OH holy night! There wasn’t a dry in the house and all that lark, but safe to say that Munster did it again.
18 minutes of open warfare finally led to the explosion from ASM Clermont Auvergne number four and second row lock, Jamie Cudmore.
Kneeling on Jerry Flannery and offering him his opinion in the most personable of ways was one thing to do, but to take on the jaws of O’Connell and O’Callaghan is a whole other ball game.
The first crack landed and O’Connell appealed to the linesman who then witnessed, as did the entire gather Munster red army, a bevy of blows that eventually led to the Canadian’s departure from the field. O’Connell didn’t let it slide too much and offered Jamie a suggestion or two of his own. What would you expect only for the man to defend himself after receiving a few slaps.
Nonetheless, it’s not as if O’Connell was not immortalised already, but as he took a break from proceedings the crowd went gaga in cheering him off the field. Equally so they went just as berserk when his 10 minutes in the sin bin was up.
We don’t condone that sort of thing around her and O’Connell showed his true professionalism both on and off the field.
Both he and Cudmore shook hands and let it be straight after the game. Job done – move on.
And so the Saturday party was about to begin but it certainly took it’s time to get under way.
The return of an afternoon kick off led to the usual sociables at lunch time to soften and loosen the vocal cords of the red army.
Telling moments in the game would have had you thinking a mixture of thoughts.
It took Munster a whole six minutes to get their hands on the ball and mount a decent attack. That’s a long time in Thomond Park speak.
After 12 minutes ROG missed a shot at goal and then the tussle developed, but the Munster and Irish fly-half had another opportunity to take his first three points after Cudmore took his leave from the field.
Exchanges would continue but Keith Earls carried the 26,000 strong crowd on his back as he surged through the Clermont line on 27 minutes.
That didn’t transpire into the valuable try that we needed but Wally stepped up on the break of the half to sneak in for one.
Munster would endure the barrage that was thrown at them from the solidified 14 men left fro Clermont but the creaks would come and the panto finish came thanks to tries from prop Marcus ‘hangin on the wing’ Horan and stand in no.7 Niall Ronan.
And so it was in the beginning and the end, Munster scored first and Munster scored last to seal the deal and move on to the next leg of their Heineken cup retention.
Next to enter the arena will be Sale as the round 5 fixtures were confirmed this week.
Friday January 16, 2009 Munster v Sale Sharks 20.00 in Thomond Park. Bring it on…!
