Munster win match but no admirers

Another Munster win but another one which belonged in the watching-paint-dry category. A funereal Musgrave Park, dotted by barely 1,000 spectators, was a fitting backdrop to a plodding home win, thanks almost exclusively to the performance of the Munster pack. Their back play was barren.

Indeed, the fall-out was more interesting than much of the match. The Padova coach, Vittorio Munari, launched a scathing condemnation of Munster's approach, which he called "slow motion rugby".

According to his counterpart Declan Kidney, though, "a stomach bug went through the team just after half-time, which is why John Hayes and Shane Leahy had to come off due to illness".

"Others were affected by it, too. We were hoping to speed up the game in the second half, having done well into the wind in the first half, but it just wasn't in the legs."

That didn't cut much ice with Munari, a little Joe Pesci-type character with a commanding presence despite his stature; he is voluble and volatile.

But his rapid-fire, post-match tirade was delivered with much humour. He was unimpressed with Munster.

"They walk around the pitch and they waste a lot of time. We play probably 15 minutes out of the 80, the other was just waiting around, people on the ground. That is not professional rugby. We are amateur, but if that is professional rugby . . ." He pulled a disgusted-from-Padova face.

"They waste time. One hour to throw a ball in line-out. One hour and a half for injuries, four hours to walk from one side to the other. That is my afternoon. That is what I see. I think they are very good in one thing: they play very well slow-motion rugby."

When this was put to Kidney, his eyes widened in astonishment before he sniggered and just said "no", as if Munari's comments were so far off-beam they weren't worth responding to.

Kidney was equally dismissive of Munari's contention that "Clohessy should have been sent off" for a 10th minute punch. Referee David Davies and his touch judge decreed both players were equally at fault. It was one of many square-ups in a fractious and fragmented match. Kidney said: "I could highlight lots of incidents as well but I don't want to get into a tit-for-tat situation." Clohessy vehemently protested his innocence.

Kidney admitted "we can do better". That Munster aren't firing like they were this time last year is "a pleasing thing, in that the best is still to come, and a worrying thing". He acknowledged that Saturday's game "wasn't a great spectacle", but added: "That's not the pace we're trying to play and that's not the pace we're practising at."

Mick Galwey struck a surprisingly satisfied note as he came off the pitch from his warm-down. "Last week we scored one try, this week we scored two," he cited as a sign of progress.

Yet closer analysis shows that the tries were, first, the product of a neatly-worked peel at the front of the line off the captain's tap-down when Alan Quinlan off loaded to Eddie Halvey; and, second, the result of a towering up-and-under by Ronan O'Gara which Padova's otherwise exemplary Kiwi full-back Kelly Rolleston spilled.

Admittedly, a tall Padova pack competed well on the Munster throw, and often knocked back Munster's drive off the fringes. Too often then, especially early on, Tom Tierney and his replacement Brian O'Meara were taking static ball or even going backwards.

Even so, O'Gara lacked presence, missed tackles, and though he place-kicked well and occasionally connected sweetly out of the hand, his kicking game was mixed. The up-and-under, until the try, was badly executed.

The midfield, in the absence of the sorely-missed Rhys Ellison, couldn't take the ball over the gain line and was porous. The scarcely-used wings performed well; Kelly defended and took his try competently. But Dominic Crotty again lacked awareness of his support runners when counter-attacking; he aimlessly kicked to touch in granting Padova an early attacking line-out from which they took the lead. Were Barry Everett's more inventive out-half play added to the equation, and Ellison and Keane were restored to the middle, along with John Lacey's finishing power on the wing, then Munster's backs might begin to pose a threat again. The most repeated question afterwards was "what has Lacey done to them (the Munster management)?"

On the plus side, the defence was excellent, Halvey leading the line with some trademark clean hits, while Alan Quinlan's work-rate and drives made him the pick of the home team. Padova's continuity and willingness to move the ball made them the more inventive side, although they spilled far too many balls until Rocco Salvan cut diagonally through the Munster midfield off an orthodox set-piece move.

However the centre childishly kicked Michael Lynch in getting to his feet and the Munster centre exacted full retribution with a penalty from the restart on halfway. That, at least, was justice.

Scoring sequence: 4 mins: Rolleston pen 03; 19: Halvey try, O'Gara con 7-3; 40: O'Gara pen 10-3; 55: Rolleston pen 10-6; 55: Rolleston pen 10-6; 57: Kelly try, O'Gara con 17-6; 75: Salvan try, Rolleston con 17-13; 77: Lynch pen 20-13.

Munster: D Crotty; J Kelly, B Walsh, M Lynch, A Horgan; R O'Gara, T Tierney; P Clo hessy, M McDermott, J Hayes, M Galwey (capt), S Leahy, A Quinlan, A Foley, E Halvey. Replacements - B O'Meara for Tierney (17 mins) I Murray for Hayes (51 mins), D Wallace for Leahy (68 mins), D Corkery for Foley (78 mins).

Padova: K Rolleston; V D'Anna, M Piovene, R Salovan, M Baroni; M Berry, H de Marco; T de Bernardo, A Moretti, A Muraro, A Giacon, S Stocco, R Saetti, R Piovan, M Birtig. Replace- ments - C Cario for Muraro (77 mins).

Referee: D Davies (Wales).