Ronan O’Gara kicked 21 of Munster’s 24 points tonight as Munster defeated old rivals Leinster at Thomond Park. In a game which will go down as one of the best and most intense witnessed at the historic ground. Munster came from 20-9 points down at half time to snatch a last minute win from the jaws of defeat.
The intensity at which this game started was only matched by the intensity at which it was played throughout. Munster opened the scoring after 4 minutes with a Ronan O Gara penalty and the red and blues swapped stamps, rucks, mauls, scrums and penalties until the 22nd minutes when Leinster lead 9-6. On the stroke of the 23rd minute, Shane Horgan, making his 200th appearance for the blues ran through and dived on a kick ahead to make it 14-6 to Leinster. Munster responded with an O’Gara penalty to make the game a nailbiting 14-9. However, the second 20 minutes of the second half were all Leinster as they went on to make it 20-9 at the break. At that moment, it looked all over for Munster. They had faced a Blue wall in attack and a rolling blue tide in defence.
The second half started better for Munster as Warwick, (a blood replacement for O’Gara) came on to kick a penalty to make it 20-12. The comeback was on. O’Gara was back on by the time he had the opportunity to make it 20-15. Again, now in the 52nd minute, O’Gara kicked after a scrum penalty to make it 20-18.
The game was now in the balance. Leamy came on for Ryan and Brian O’Driscoll went to the bin in the 60th minute. It all looked good for Munster as O’Gara kicked from almost half way to make the score 21-20 to Munster. (Yes, it was that to and fro)
A tough penalty on Munster from a knock on falling forward to Tony Buckley meant that Sexton had the chance to make it 23-21 to Leinster. With 15 minutes to go, the drama was just about to begin. O’Gara missed a chance to go ahead with a missed penalty, while Leinster looked to close the game out.
Munster sprang Horan, Hayes, Warwick, Stringer and Sherry from the bench and without doubt the momentum was changed. As Munster went is search of the win with four minutes to go, the ball even hit the ref from a pass from Stringer. From the resulting scrum, Munster were awarded a penalty for not rolling away and O’Gara was set the task of winning the game from the touchline. Just like Saracens in 2000, the kick was good and Munster won a classic encounter 24-23.
