Munster’s five-match winning run came to an end in Llanelli as they fell to a frustrating 18-13 loss to the Scarlets, losing their grip on the RaboDirect PRO12’s top spot in the process.
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS: SCARLETS 18 MUNSTER 13
John Barclay’s intercept try in the 51st minute was enough to secure the win for the Scarlets after a similar effort from Gerhard van den Heever had given Munster a 13-8 half-time lead.
Rob Penney’s men had to withstand some early pressure from the fired-up hosts and spent nearly all of the opening ten minutes in their own half.
Given their initial dominance, Simon Easterby’s side took a deserved lead courtesy of an Olly Barkley penalty in the 13th minute.
The Munster response was immediate as the Scarlets were penalised for not rolling away after a David Kilcoyne charge and Ian Keatley levelled with a well-struck long range penalty on the quarter hour mark.
After that brief foray into the Scarlets half, Munster were again forced onto the back foot but some excellent defence kept the Welsh region at bay.
But the Llanelli outfit retook the lead with the first try in the 27th minute. A misplaced pass had Munster under pressure and it eventually told when excellent scrum half Gareth Davies peeled off a maul and weaved past three defenders to touch down in the right corner.
The try was awarded after consultation between referee Dudley Phillips and television match official Tim Hayes. Barkley was narrowly off target with the difficult conversion.
Munster went in front completely against the run of play in the 36th minute when their South African speedster van den Heever pounced on a Barkley fumble in midfield to sprint in under the posts. Keatley added the extras for a 10-8 scoreline.
Scarlets prop Phil John was then penalised for going off his feet right on the 22 at the end of the half and Keatley added another penalty to make it 13-8 at the break.
Keatley missed a difficult penalty from the right at the very beginning of the second half. Referee Phillips had adjudged Jonathan Davies to have taken out van den Heever as they competed for the drop-out.
The Scarlets closed the gap to two points in the 50th minute when Aled Thomas knocked over his first penalty after more Scarlets pressure.
Easterby’s charges hit the front a minute later when a Duncan Williams pass was intercepted by Barclay and the Scotland international showed great pace to run half the length of the pitch and dive over in the left corner. Thomas’ accurate conversion made it 18-13 to the Scarlets with half an hour remaining.
Munster produced the move of the match in the 60th minute with Casey Laulala initially making the break on the left wing deep inside his own half. Great hands by both the backs and forwards saw the ball brilliantly moved 50 metres upfield with Laulala eventually chipping the ball out to van den Heever but the bounce was unkind and the opportunity was lost.
Williams nearly crossed shortly afterwards and van den Heever did go over in the corner after a looping pass from replacement JJ Hanrahan, but the try was ruled out for a knock-on in the build-up.
The Munstermen were really building up a head of steam now and Scarlets flanker Josh Turnbull was sin-binned for careless use of the boot.
Only desperate last-ditch defence from the 14 men kept the hosts in front as the game approached the final ten minutes.
The visitors had a number of scrums under the Scarlets posts in the 70th minute but the region managed to weather the storm and see out the final minutes to secure their third win in-a-row and maintain their play-off push.
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