Munster join their compatriots Leinster in the quarter-finals of the Champions Cup. After the washout of last season, the Pro12 teams continue to show the way in this. Here was another compelling fixture, won in the 72nd minute by a Francis Saili try, the only such score of the match. Glasgow are not quite out of the reckoning. They must win as well as they can at Welford Road next weekend, but they will be distraught that their feisty display, enlivened by more than a few flashes of skill, proved insufficient against Munster for the third time this season.
After its unimaginable low in October, what a season this is turning out to be for Munster. Rampant last week in Paris, this time they had to call upon their fabled powers of bloody-minded resilience to see off a home team who might have won at a canter in this form against many of the biggest names in Europe. Indeed, they already have.
They may have the pedigree of champions, winners of the Pro12 the season before last, but they are not yet as experienced in the art of winning crunch fixtures as their visitors. Munster withstood wave after wave of attack, Glasgow’s impish half-backs sending athletes into some painful places, sometimes even into some space, but Munster took all the blows. And every time Glasgow edged ahead, they found a way, somehow, to stay apace. Three times the hosts landed a penalty in the first hour, only to surrender it three minutes later.
Glasgow must have been maddened by their inability to shake the visitors off but Munster were maddened, too, by the ferocity of Glasgow’s work at close quarters. Neither side was shy of niggling the other. In a previous time – or in France – fisticuffs would have broken out on a couple of occasions but in our sanitised era the pushing and grappling kept us almost as enthralled as the intensity of the battle at close quarters and the glimmers and snuffing out of the sparks out wide.
The score was 6-6 at the break, a statistic that would have been more pleasing to Munster than Glasgow, but the Warriors’ dominance continued well into the second half. Finn Russell was far from perfect but when he was good he was sublime. A flourish worthy of a matador sent the tireless Tim Swinson galloping through in the third quarter to earn Glasgow their third converted penalty, but yet again Tyler Bleyendaal levelled on a rare Munster foray three minutes later.
Glasgow landed a fourth on the hour and held on to this lead until eight minutes from time, when Saili struck. A mistake by Tommy Seymour offered Munster their chance, a lineout that they drove deep into Glasgow’s 22. The attack and the furious defence shifted this way and that but Munster were now edging towards the tryline. Andrew Conway had a tilt at the line but was caught high by Stuart Hogg, who saw yellow. From the lineout, Munster went wide, and Saili looped round Keith Earls to dive into the corner.
Bleyendaal could not convert, so one final instalment of three points would have been enough for Glasgow. They had their chances, too, but composure deserted them. They do not yet have champion pedigree in this competition. Munster do.
Glasgow: Hogg; Seymour, Bennett (Grigg 62), Dunbar, Jones; Russell, Price; Reid (Allan 78), Brown (MacArthur 62), Z Fagerson (Rae 72), Swinson, Gray (capt), Harley, Wilson, Strauss (Fusaro 68).
Pens: Russell 3, Hogg. Sin-bin: Hogg 71.
Munster: Zebo (Keatley 72); Conway, Taute (Saili 56), R Scannell, Earls; Bleyendaal, Murray; Kilcoyne (Cronin 48), N Scannell (Marshall 67), J Ryan (Du Toit 61), Kleyn (Holland 54), D Ryan, O’Mahony (capt; Foley 72), O’Donoghue, Stander.
Try: Saili. Pens: Bleyendaal 3.
Referee: Luke Pearce (England)
Attendance: 7,351
Match rating: 7
