O'Gara shaves it again

And they say lightning never strikes twice. As at Vicarage Road a month before, Munster went into injury time six points adrift, and with anyone else you'd have said that was that. But not Munster, and again, literally, there was scarcely the width of a post and another Ronan O'Gara conversion in it.

The climax ensured the game of immortality. "If it was a movie you couldn't have scripted it better," repeated Noel Murphy in wonderment of a plot more in keeping with a fairytale. It even had the legends themselves, Mick Galwey and Keith Wood, scoring the opening and closing tries.

After paying due and breathless tribute to the team's character and the crowd, undoubtedly worth the extra point this time, Galwey calmly maintained: "There have been some great Munster days," he recounted with a gumshielded smile, "but with all respect to the other teams I played with, this had to be the best.

"And I'm saying that after thinking about the great wins over Wasps and Harlequins here, but this surpasses it again. I'm sure in other years there'll be players saying it was better than this one, and hopefully it will be."

As a quick summation of a match, Declan Kidney's takes some beating. "The amount of pressure we put them under in the first 20 minutes was smashing. Then, when we didn't get the scores, we showed a bit of anxiety and they took their scoring opportunities. In the first 10 minutes of the second half we got the points on the board, showed well, we played a bit of score for score, then for the next 20 minutes, and the last 10 minutes, I wouldn't even try to describe."

Munster struggled for clean ruck ball for much of the afternoon in the face of Saracens' physical aggression on the gain line. Francois Pienaar, Tony Diprose and Richard Hill were awesome in contact around the fringes in a generally mighty back-row collision in which Alan Quinlan and Anthony Foley mixed it, but David Wallace was understandably lacking a little sharpness both after his injury and in the physical stakes.

For once Munster's excellent line-out met one that was as effective, both in securing their own ball and in defending the opposition's. The scrums, too, were well matched.

Wood agreed with Galwey that Munster hadn't actually played well - they'd played better at Vicarage Road - and indeed went further.

"I'd say arguably that was our worst performance of the year and I think a lot of that has to go down to Saracens. They scrum incredibly well, their defensive line-out is incredibly good, they put you under an awful lot of pressure everywhere on the field.

"They stopped us from playing at times, and that's something we're going to have to learn from the next time we go on the field."

But Munster made it difficult for themselves too. The magnificent Peter Clohessy and Anthony Foley led from the front in a rip-roaring start which yielded a trademark line-out rumble and try for Galwey.

Amid more blood-binning than you'd see on an average bill at the National Stadium, Munster hit the dodgy Mark Mapletoft (whose performance showed him to be what he is, a creative out-half playing at full-back) with a barrage of the aerial stuff, and applied intense, in yer face pressure on the equally flaky Thierry Lacroix.

It seemed a discernibly nervous Saracens could be blown apart, but Mike Mullins just couldn't hold on to intercept a pass, a Clohessy offload was forward and Dominic Crotty fumbled with the line abegging as he attempted to gather his chip ahead.

Saracens were reprieved then, and again by O'Gara's short-range penalty miss and knock-on from Lacroix's long-range restart (which made his mentally strong and classy second-half performance all the more noteworthy).

The sniping Nick Walshe impressively engineered tries for Darragh O'Mahony and Mapletoft as Saracens moved 17-8 in front by the break. Rarely has a capacity crowd been so hushed during an interval.

It was the calm before the storm though. The tempo and the temperature gradually upped and upped, and what followed was about as fluctuatingly dramatic as sport can get.

After a second O'Gara penalty, Wood, Foley and Wallace in turn lifted the crowd. Wallace brilliantly presented the ball, despite Pienaar's massive hit, for O'Gara to run on to Springer's pass and, with a sumptuous outside break, put the supporting Jason Holland over. O'Gara's conversion restored Munster's lead. Yet the lead would exchange hands a further four times in the final quarter.

The end-to-end, three-minute passage of play which saw first Pienaar and O'Mahony launch an ominous break from deep, and then a Mike Mullins interception, prompted a feverish riposte from Munster. It also took the crowd to the brink of exhaustion. It even ended in a good old fight, and then O'Gara's penalty.

The out-half's line-kicking was now immaculate, and another couple of penalties either side of two by Lacroix (whose successive scuffed restarts were unforgivable) left it 24-23. The crowd hoped that was the end of it, but not by a long shot.

Saracens' continuity and marathon drive, which culminated in Mapeltoft staggering over the line in fitting fashion, would have been good enough to win most matches. But this was a match way beyond the norm.

A remorseless Munster drive and increasing crescendo of noise gave the tangible impression of 16 against 15. Every Munster shirt wanted a cut, and every Munster shirt was willing to ruck over the ball carrier. Saracens, too, put their bodies on the line.

The night before the match Declan Kidney had asked Mick Galwey and Peter Clohessy what they would do if Munster trailed by four points with time running out, pointing out all the different mathematical possibilities. "To hell with it," said Galway, this was all too complex, "we'll just and go and win it."

The six-point deficit made his mind up for him anyway, and after the rumble off Langford's take had been held up, Wood burrowed over "from all of six inches out, and I made about seven. I barely made it, but I got it". O'Gara duly converted the inch into a mile.

The thought of Munster emulating Ulster is at the back of most minds, but furthest of all from the Munster players themselves.

"We're not going to get carried away," said Wood. "I think we've played well at times but I think we've been fortunate at times as well."

What's that about favouring the brave?

Scoring sequence: 4 mins: Galwey try 5-0; 21: O'Mahony try, Lacroix con 5-7; 34: Lacroix pen 510; 37: O'Gara pen 8-10; 39: Mapletoft try, Lacroix con 8-17; 43: O'Gara pen 11-17; 52: Holland try, O'Gara con 18-17; 58: O'Gara pen 21-17; 60: Lacroix pen 21-20; 64: Lacroix pen 21-23; 70: O'Gara pen 24-23; 76: Mapletoft try, Lacroix con 24-30; 82: Wood try, O'Gara con 31-30.

MUNSTER: D Crotty; J Kelly, J Holland, M Mullins, A Horgan; R O'Gara, P Stringer; P Clohessy, K Wood, J Hayes, M Galwey (capt), J Langford, A Quinlan, A Foley, D Wallace. Replacements: T Tierney for Stringer (5-12 mins), J O'Neill for O'Gara (12-16 mins), M Horan for Hayes (16-26 mins).

SARACENS: M Mapletoft; R Constable, J Thomson, K Sorrell, D O'Mahony; T Lacroix, N Walshe; D Flatman, G Chuter, J White, S Murray, D Grewcock, R Hill, T Diprose, F Pienaar (capt). Replacements: M Cairns for Chuter (11-13 mins), B Johnston for Thompson (22 mins), P Wallace for White (61 mins).

Referee: N Williams (Wales).