Munster secure famous victory over South Africa in first Páirc Uí Chaoimh outing

Munster 28 South Africa A 14

When the match clock went red the Munster outhalf Ben Healy sent a steepling kick towards the roof of Páirc Uí Chaoimh’s north stand, and for five or six minutes the Munster players wrapped each other in heartfelt hugs, celebrating a win that nobody had expected. In elite sport now every performance and outcome is passed from one microscope to another, but this was one of those rare games that can be taken at face value, without any further agonising. If we said it was brilliant fun in a raucous atmosphere, would you accuse us of being shallow? Guilty.

As an event it was everything that Munster Rugby and the Cork county board could have wished for. A Munster team assembled by needle and thread produced their best performance of a tormented season, bowling over a South African team that played like awkward strangers. The home team hit the front early and spent the last 20 minutes fighting in the last ditch, one of Munster’s favourite habitats. The tackles came flying, Munster’s scrum refused to buckle, and the crowd was swept along, acutely conscious of their part in the pageant.

The prospect of a big rugby event such as this has been touted for Páirc Uí Chaoimh ever since the stadium was redeveloped and the monumental scale of the debt was slowly revealed. After Thursday night, it is hard to imagine that something like this won’t happen again some time soon. Munster’s annual Christmas fixture against Leinster was linked with this venue before the pandemic struck, and that must surely be on the agenda again. They would fill the place, nothing surer.

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Of all the elements it was only the weather that wasn’t in a party mood. Rain came down in sheets, and the wind blew so fiercely towards the Blackrock End at times that the goalposts swayed, like backing singers. On a normal Sunday here, that would be about an eight-point wind in hurling and maybe five points in football; local weather watchers, though, couldn’t come up with an exchange rate last night, not used to dealing in rugby’s crypto-currency. They may get accustomed to it.

The crowd had come to be entertained, and it was clear before a ball was kicked that they wouldn’t be persuaded otherwise. By the time Munster had finished their ceremonial half-lap at the end of their pre-match warm-up the faithful were on their feet, roaring. A few minutes later, as the South African outhalf Goosen waited impatiently to start the game, bouncing the ball like a Harlem Globetrotter, the stadium DJ refused to kill the music until Dolores O’Riordan had reached the rapturous chorus of Zombie. By then, the crowd was in a right lather.

For the sake of the contest, and the atmosphere, it was handy that Munster played with the wind in the first half and that they started in a frenzy. Shane Daly scored a scorching try in the corner after a brilliant Munster move when the game was just three minutes old, and the South African players were rubbing the rain drops from their eyes.

Antoine Frisch, Munster’s French born, Irish-qualified centre, has been dogged by injury since he arrived in the summer, but he was electric in the build-up to Daly’s try, and in a season when Munster are desperately seeking a spark from somewhere, maybe he can be the source.

Inevitably, Simon Zebo scored. If he had stayed with Blackrock hurling club and their sister football club, St Michael’s, he would have graced this grand stage many times by now, but the opportunity finally came in a way he never would have expected. Healy hit him with a long, skip-two pass and with more than enough time to fix his pose for the cameras, Zebo touched down with a fish dive in the corner.

Munster left the field to a standing ovation at the break, leading by 21-7, and when Mike Haley scored their fourth try early in the second half everything was set up for a night of pure Munster theatre. Who cares what it meant. Just love it.

Munster: Mike Haley; Shane Daly, Antoine Frisch, Rory Scannell, Simon Zebo; Ben Healy, Paddy Patterson; Josh Wycherley, Diarmuid Barron, Roman Salanoa; Edwin Edogbo, Kiran McDonald; Jack O’Donoghue (C), John Hodnett, Gavin Coombes.

Replacements: Patrick Campbell for Zebo (51 mins), Niall Scannell for Barron, Kenyan Knox for Wycherley, and Liam O’Connor for Salanoa (all 56 mins), Alex Kendellen for Coombes (58 mins), Cian Hurley for Edogbo (64 mins), Malakai Fekitoa for Frisch (65 mins), Neil Cronin for Patterson (74 mins).

South Africa XV: Aphelele Fassi (Sharks); Suleiman Hartzenberg (Stormers), Henco van Wyk (Lions), Cornal Hendricks (Bulls), Leolin Zas (Stormers); Johan Goosen (Bulls), Herschel Jantjies (Stormers); Ntuthuko Mchunu (Sharks), Joseph Dweba (Stormers), Thomas du Toit (C) (Sharks); Jason Jenkins (Leinster); Ruan Nortje (Bulls); Phepsi Buthelezi (Sharks), Elrigh Louw (Bulls), Jean-Luc du Preez (Sale Sharks).

Replacements: Grant Williams (Sharks) for Jantjies (45 mins), Dan du Preez (Sale Sharks) for Jean-Luc du Preez (45 mins), Andre-Hugo Venter (Stormers) for Dweba (50 mins), Simphiwe Matanzima (Bulls) for Mchunu and Sazi Sandi (Stormers) for du Toit (52 mins),  Sikhumbuzo Notshe (Sharks) for Buthelezi (57 mins), Gianni Lombard (Lions) for Goosen (62 mins),  Sanele Nohamba (Lions) for Fassi (75 mins).

Referee: Karl Dickson (RFU)