Murray And Conway Tries Guide Munster To Gritty Victory

Conor Murray’s 60th-minute charge-down try set Munster on their way to a gritty 14-7 Champions Cup win over Racing 92 at Thomond Park.

VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS: MUNSTER 14 RACING 92 7

After a scoreless but absorbing opening hour in squally conditions, converted scores from Conor Murray and replacement Andrew Conway (69 minutes) had the hosts poised to open their win account in Pool 4.

However, a Leone Nakarawa try, coupled with a dominant finish from the Racing pack, meant Munster were hugely relieved to finish on the right side of a tight result.

There was a poignant start to proceedings in Limerick as Anthony Foley was remembered with a minute’s applause, a year on from his tragic passing before a match involving these two sides.

Although Thomond Park debutant Dan Carter took heavy contact to his knee early on, Racing, who lost twice to the Irish province last term, were first to settle and heavily pressurised the Munster lineout.

Half-backs Ian Keatley and Murray booted the home side deep into Racing’s half, but their Kiwi hooker Rhys Marshall, who went close from an initial maul, let the visitors off the hook with a subsequent overthrow.

Further opportunities were missed by Munster, who turned down successive shots at the posts into a swirling wind. The Racing defence duly held out with flanker Wenceslas Lauret winning a key penalty at the breakdown.

The tables were turned with a sustained bout of Racing pressure approaching the half hour mark, crucial tackles from Rory Scannell and man-of-the-match Dave Kilcoyne keeping them out as Maxime Machenaud and Antonie Claassen grew in influence.

There was another huge impact between centres Anthony Tuitavake and Scannell, both defences giving little away with wind-backed Racing unable to convert their 67% share of first half possession into points.

Munster were the aggressors on the resumption, Keatley’s cross-field kick finding Darren Sweetnam, who was tackled into touch by Pat Lambie, and a sublime behind-the-back pass from Simon Zebo almost releasing Keith Earls for the left corner.

After Racing blew a couple of gilt-edged chances from mauls, a scrappy spell was broken up by Murray’s breakthrough try, the Ireland and Lions star blocking Machenaud’s kick at the side of a scrum and gathering the loose ball to score in the left corner.

The momentum was with Munster as Keatley converted and their scrum launched them forward again, albeit that their number 10 missed a very kickable penalty.

Nonetheless, with Earls and Kilcoyne gaining ground in the visitors’ 22, a purposeful attack ended with Zebo’s cut-out pass and a final delivery from Scannell sending Conway over in the right corner.

Having been fortunate to draw with Castres last Sunday, it seemed Munster were back on track as Keatley added a terrific conversion to extend the lead to 14 points. But, this looks destined to be a fiercely-contested pool as Fijian giant Nakarawa lunged over from a ruck to earn Racing a losing bonus point. Their international-laden bench almost forced a late levelling score, but Baptiste Chouzenoux knocked on at a lineout.

Giving his reaction afterwards, Munster director of rugby Rassie Erasmus said: “I’m just glad we won. It’s tough to get the ball wider than your fly-half. With (Dan) Carter playing in their team even they struggled to do it. It was a tough game to control tactically, it was more about, ‘who’s got the most guts out there?’

“It definitely wasn’t perfect. In the conditions it might have been perfect, but you can’t go through this game and analyse anything because it was disrupted play. I thought it was really gutsy defence. I think beating them by seven points, it’s probably a fair reflection on the game, but I’m under no illusions that Racing could have drawn the game.

“They are big guys and they play for 60 minutes then they put on more guys who are 150 kilos and size-wise they are (huge). I thought the guys’ hearts were really big today and the technique was really sound, we were lower than them.

“It could have easily gone against us, but the guys were tight and the guys were really fighting for the badge and you can’t ask more. I don’t think it was a tactical game in any way, it was a gutsy, gritty game.”

Commenting on Murray’s crucial try which gave Munster the momentum to go on and win, the South African admitted: “At half-time, the boys in the changing room said, ‘listen, we’re going to score from a charge-down’. That’s exactly what the guys said.

“We had been so close in the first half, to charging the ball down every single time. We were just missing by our finger tips. The actual call on defence was that we were going to score with a charge-down. And there they went with a charge-down. Really bizarre.”