Heineken Cup round-up: Late O’Gara drop goal saves Munster again

IT WAS a case of déjà vu in the south of France as Ronan O’Gara struck a dramatic drop goal at the death to see Munster overcome the challenge of Castres 24-27 in Heineken Cup Pool 1.

In a frenetic, error-strewn encounter, tries from hooker Brice Mach and replacement winger Pierre Gilles Lakafia, either side of a Doug Howlett try for the visitors, gave Castres an 18-10 half-time lead.

Peter O’Mahony’s early try in the second half gave Munster hope, however, and Will Chambers put them in front 14 minutes from time after O’Gara charged down Remi Tales’ attempted clearance kick.

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Pierre Bernard levelled things with a penalty only for O’Gara, just as he did against Northampton, to snatch a narrow victory with the last kick of the game which Castres had moved to the Stade Ernest Wallon, 70 kilometres away in Toulouse, to capitalise on its increased capacity.

With the scores tied at 24-24, it was two-times champions Munster who held their nerve and Tomas O’Leary’s pinpoint pass gave O’Gara just enough time to rifle over the match-winning drop goal from the ten-metre line.

Matt Smith scored the only try late on as Leicester beat Ulster 20-9 to top Pool 4. The Tigers’ Toby Flood and Ulster’s Ian Humphreys dominated most of the game with their kicking but the English side eventually pulled away. For most of the game Ulster looked more than capable of causing an upset and will be disappointed not to have come away with at least a bonus point.

Saracens salvaged a losing bonus point as Biarritz edged out the English champions 15-10 in a ferocious encounter.

An attritional first half ended scoreless but Biarritz came to life in the second half and scored through Imanol Harinordoquy and Takudzwa Ngwenya. But Alex Goode squeezed into the corner at the death to earn a bonus point for Saracens.

Heineken Cup debutant Matthew Morgan salvaged a 26-26 draw for the Ospreys against Treviso with a dramatic last-minute penalty at the Stadio di Monigo.

Trailing 26-23, the Welsh looked set to suffer one of the great European upsets. But, with just seconds remaining, 19-year-old Morgan cracked over a stunning penalty from 40 metres to break Italian hearts.

Lionel Beauxis kicked 17 points for Toulouse as Connacht were well beaten 36-10 in their first ever home match in the Heineken Cup in front of a record crowd of 9,120 at the Galway Sportsground.

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