A rampant and almost vintage Munster side dispatched the challenge of Sale Sharks in last night’s Heineken Cup round five pool decider at a packed Thomond Park. The English premiership team fell foul of a six try onslaught that saw Munster take on Sale up front and smother the side into a second half submission and take a maximum five pool points away from the tie.
Munster now sit in the driving seat of pool one where a win next week against competition newcommers in Montauban will bring a home tie quarterfinal to the reigning champions and an estimated five million euro to the local economy.
A towering performance from Munster captain Paul O’Connell, together with the entire team and emptied bench, saw three tries emulate from the pack’s huge performance and the ball handling skills of the flowing back line yield another three opportunities for the home side to cross the try line.
O’Connell notecd the performance of everyone, the famous Munster 16th man included, “We just really wanted it. We put a lot of ourselves into it this week. There’s been a lot of talk about Thomond Park in the last few weeks, a lot of opposing players talking about playing here.
“The crowd are fabulous here but they don’t do anything for you on the pitch – you have to do that yourself. We filled the jersey well today, but they played their part. They had a great match too, everyone stepped up tonight.”
First to cross was indeed the home side captain as the pack bullied with an early red surge and the Munster lock dived over the pack to score after just four and half minutes.
A second try followed from Flannery who found a gap on the wing to cross following some quick hands. Flannery then found himself on the wrong side of the law after tripping a Sharks prop in what many considered to be a try saving move. Flannery took ten inutes in the bin to consider his actions but Munster seemed happier to cough up just three points from the penalty during the hooker’s time on the bench.
The break came with Munster leading 12-6 and Wallace kept the home fires burning by crossing for a vital second half score after just one minute of both sides returning to the field.
Munster then let Sale see some light by letting them down the right wing to capitalise on an overlap for Charlie Hodgson to cross in the corner and score for the visitors.
However, the home side regained their composure and their grasp on the game with tries from Dowling, O’Leary and Warwick to add to the points from the boot of O’Gara.
In a complete performance from backs to forwards, this game had the intensity, pace and desire that is familiar with the Munster team, traits that had this team at the top of the pile last May. Munster now move to an eight day turnaround and will travel to France later next week for their final pool match where the already qualified team find out their quarter final fate.
