Glasgow Warriors 13 Munster 11 

MUNSTER came up just short in a typical arm-wrestle of a URC tie against the Glasgow Warriors at a wet and windswept Scotstoun on Friday evening.

Glasgow's Duncan Weir saw his 10th-minute penalty drift away to the right, but five minutes later he made no mistake from a penalty straight in front of the posts, after Simon Zebo had been penalised for a high tackle.

It was a half lacking in attacking opportunities but Munster got themselves on the board in the 38th minute when out-half Ben Healy levelled with a penalty of his own.

However, a minute later Glasgow second row Scott Cummings smothered an attempted Neil Cronin clearance at the back of a ruck and he reacted quickest to gather and score to give his side a 10-3 lead, which in the wet conditions looked a significant interval lead.

Glasgow’s experienced hooker Fraser Brown was yellow-carded in the 56th minute for playing the ball while on the ground, but Healy’s penalty from halfway tailed off agonisingly to the right. And to rub salt into the wound, Glasgow capitalised on two Stephen Archer penalty concessions to march Munster down the other end, and Weir slotted his second penalty of the game to make it 13-3.

The Munster scrum almost immediately forced a penalty in the Glasgow half and Healy landed his kick in the 63rd minute to bring it back to a one-score game.

Munster then emptied the bench and the arrival of Paddy Patterson at scrum-half ensured that Munster went up a gear, as he put loads of pace on the ball, and after some big carries from the likes of John Hodnett and Jack O’Donoghue, Patterson was able to fizz a bullet of a pass out left to Jean Kleyn and the big lock crashed over for the try.

Unfortunately, Jack Crowley hooked his conversion attempt and Munster trailed by two and despite one last desperate attempt Munster were unable to engineer another score and had to settle for a losing bonus point.

Scorers for Glasgow: Weir (2 pens, 1 con), Cummings (1 try). 

Munster: Healy (2 pens), Kleyn (1 try).

GLASGOW: Smith; Cancelliere, Fergusson, Johnson, McLean; Weir, Horne; Kebble, Brown, Berghan; Cummings, Gray; Wilson (c), Gordon, Dempsey.

Subs: Dobie for McLean (5), Matthews for Dobie (62), Pieretto, McDonald and McDowall for Berghan, Wilson and Fergusson (61), Dobie for Matthews (69), Matthews for Brown (70), Miller for Gordon (74).

MUNSTER: Haley; Daly, Farrell, Scannell, Zebo; Healy, Cronin; Loughman, Barron, Archer; Kleyn, F Wycherley; O’Donoghue (c), Cloete, Coombes.

Subs: J Wycherley and Hodnett for Loughman and Cloete (54), Ryan for Archer (61), O’Byrne, Kendellen, Patterson and Crowley for Barron, Coombes, Cronin and Healy (67).Referee: Gianluca Gnecchi (Ita).