Not much in it: Munster edge win
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Munster made it three wins from three in the Heineken Cup on Saturday as they battled to a workmanlike 17-14 win away to Pool 1 rivals the Scarlets.
Scarlets battled hard to try and gain something from the game, but the visitors held on to win.
The home team started much the better, and had a try within the first five minutes. Back-row Aaron Shingler it was who dived over for the Welsh side.
Rhys Priestland added a penalty two minutes later to leave Scarlets 8-0 up after ten minutes.
Munster took a while to get themselves back in the contest, but eventually began to threaten midway through the half at Parc y Scarlets.
Scarlets held up well, but Munster got off the mark on 25 minutes via a Ronan O'Gara penalty.
The Irish side were now looking a much better outfit, and drew level just after the half-hour mark, when a great move down the right hand side saw Niall Ronan dive over.
Scarlets, who had looked in control early on, were now struggling, and when Ronan O'Gara landed a penalty right on half time, Munster somehow had a three point lead at the interval.
The home side needed to respond, and did just that with a Priestland penalty ten minutes into the second period.
However, the reliable boot of O'Gara restored the Munster lead soon after with a placed kick of his own.
Indeed O'Gara was yet again on target with fifteen minutes to play with another penalty to leave six between the teams, with Scarlets slowly running out of time.
Stephen Jones came off the bench to land a penalty with ten to play for Scarlets, but it was too little too late for them, as Munster held on to record a third win in their Heineken Cup pool.
The scorers:
For Scarlets:
Tries: Shingler
Pen: Priestland 2, Jones
For Munster:
Tries: Ronan
Pen: O'Gara 4
Scarlets: 15 Liam Williams, 14 George North, 13 Scott Williams, 12 Jonathan Davies, 11 Sean Lamont, 10 Rhys Priestland, 9 Gareth Davies, 8 Ben Morgan, 7 Rob McCusker, 6 Aaron Shingler, 5 Damian Welch, 4 Sione Timani, 3 Rhys Thomas, 2 Matthew Rees, 1 Iestyn Thomas.
Replacements: 16 Ken Owens, 17 Phil John, 18 Deacon Manu, 19 Kieran Murphy, 20 Jon Edwards, 21 Tavis Knoyle, 22 Stephen Jones, 23 Viliame Iongi.
Munster: 15 Denis Hurley, 14 Johne Murphy, 13 Will Chambers, 12 Lifeimi Mafi, 11 Simon Zebo, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Conor Murray, 8 James Coughlan, 7 Niall Ronan, 6 Peter O'Mahony, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Donnacha Ryan, 3 BJ Botha, 2 Damien Varley, 1 Wian du Preez.
Replacements: 16 Denis Fogarty, 17 Marcus Horan, 18 John Hayes, 19 Donncha O'Callaghan, 20 Denis Leamy, 21 Tomas O'Leary, 22 Ian Keatley, 23 Danny Barnes.
Referee: Romain Poite (France)
Comments
damo says...
is Stoddart out for long more, North was a massive loss. with a full team Scarlets could go all the way, why was their scrum penalised so much by the ref, funny how the Munster scrum came up against a weakened Ospreys team the week before and were on the wrong end of all the calls. Are the refs told to penalise 1 team all the time???
Posted 23:29 14th December 2011
7ton says...
Feel sorry for the scarlets like Wales in the WC their goal kicking let them down and when they get themselves in a position to possibly win a game they couldn't close it out.
Well done and good luck to Munster though
Posted 15:12 11th December 2011
jontheref says...
Have to agree, Stephen Jones has lost the composure.
He did not have it in the Wales semi game, but at this level it should be meat and drink for him.
He may say he has not retired from test rugby, but on this game alone, he has effectively announced his retirement.
Gatland will stick with his young guns.
For better or worse, (in Biggars case!).
Posted 12:08 11th December 2011
makemehappy says...
I really don't know how Munster do it. 100% of the rucks where the Scarlets had the ball, had a hand in slowing down the ball. They are a very streetwise team, but come on refs, surely you can't miss this tactic week in week out.
Posted 11:40 11th December 2011
damo says...
Fair play to munster, what a win, all that is said bout o gara he took priestland to school there is no substitute for class, jones knock on at the end is typical of the man, scarlets do play great rugby though, and will be back
Posted 22:12 10th December 2011
J_HDK says...
ok that has got to be the end of the jam jar for munster surely?
Posted 20:05 10th December 2011