Munster Storm Kingsholm
So for the 15th time in 16 seasons, Munster have made the quarter finals of the Heineken Cup, an incredible achievement for a team that has gone through so much change in the last few seasons. After defeat in last season’s semi-final to Clermont and the retirements of both Ronan O Gara and Doug Howlett , it was felt that Munster would again go into a period of transition but after only 3 defeats in 17 games this season , People are beginning to sit up and take notice of Munster again after another fantastic set of performances in Heineken Cup rounds 4 and 5. After the heroics of JJ Hanrahan in Perpignan when the game seemed dead and buried after a try in the 77th minute looked to have put Munster on course for Heineken Cup elimination for only the 2nd time in 16 seasons, then something truly special happened and Munster did what they have so often done in past seasons and they summoned up this tremendous spirit that they have to come back and score the winning try and keep alive their hopes of qualifying for another quarter final.
They then headed for Gloucester and to fortress Kingsholm to try and storm the place that they hadn’t been since 2008. Simon Zebo made a welcome return to the 23 along with Conor Murray. Munster have struggled at times this year in attack but to make up for that in defence and that is one of the main reasons that they won on Saturday along with strong performances in both the scrum and line out. To this end both Damian Varley and Paul O Connell have to be commended for putting the work in along with Dave Foley and James Coughlan. In the backs both James Downey and Johne Murphy put in huge efforts in both defence and attack.
Munster are now in with a real shout of the double top of the Rabo and top of Pool 6 in the Heineken Cup. So after storming Kingsholm they can now look forward to a quarter final in April. Also a mention for the terrific supporters in Gloucester on Saturday, they have a brilliant reputation and they again enhanced it with some wonderful singing and very vocal support to the dismay of some very disgruntled locals.
Munster yet again did what they always do and saved the best until last with another memorable performance that will go down in Munster rugby history.
By
Cian Mc Gibney.
15-1-2014.
