Munster rally in crucial Champion Cup victory over Saracens at Thomond Park
Munster’s Alex Kendellen is tackled against Saracens. Picture: INPHO/Billy Stickland
Two quick-fire second-half tries from Dian Bleuler and John Hodnett ensured that Munster scalped Saracens in a frantic Champions Cup tie at Thomond Park on Saturday evening.
Saracens centre Alex Lozowski opened the scoring in the second minute when he split the posts from a 30m penalty, after Mike Haley had botched the kick-off. He doubled the away team’s lead with a similar penalty from straight in front of the posts in the 10th minute, after Rory Scannell had been penalised on the deck.
Munster’s first quarter was a bit of a shocker, with them having eight handling errors by the 21st minute, and with that total reaching eleven by half-time, as none of the Munster backline seemed capable of dealing with the extremely effective kicking game of the Saracens half-backs.
There were very few positive Munster moments early on with a penalty win at a ruck in the 23rd minute finally managing to get the crowd to full voice, and soon after England hooker Jamie George infringed on the floor which allowed Jack Crowley to get Munster on the board with a 25m penalty in the 25th minute.
Two minutes later Crowley seemed on the verge of scoring one of the great European tries but he lost control of the football after re-gathering his second wonderful kick through and the chance went a-begging.
Sarries had one last chance to score before half-time, after Jack O’Donoghue had been penalised in the air, but Munster somehow got their hands on a dangerous kick towards the right corner from scrum-half Ivan van Zyl, as the half time whistle below with Saracens leading 3-6.
England full-back Elliott Daly used his huge boot to land a long-range 46th-minute penalty to restore Saracens' six-point lead after Fineen Wycherley had been harshly penalised for not rolling away quickly enough after a completed tackle.
Crowley had the opportunity to cancel out the three-pointer in the 52nd minute, but his kick sliced off to the right. Munster then emptied the bench to try and bring some energy to proceedings although Saracens had the next scoring opportunity when outhalf Fergus Burke saw his drop goal attempt drift wide in the 57th minute.
It took an hour, but finally we got a try.
And for the Munster faithful it was at the right end.
Gavin Coombes made a huge carry up the centre to get within one metre of the Saracens line, and loose-head Dian Bleuler dived over from close range before the away side could get their line defence organised.
Four minutes later we got another, after a beautiful cross-field kick from Crowley to Rory Scannell on the left wing. The centre popped inside to the supporting Tom Farrell, who duly found John Hodnett on the charge, and the replacement openside survived an attempted ankle tap to get home.
The game was not done, as Lozowski slotted once more in the 70th minute to reduce the gap to five and Munster needed a big maul turnover from Tadhg Beirne to kill a promising Saracens attack, and in the 75th minute Liam Williams spilled the ball with the Munster line in his sights, as Munster survived to win.
J Crowley (1 pen, 2 cons), D Bleuler, J Hodnett (1 try each).
A Lozowski (3 pens), E Daly (1 pen).
M Haley; C Nash, T Farrell, R Scannell, S Daly; J Crowley, C Murray; D Bleuler, N Scannell, O Jager; F Wycherley, T Beirne (c); J O'Donoghue, A Kendellen, G Coombes.
D Barron, S Archer, T Ahern and J Hodnett for N Scannell, O Jager, J O’Donoghue and A Kendellen (53), J Ryan for D Bleuler (65), B Gleeson for G Coombes (72), B Burns for S Daly (75).
E Daly; L Williams, A Lozowski, N Tompkins, L Cinti Luna; F Burke, I van Zyl; P Brantingham, J George, M Riccioni; M Itoje (c), H Wilson; J Gonzalez, B Earl, T Willis.
T Dan, E Mawi and A Clarey for J George, P Brantingham and M Riccioni (61), T Elliott for L Cinti Luna (65), N Michelow and O Hartley for H Wilson and N Tompkins (72).
Pierre Brousset (FFR)
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