Munster came out on the wrong side of a cracking tie on the all-weather surface in Kilmarnock as reigning GUINNESS PRO12 champions Glasgow Warriors edged their way to a 27-24 victory.
There was the small consolation for the visitors in the form of a losing bonus point with Glasgow Warriors earning a try-scoring bonus point in their narrow success at Rugby Park.
The vocal travelling support would have feared the worst when two early Sila Puafisi tries saw Glasgow race into a 14-0 lead.
However, Anthony Foley’s side showed their quality and fighting spirit to storm back with 17 unanswered points, giving them a half-time advantage with the irrepressible Dave Kilcoyne touching down twice and Ian Keatley kicking two conversions and a penalty.
A Duncan Weir try and then a penalty in the third quarter tipped the balance back in Glasgow’s favour. Munster, down to 14 men after the sin-binning of Tomas O’Leary, would not lie down though as Mike Sherry crossed to level matters.
Keatley stepped up and nailed the touchline conversion to make it 24-22 to the Reds but, within five minutes of getting back to their full complement, Munster were back down to 14 when replacement James Cronin saw yellow for persistent Munster infringing in the scrum.
And this time Glasgow made the visitors pay with Glenn Bryce crossing in the left corner after Munster failed to clear their lines and that proved to be the decisive score. The result leaves Foley’s men in seventh place, six points outside the play-off positions.
Munster had returning Ireland forwards Donnacha Ryan and Tommy O’Donnell back in the starting line-up, with fellow Six Nations squad member Cronin among the replacements.
The game was played at Rugby Park in Kilmarnock as Scotstoun Stadium was waterlogged and it could not have started any worse for Munster as the fired-up Warriors raced into a 14-point lead.
Munster showed their resilience as they hit back through a Kilcoyne try on 12 minutes after Robin Copeland was held up just short, and out-half Keatley reduced the gap further with a penalty.
The turnaround was complete when Kilcoyne, with a little help from John Ryan and Donnacha Ryan, crossed again to give Munster a 17-14 lead with just 25 minutes gone.
Glasgow went back in front three minutes after the break as Scotland international Weir jinked his way through a gap in midfield to make it 19-17.
Scrum half O’Leary was then sent to the sin bin for a deliberate knock-on and Weir kicked a penalty to increase the Glasgow lead with the Scottish club’s scrum now completely dominant.
14-man Munster struck back as replacement hooker Sherry made it over in the right corner after a well-worked lineout move. Keatley judged the wind to perfection to land the touchline conversion and edge Munster ahead by two points.
Glasgow had the final say, however, as Bryce crossed in the left corner for a crucial 70th minute touchdown and three missed kicks followed as Weir was off target with the conversion and an 80th minute penalty attempt, while Keatley also failed with a difficult drop goal effort.
Munster captain Billy Holland said afterwards: “We’re absolutely gutted inside (the dressing room). We had an awful start, 14-nil down after, I think, 10 minutes. Then the fightback to go in front at half-time, there was a lot of really good work and unfortunately (we got) two yellow cards in the second half.
“To play a team like this here with 14 men for half of the second half is a very difficult thing to do. We wanted four points and we wanted nothing less than that so we’ve a losing bonus point but we’re not happy with that.
“Glasgow played some great rugby, we did as well at times, but our discipline and falling off a few tackles let us down. We came here with a very young team, we had three lads in the Academy (playing) and we had a guy (Conor Oliver) making his debut off the bench.
“22 of our 23 were born in Ireland and that’s very important and that’s what makes it hurt that much more. We were playing against a team with a wealth of internationals and we feel like we could have got the win out there today, so we’re just gutted.”
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