Reigning champions Munster expose class gulf in Glasgow

AS THE visitors took to the field, the stadium announcer cheekily played a silly little theme tune made famous in recent years by an advert for a well-known blended Scottish whisky. It was a comical moment, but more than a few Glasgow supporters in the crowd must have groaned in dread at the backlash which this slight could prompt from those fiercely proud denizens of Thomond Park.

By the end of the match the Munster men had got their message across, loud and clear.

The reigning league champions and two times Heineken Cup winners are not the sort of outfit to be mocked by anyone, least of all a team of such modest standing as Glasgow Warriors – but it wasn’t until the last few plays of the first half that the gulf in class was really made clear.

In fact, rather than lashing out at Glasgow from the start, Munster looked half asleep as Rob Harley charged after Duncan Weir’s kick-off and wrapped up Johne Murphy to earn his team a scrum ten yards out and directly in front of the visiting team’s posts. That positive start from the home side continued when they went right from the scrum and Troy Nathan picked out Frederico Aramburu with a clever grubber kick, but the Argentinean wing couldn’t quite get to the ball before it bounced into touch.

A collapsed scrum gave Munster a chance to get a foothold in the game, with Ian Keatley converting the penalty, but Glasgow bounced back immediately when the visitors were penalised for blocking the restart chase and Duncan Weir helped himself to three easy points.

Encouragingly, Glasgow built on that score. Aramburu collected his own chip ahead and made good yardage down the right touchline, and Rob Dewey went within inches of the scoring zone a few moments later with a powerful midfield surge. He was pulled down just short of the line, so the home team had to make do with a second Weir penalty, plus the bonus of seeing Niall Ronan being sent for ten minutes in the cooler for illegal hands in the ruck.

Equilibrium was soon restored, when Glasgow open-side Chris Fusaro was sin-binned for making a nuisance of himself in a desperate attempt to prevent Munster from building pressure close to their opponents’ line, and Keatley happily took the three points on offer.

Weir hit the post with a drop-goal effort and, after chasing Rob Harley’s hack ahead and earning his team a penalty by being dangerously upturning by Johne Murphy at the reultant ruck, he missed the three easy points on offer. Such profligacy rarely goes unpunished against teams of the calibre of Munster – with or without their international stars – and this was a lesson ruthlessly handed out to Sean Lineen’s young team during the last few minutes of the first half.

First Keatley landed a monstrous penalty from inside his own half, which more than made up for a missed effort from wide on the left a few minutes earlier. Then Ronan burrowed over after a sustained onslaught on the Glasgow line.

That gave Munster a 16-6 lead at the break and gave Glasgow a mountain to climb. The challenge suddenly looked a whole lot more demanding at the start of the second half, when a weaving run from Murphy left several Glasgow players clutching at shadows, and he might have gone all the way had his chip kick not been ever so slightly wayward.

A few moments later, Lifiemi Mafi burst onto the ball at pace and cut a huge swathe through Glasgow’s defence, before neatly offloading to Simon Zebo, who powered over.

Glasgow were fighting frantically to stay in touch, and a quick-fire brace of penalties from Weir around the 50 minute mark gave them a slight boost. And riled up by a reckless challenge by Peter O’Mahony on Harley at the restart after the second of those scores, they gave as good as they got during the remainder of the contest.

But it was clear that Munster had taken their foot off the gas. They had inflicted all the damage they needed to during powerful five minute spells either side of half-time – and showed no real urgency to push on for the four try bonus point.

Scorers: Glasgow: Pens: Weir 4; Munster:Try: Ronan, Zebo; Con: Keatley 2; Pen: Keatley 3.

Glasgow: S Hogg; F Aramburu, R Dewey (P Horne 56), T Nathan, C Shaw; D Weir (S Wight 74), H Pyrgos (C Gregor 45); R Grant (G Reid 76), P MacArthur (F Gillies 71), M Cusack (E Kalman 53), T Ryder, N Campbell (J Eddie 45), R Harley, C Fusaro, R Wilson (R Pitman 71).

Munster: J Murphy; D Howlett, D Barnes, L Maafi, S Zebo (T Gleeson 72); I Keatley (S Deasy 74), P Stringer (D Williams 64); W Du Preez, (M Horan 65), D Varley (D Fogarty 67), J Hayes (S Archer 58), B Holland, M O’Driscoll, P O’Mahony (D Foley 72), N Ronan, J Coughlan.