Beirne Delivers Big Performance As Munster Maintain Table-Topping Form

With late addition Tadhg Beirne in talismanic form, Munster made it seven wins in a row with an extremely hard-fought 19-13 win over the Ospreys at the Liberty Stadium tonight.

A Darren Sweetnam try, a penalty try and a 69th minute score from Mike Haley secured the province’s fifth victory in their last six visits to the Swansea venue. The results keeps Munster top of GUINNESS PRO14 Conference A, a point clear of Glasgow Warriors were 43-17 winners over Connacht.

Jack O’Donoghue came on for the final 10 minutes, ending his absence from a long-term knee injury, and in a significant pre-match switch, Beirne came in to replace an ill Jean Kleyn in the second row for his first appearance since suffering a knee injury against Exeter Chiefs over a month ago.

Praising Beirne for his man-of-the-match display, Johann van Graan said: “Tadhg was injured for a few weeks, he hasn’t played since Exeter, and he didn’t even train with us this week. He only had the walk through and he came in and delivered that performance.

“It wasn’t perfect as he lost one or two balls in contact, but he’s a player for the big moments and his lineout steal right at the end was massive. For him to come back and play 80 minutes was remarkable. Joe (Schmidt) will make his decisions over who he will release and who he won’t after the Italy game. We’ll just wait and see and get an update when we can.”

The Munster head coach added: “It’s so tough to win in Wales and away in the PRO14. We’ll take the four points. There’s always room for a lot of improvement. This was by no means a great performance from our side, but any away win is good and it doesn’t look like we’ve got any big injuries out of the game.”

Beirne ripped away turnover ball inside the opening seconds, setting up the visitors for a spell of early pressure a fourth minute try. Strong work from the pack punched through the heart of the Ospreys defence with JJ Hanrahan floating a superb pass out for Sweetnam to expertly step inside two defenders and touch down.

Hanrahan knocked over the conversion from the left and while Munster had most of the first quarter possession, there was little between the sides as a cagey kicking battle ensued. The Ospreys levelled in the 18th minute, Keelan Giles nipping down the left touchline and nudging a kick through which Rhys Marshall could not gather cleanly and the ball bounced up for the onrushing Hanno Dirksen to run in behind the posts.

Luke Price tagged on the straightforward conversion and punished a Munster offside with the lead penalty, eight minutes before half-time. However, the table toppers replied in timely fashion with a penalty try after another bout of forward pressure with Arno Botha and Jeremy Loughman to the fore.

Fineen Wycherley was stopped just short before Beirne looked to touch down off the right hand post and Sam Cross intervened to knock the ball out of his hands from an offside position. After consulting with TMO Ian Davies, referee Stuart Berry awarded the penalty try and sin-binned the Ospreys flanker as Munster led 14-10 at the turnaround.

The third quarter was evenly contested and ultimately scoreless, the hosts emerging unscathed from the remainder of Cross’ sin-bin period while the breakdown area, where Beirne continued to shine, was becoming increasingly messy. Sweetnam was a livewire when the ball came his way and Haley had another very solid outing at full-back, covering well in defence and running intelligently.

The scrappy but enthralling arm-wrestle, with young gun Wycherley revelling in the physical exchanges, grew even tighter after Price landed his second penalty from 25 metres out to make it a one-point game, and Munster had to work very hard to produce Haley’s eventual match-winning effort, 11 minutes from the end.

The pack patiently made the hard yards, taking the Welsh region through 31 strength-sapping phases. Chipping away, replacement prop Liam O’Connor carried up close to the line before Bill Johnston’s lofted skip pass took advantage of numbers on the left and Haley had a simple run-in for the final try.

A poor conversion miss by Hanrahan left the Ospreys still in the hunt, needing a converted score to snatch the win. Price kicked a scrum penalty towards the corner but Beirne came up with a crucial lineout steal, allowing the Munstermen seeing out this round 16 fixture in possession and downfield in Ospreys territory.