were up against a very good scrum. We’ll have to go forward from there.”

Munster can take heart from some individual displays by their shadow team. Donnacha Ryan accepted the odds and smashed onto ball and into rucks with relish. And hooker Damien Varley, after making a consistent impact in recent seasons for Garryowen, appears to have a future at this level too.

Others struggled. Paul Warwick has been excellent all season and many feel he deserves more time at outhalf, yet Ronan O’Gara’s place-kicking and subtlety were conspicuous by their absence. Warwick will probably be back at number 15 this week.

His missed penalty on 67 minutes, after a deliberate knock-on by Trimble denied an overlap, which hurt the Munster revival. There were not many chances on offer, so 15-13 would have put Ulster under severe pressure.

The victory puts them three points adrift of fourth-placed Munster, but it was far from impressive. They are devoid of the killer instinct, and that presumably contributes to a lack of progress in Europe. They are young and improving, but Munster will feel they should have stolen this.

McLaughlin was somewhat conflicted in his appraisal of events.

“To be brutally honest, I’m really, really pleased that we played ugly and won. Last week we played exceptionally well against Leinster and got nothing out of it; tonight, other than one smashing try from a lineout, one great piece of opportunism from Simon Danielli and a penalty to put us 15-0 up – but we didn’t kick on from that which was very, very disappointing.

“But the great thing was we hung in there. We did give away a soft score and we were very disappointed, but I think in general our defence was good and certainly we knuckled down in the last 10 minutes under ferocious pressure and came away with the win.”

With Ian Humphreys, eventually replaced by Niall O’Connor as Ulster played territory down the home strait, putting them three-nil up, Warwick gave away the first try on 20 minutes when his chip was half-blocked by Paddy Wallace, allowing Danielli to steam away from Doug Howlett.

Then another disaster as Trimble stepped inside Jean de Villiers and offloaded to Danielli who burnt Peter Stringer. All off clean, second-phase possession, after Wallace fixed the line, with Humphreys in impressive control; Ulster do this sort of thing very well.

The next flashpoint was another gruesome hit by Ferris as Buckley rampaged towards the line, after a trademark break by James Coughlan.

But a bizarre Munster try did eventually come seven minutes before the break.

Despite their scrum going in reverse, Philips awarded the visitors a free-kick and an additional 10 metres – Ulster players genuinely believed it was their possession – with a quick tap sending Lifeimi Mafi into the 22. Humphreys ripped back possession, but a muscular follow-up from Ryan saw the ball spill loose, allowing de Villiers scoop up and scramble over.

A messy try that said a lot about this forgettable game.

SCORING SEQUENCE – 11 mins: I Humphreys pen, 3-0; 20: S Danielli try, I Humphreys conv, 10-0; 21: S Danielli try, 15-0; 32: J de Villiers try, P Warwick conv, 15-7; 38: P Warwick pen, 15-10.

ULSTER: J Smith; A Trimble, I Whitten, P Wallace, S Danielli; I Humphreys, I Boss; T Court, N Brady, BJ Botha; E O’Donoghue, D Tuohy; S Ferris, W Faloon, C Henry (capt). Replacements: TJ Anderson for Henry (blood, 4-10 mins), for W Faloon (half-time); T Nagusa for Wallace (53 mins); A Kyriacou for Brady (56 mins); N O’Connor for Humphreys (62 mins).

MUNSTER: D Hurley; D Howlett, L Mafi, J de Villiers, I Dowling; P Warwick, P Stringer; W du Preez, D Varley, T Buckley; D Ryan, M O’Driscoll (capt); B Holland, N Ronan, J Coughlan. Replacements: T O’Donnell for Ronan (inj, 25 mins), P O’Mahony for Coughlan, S Archer for Buckley (both 70 mins).

Referee: D Philips (IRFU).