Hat-trick: Simon Zebo
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Munster will be the number one seeds in the Heineken Cup quarter-final draw after beating Northampton 51-36 at stadium:mk on Saturday.
Despite conceding two penalty tries, the two-time champions secured a bonus point to finish the pool stages with an unassailable 25 pool points.
The scores were locked at 19-19 at the break but winger Simon Zebo bagged a second-half hat-trick to help the Irish side maintain their perfect record of six wins from as many starts in Europe this season - the only team to do so.
The result, combined with the Scarlets' win over Castres, means that the Welsh side beat Saints to a place in the Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-finals.
Munster needed a win to ensure a quarter-final tie on home soil, but they got off to a poor start as they were bullied by a dominant Saints pack.
Ryan Lamb knocked over two early penalties and Northampton assumed control on 13 minutes when referee Roman Poite awarded them a penalty try as the visitors' scrum buckled under pressure.
However, the metronomic Ronan O'Gara kicked kept the scoreboard ticking with a series of three-pointers to narrow the gap before a Lamb drop-goal opened up a seven-point advantage.
Prop BJ Botha powered over from close range for the visitors before the opposing fly-halves traded penalties.
Munster started the second half furiously and tries from Johne Murphy and Zebo put them in charge at 31-19, although another penalty try bought Saints to within five points.
A resulting scuffle saw half-backs Lee Dickson and Connor Murray sin-binned.
O'Gara and Lamb then traded penalties before the visiting fly-half extended their lead with another three-pointer.
Zebo went over twice in the last 10 minutes, although Scott Armstrong scampered across the whitewash for a consolation score.
The scorers:
For Northampton:
Tries: Penalty Try 2, Armstrong
Cons: Lamb 2, Myler
Pens: Lamb 3
Drop: Lamb
For Munster:
Tries: Botha, Murphy, Zebo 3
Cons: O'Gara 3, Keatley
Pens: O'Gara 6
Yellow cards: Murray (Munster -59th min - handbags); Dickson (Northampton - 59th min - handbags)
Northampton Saints: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Jamie Elliott, 13 George Pisi, 12 James Downey, 11 Vasily Artemyev, 10 Ryan Lamb, 9 Lee Dickson, 8 Roger Wilson, 7 Phil Dowson, 6 Calum Clark, 5 Mark Sorenson, 4 Samu Manoa, 3 Brian Mujati, 2 Dylan Hartley (c), 1 Soane Tonga'uiha.
Replacements: 16 Brett Sharman, 17 Alex Waller, 18 Paul Doran Jones, 19 Christian Day, 20 Ben Nutley, 21 Martin Roberts, 22 Stephen Myler, 23 Scott Armstrong.
Munster: 15 Denis Hurley, 14 Johne Murphy, 13 Keith Earls, 12 Lifeimi Mafi, 11 Simon Zebo, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Conor Murray, 8 James Coughlan, 7 Peter O'Mahony, 6 Donnacha Ryan, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 BJ Botha, 2 Damien Varley, 1 Wian du Preez.
Replacements: 16 Denis Fogarty, 17 Marcus Horan, 18 Stephen Archer, 19 Mick O'Driscoll, 20 Dave O'Callaghan, 21 Tomas O'Leary, 22 Ian Keatley, 23 Danny Barnes.
Venue: stadium:MK, Milton Keynes
Referee: Romain Poite (France)
Comments
tombomb says...
Carpelone imports are limited already 6 for each team excluding connaught also dougie tutored zebo.
Posted 15:29 23rd January 2012
thatllbeme says...
more rubbish from the aviva premiership hits rock bottom
Posted 13:40 23rd January 2012
Carpelone says...
Anyway, Zebo is the pick of the pool. Ireland are well covered on the wings (Bowe, Fitzgerald, Zebo and Trimble). With Howlett (one of my favourite players) on the pitch, he would not have had this opportunity. Are IRFU getting it right by limiting imports?
Posted 09:03 23rd January 2012
7ton says...
@Number8
Re your comments about attendance.
There have been plenty of half empty stadiums in many HC games this season including many important ones.
Posted 21:28 22nd January 2012
tombomb says...
"To be fair to saints the scoreline flatters munster, up front saints were all over munster from minute 1 to 80 but as usual our backs let us down big time" haha up front in rugby term's means the pack as a whole which apart from northamton's cheating at the scrum munster took them to pieces in every facet of the game.
Posted 19:26 22nd January 2012
tombomb says...
DBRowan "Simon Zebo looks like he could be Ireland's Chris Ashton. Cocky, fiery attitude, lots of pace, right place at the right time, scores often" go look at his interview on sky sports and you'll see he isn't cocky at all in fact he's all about the team complete opposite to the uber cocky ashton.
