Connacht fall just short of the line

Connacht 12 Munster 16: MUNSTER OPENED a seven-point lead at the top of the Magners League after carving out a hard-earned win in difficult conditions at the Sportsground last night.

Tony McGahan’s understrength side had to dig deep to see off a battling Connacht side who slumped to their sixth successive loss in the league.

But Munster’s win came at a price with Alan Quinlan stretchered off with an elbow injury after 47 minutes which could leave him sidelined for weeks.

“He’s in a lot of pain but we don’t know at this stage if it is broken, but it looks like a serious injury,” said McGahan.

Tom Gleeson nabbed the only try, and while it was far from a work of art the Corkman will not worry as he crossed for the decisive score after 65 minutes.

Munster were pressing hard as they trailed 12-6, but while Barry Murphy lost possession, Troy Nathan failed to clear and Murphy hacked ahead for Gleeson to race through and get the touchdown which was confirmed by the TMO.

Ronan O’Gara landed the touchline conversion to put Munster ahead for the first time, and he turned the screw three minutes later when he landed a drop goal with a penalty pending to make it 16-12.

That set up a grandstand finish as Connacht came storming back in the closing stages and seemed poised to win it in the final play when they opted for a five-metre scrum after Niall Ronan was binned for killing the ball.

Connacht got the edge in the first scrum, but when it was reset Munster held firm and Connacht were forced to go wide. They made yardage a few times, but were unable to get over.

Both teams struggled to master the difficult conditions with constant driving rain on a very wet surface testing the hardiest.

Inevitably it developed into a slugfest up front between equal packs and both sides just tried to minimise the errors.

Nobody was immune, not even O’Gara who skewed a penalty to the corner across the field to touch just 20 metres upfield.

And he also saw a penalty from 40 metres miss the target, albeit into the driving wind and rain after 23 minutes.

Earlier, he landed one from the 22 after nine minutes to cancel the fifth-minute effort from Ian Keatley from 35 metres after Alan Quinlan, not for the final time in the match, was pinged by Ulster referee David Wilkinson.

Keatley restored Connacht’s lead after 15 minutes with a fine kick from 40 metres, but he was guilty before the break when he missed one from 25 metres on the right after good Connacht pressure.

Try-scoring chances were few in the opening half but it took a great tackle from Tom Gleeson to stop Fionn Carr in his tracks after a good switch move by Connacht outside the visitors’ 22 at the end of the opening quarter.

Keatley gave Connacht hope of what would be only their second win over Munster in the professional era when he slotted another penalty two minutes after the break.

And with Johnny O’Connor superb in the loose and skipper Keith Matthews outstanding in defence, hopes of the Connacht fans continued to rise.

But O’Gara brought them back to reality with another penalty, and while Keatley landed his fourth after 55 minutes, Connacht were unable to close out the game.

CONNACHT: T Nathan; D Fanning, N Ta’auso, K Matthews, F Carr; I Keatley, C Willis; R Sweeney, S Cronin, J Hagan; M Swift, M McCarthy; A Browne, J O’Connor, E Taylor. Replacements: M McComish for Taylor (40 mins); D Rogers for Sweeney (68 mins); B Upton for O’Connor (80 mins).

MUNSTER: P Warwick; B Murphy, T Gleeson, L Mafi, D Hurley; R O’Gara, P Stringer; W du Preez, M Sherry, P Borlase; Donnacha Ryan, I Nagle; A Quinlan, N Ronan, P Butler. Replacements: B Holland for Quinlan (47 mins); J Hayes for Borlase, T O’Donnell for Butler (both 55 mins); Dave Ryan for du Preez (72 mins); du Preez for Dave Ryan (80 mins). Yellow card: Ronan (79 mins).

Referee: D Wilkinson (IRFU).