URC: Glasgow v Munster: Warriors do it the hard way

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Glasgow Warriors 28

Munster 25

DAVID BARNES @ Scotstoun

MEMBERS of the Warriors’ 2015 Pro12 championship winning team were presented to the Scotoun faithful just before kick-off to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of that famous Grand Final win over Munster in Belfast. The class of 2025 then delivered a bonus-point win to mark the occasion – but it was a close run thing.

It is the sort of victory teams have to pick up over the course of a season if they are going to compete for silverware: a scarcely deserved product of a few flashes of inspiration and some sheer bloody-mindedness. Not every game can be a masterclass of flowing rugby, and after losing at home to Ospreys in their last outing, Warriors will be mightily relieved to get the show back on the road again ahead of another home game against the Lions next Saturday night.

“It is a good environment but the fact that the boys go out and dig deep and don’t lose their belief, that is what character for me means,”

said relieved head coach Franco Smith, when asked to assess his team’s performance.

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“This period over the Six Nations is probably the most challenging one. You have young players there, you have not enough players training and you have so many away, and then you must blend them back in with a bit of rest, so to then come out at the end of the game winning it is very pleasing.”

Munster flew out the blocks and rattled Warriors with their intensity, and the home side’s lack of composure was evident when George Horne flicked scrappy line-out ball on his own 22 backwards to nobody. Sione Vailanu – who had a good excuse for being rusty given that this was his first game back after 15 months out with a knee injury – tidied up on his own try-line but then threw a loose pass of his own, and it took some heroic cover-up from Sebastian Cancelliere and Jare Oguntibeju  to clear the danger on this occasion.

It felt like the tide was beginning to turn when Munster second-row Fineen Wycherley got himself yellow-carded for tipping Alex Samuel at a ruck clear-out, and Warriors marched a maul 15-yards to earn a penalty which was kicked to the corner, only for the five-metre line-out to be overthrown.

So, instead, they found themselves going behind to the 14-men visitors when a big Andrew Smith hit turned over the ball from Horne, Tony Butler picked out Ben O'Connor with a cross-kick, and John Hodnett collected the scoring pass.

Butler converted and then, after another inaccurate Warriors attack, Munster claimed try number two through Sean O’Brien, who stretched over the line following some powerful driving play from the visiting forwards.

Eventually, Warriors clicked into gear, and after 27 minutes of waiting, Scotstoun was treated to a belter of a home try, initiated by Ollie Smith breaking the line, before the supporting Horne exchanging passes with Stafford McDowall on his way to the line, equalling DtH van der Merwe’s Warriors try-scoring record of 54, and setting up a straight-forward conversion for Adam Hastings.

Munster kept their nerve and nudged the scoreboard on another three-points with a Butler penalty, but the visitors then took their eye off the ball for perhaps the first time in the match to concede a soft try to Kyle Steyn off first phase scrum ball, with the returning home skipper looping inside to collect Smith’s pass then streak home from his own 10-metre line.

Incredibly, that meant Warriors finished the half just a point behind having played second fiddle in almost every aspect of the game for almost the entirety of the opening 40. They disappeared down the tunnel with a spring in their step.

On the down side, Ollie Smith hurt his shoulder during the lead-up to that Steyn try and did not reappear after the break. He went to hospital after the game to get it assessed. “Hopefully it’s not too serious,” said Franco Smith.

After a half-time flea in their ear from Smith, Warriors looked a more compelling proposition during the first 10-minutes of the second half, but couldn’t quite get the killer pass to stick, and it was Munster who scored next with another Butler penalty given against Stafford McDowall for not rolling away.

Three times Glasgow won penalties in the middle of the park, and on each occasion they missed touch when they went for the corner, with Duncan Weir the culprit twice and Hastings guilty once. The wind in Warriors’ faces had picked up, but such carelessness from experienced players will have had Smith pulling his hair out.

Munster struck again with O’Brien rampaging home past some pretty lame tackling for his second and his team’s third try of the match, and Rory Scannell‘s conversion made it a nine-point game with 15 minutes left on the clock.

Matt Fagerson pulled it back to within a score with just over 10 minutes to go when he powered over following a quick tap-and-go from man-of-the-match Cancelliere, and it looked for all the world like the Argentinean winger was going to put his team into the lead for the first time in the contest just 90 seconds later as he chased down Ben Afshar‘s dink over the top with only open prairie between him and the line, but a cruel bounce saw the ball float harmlessly just above his full-stretch reach.

Warriors had to wait another four minutes instead to finally get their noses in front, when an exhausting passage of tight driving play eventually led to Nathan McBeth rumbling over from close range for the match-clinching, bonus-point-securing score.

Munster pushed hard to snaffle back the win that they will feel they fully deserved, but Warriors held out, and two great jackal penalties won by Gregor Brown and Jack Mann during the final minutes extinguished the visitors’ hopes of returning home to Cork with anything more than a solitary losing-bonus point.

Teams –

Glasgow Warriors: K Rowe; S Cancelliere, O Smith (D Weir 41), S McDowall, K Steyn (B Afshar 61); A Hastings, G Horne (K Steyn 72); J Bhatti (N McBeth 48), J Matthews, P Schickerling (S Talakai 48), J Oguntibeju (G Brown 41), A Samuel (J du Preez 61), E Ferrie, S Vialanu (M Fagerson 41), J Mann.

Munster: B O'Connor; S O'Brien, T Farrell, A Nankivell, A Smith; T Butler (R Scannell 61), P Patterson (E Coughlan 54); J Loughman (J Wycherley 54), D Barron, S Archer (J Ryan 66), F Wycherley, T Ahern, A Kendellen (B Gleeson 66), J Hodnett (R Quinn 61), G Coombes.

Referee: Morne Ferreira

Scorers –

Glasgow Warriors: Tries: Horne, Steyn, Fagerson, McBeth; Con: Hastings 4.

Munster: Tries: Hodnett, O’Brien 2; Con: Butler, Scannell; Pen: Butler 2.

Scoring sequence (Glasgow Warriors first): 0-5; 0-7; 0-12; 5-12; 7-12; 7-15; 12-15; 14-15 (h-t) 14-18; 14-23; 14-25 19-25; 21-25; 26-25; 28-25.

Yellow card –

Munster: Wycherley (9 mins)

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