Rory Scannell was Munster’s last-minute saviour as his monster penalty from halfway completed a stirring 25-24 GUINNESS PRO14 comeback win over Glasgow Warriors at Thomond Park.
Glasgow were on the cusp of their first victory at the Limerick venue since April 2014, with two cracking counter-attacking tries from scrum half George Horne giving them a 12-7 half-time lead and his brother Pete bagging the bonus point score, on the back of a Matt Fagerson try.
However, Munster rallied superbly against the Conference A leaders as tries from replacement Alex Wootton and Alby Mathewson made it a two-point game entering the final seven minutes. Whilst winding down the clock, Glasgow coughed up a penalty to Peter O’Mahony at the breakdown and centre Rory Scannell, who missed out on Ireland squad selection this week, delivered a peach of a strike from 55 metres out.
Knocked down to fifth in the conference before kick-off, Munster have had some ding-dong battles with Glasgow in recent seasons and it was no surprise that tempers flared early on. This was the 2000th PRO14 match since the Championship’s debut in 2001.
Captain O’Mahony and Keith Earls soon marched the hosts forward with a lineout steal and slashing break respectively, before an eighth-minute penalty was sent to touch and James Cronin drove over with support from fellow prop John Ryan.
JJ Hanrahan converted the try but Glasgow gradually gained a foothold, holding firm after a ball had squirted out of a Munster five-metre scrum. A scintillating 23rd-minute try from deep in their own 22 got the Scots on the board, the home defence caught cold as 23-year-old scrum half Horne finished off a thrilling 70-metre team move.
Out-half Pete Horne was unable to convert from out wide and also missed a penalty, with Ireland call-up Sam Arnold going off his feet. It was Arnold’s missed tackle which opened the way for George Horne’s second touchdown, with Ruaridh Jackson making the initial break and Nick Grigg running an intelligent line as the link man.
Munster’s task grew more difficult when flanker Chris Cloete saw yellow, five minutes into the second half, for tackling a player without the ball. O’Mahony did enough to deny Jackson a try but a second wave resulted in number 8 Fagerson breaking through from a penalty-winning five-metre scrum.
17-7 became 24-10 by the end of the third quarter as Hanrahan’s lone penalty was cancelled out by Pete Horne’s converted try from his brother George’s chip ahead. But Munster’s bench had the desired impact and winger Wootton grabbed five points back in the 65th minute after Warriors were caught for numbers out wide.
They heaped further pressure on Glasgow when man-of-the-match Mathewson burrowed over in between two defenders. Replacement Ian Keatley converted to make it 24-22 and despite being starved of possession in the final minutes, Munster had the final say thanks to Scannell’s classy left boot.
Delighted to see Scannell grasp his chance to snatch the win, Munster head coach Johann van Graan said afterwards: “We actually had a chat with all the kickers during the week about the distance and having a match-winning moment. I had a bit of a joke with Rory a few days ago, he put a few long ones in, so I said, ‘listen, the time is going to come for one’, and it came sooner than we thought.
“I’ve never been a kicker but I think as a kicker you want those type of kicks. They made the call on the field and what a brilliant kick to win the game. It’s a great moment for Rory, but more for the team. I don’t know if you guys saw the reaction of the rest of the squad. We’ve worked so hard over the last few weeks to get positive results.
“We knew we came up against a championship team tonight, and it took 80 minutes to beat them by that kick. It was a great effort by the lads. We had a bit of a discussion in the coaching box but Pete and I are very aligned to what we want to do and in those moments in battle, you trust your leadership group and captain.”
He admitted: “We played well in the first 23 minutes and thought we overplayed in the second part of the first half. I thought our bench did fantastically well tonight. This was not a regular game. You saw in the first minute what it meant to both sides, not one of these sides were going to blink.
“All 30 guys were in there, and that’s the rivalry between Munster and Glasgow. They gave us a bloody nose a few weeks ago, and we knew we had to fight back and we were definitely not going to blink tonight. It was a massive game in our calendar and it was very important as a group to get through this one and thankfully we did.”
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