Posted 19:07 22nd January 2012
tombomb says...
liam2me you are dead right the Northampton scrummaging is totally illegal there front row just drive up and over the don't even try to stay down which is illegal and im not happy about it. most ref's just don't have a clue about the scrum what most of them see is Northampton going forward so they just award the penalty to the team going forward also munster were better than northamton in every area but the scrum which as i said is totally illegal. munster>northamton
Posted 18:58 22nd January 2012
crunchfit says...
@liam2me
NH have been scrummaging illegally since at least the last HC. They almost never scrummage legally but never seem to get caught. Driving sideways, going down, driving up, etc. almost every single scrum. Court and O'Connell brought up the driving up with the referee but he ignored them. When NH drive sideways or drive upwards it is very obvious - I don't understand how they are never (literally never, I've never seen it) penalised for driving sideways or popping up.
Posted 18:08 22nd January 2012
crunchfit says...
@POCandROG
Have to admit, it was a great performance. But, 1) it wasn't the best performing centre pairing in front of him 2) the whole Munster team was playing well which probably helped 3) he has failed at the top level at 13 (e.g. against Manu Tuilagi)
Posted 18:00 22nd January 2012
munster13 says...
@ gauca
sorry mate but the results kind of back me up, 5 of the quarter finalists play in the rabo, only one english team in it and two french.
Posted 16:48 22nd January 2012
Lucasrg says...
Great game for the Munster, fantastic interpretation of the blitz defence system.
Posted 16:17 22nd January 2012
POCandROG says...
Anyone else think Keith Earls answered a lot of critics with that fantastic performance at centre?
Posted 15:52 22nd January 2012
liam2me says...
The score flattered NH, for those who know anything about technical scrummaging, NH were illegal all day long and Poite was clueless, both penalty tries should have been penalties to Munster as Hartley popped up first, which is the usual Saints tactic. When a competent ref forces them to scrummage legally they are lost at sea.
Posted 11:18 22nd January 2012
damo says...
Saints scrummage well if you swap their pack with the Gloucester pack and they have the Gloucester back line they are the best team in England
Posted 10:50 22nd January 2012
makemehappy says...
@leinster_goy - think you've forgotten that Edinburgh and Cardiff's pool hasn't finished.
That really was a hammering, and the referee actually acknowledged Northampton's superiority in the scrum too!
@Number8 - using criteria such as attendance isn't that useful. They might be over pricing their games. Certainly the quality of rugby remains much higher in the Super rugby competition. Just watch a re-run of the Ospreys v Saracens if you disagree, as you won't for long!
Posted 10:16 22nd January 2012
Carpelone says...
HC vs SR again?????
Let's put it this way. You are comparing 84 matches (of which 5 or 6 very few good) to a championship which have as many as double with 15 franchises. This results in first rounds which are crap. This is thank to SANZAR greed for multiplying matches.
For sure, you will never get 82 points difference between any of the teams involved in SR. From round 5 onwards, HC is no match with SR.
Additional arguments. Many of the HC's stars are ex SR players, no more so good to get a job downunder, who are enjoying an early and well remunerated pension (especially the ones playing in the French Riviera, Toulon).
Names? Vooslo, Vannenburg, Van Niekerk, Sotherby, Nacewa, Sivi, Evans, Afoa, McAllister, Burgess, Smith......
Maybe only Steyn could come back and make some impact.
Munster would be broomed aside by any of the South African franchises.
Posted 09:11 22nd January 2012
Carpelone says...
Saints detestable bunch? Could be.
But Munstemen are not....saints at all. Conor Murrays is following the footsteps of Stringer, as trouble maker.
I support any team but Munster, but I have to admit that they are the most effective rugby machine putting points on the scoreboard no matter how.
Posted 08:56 22nd January 2012
J_HDK says...
yellow card - handbags...brilliant :)
Posted 05:32 22nd January 2012
curates_egg says...
Sounds like I picked the wrong Irish game not to watch this weekend.
Of all years, who would've thunk Munster would go through the pool unbeaten this year? Fair play.
Simmer down lads though. Coughlan for Ireland? Come off it. He is an honest work horse and fair play to him but come on - he is 31 and not possessing of any skill. Is this what Ireland really needs?
Posted 02:21 22nd January 2012
maria14 says...
Woop Woop well done munster xxx
i knew we could do it, the stadium was rocking, i adore travelling with the munster men they never fail to disappoint :)
looks like we will play ulster in the quarter finals assuming edinburgh win, but after the upsets so far this weekend nothing is definate.
Irish by birth... MUNSTER by the grace of god xxx
Posted 23:05 21st January 2012