Game escapes early from limited Munster team

Twenty seconds into this Ravenhill interprovincial Stuart Laing set Ulster on their way with a drop goal. Minutes after the final whistle, the man on the public address congratulated Munster on winning the title, before a "recount" revealed that a threepoint swing had given the title to Leinster. Were there another recount, the title would be Munster's, for video replays confirmed commentator Jim Neilly's initial observation that the ball never cleared the crossbar. All of which, unfortunately, is a fitting postcript to the 1997 Guinness Interprovincials.

Once again in this year's distinctly non-vintage series, the negatives far outweighed the positives. On the credit side, Ulster responded to their pressurised moment of truth with a quick-witted start and pluckily held on to the advantage given to them by that early 10-point salvo to ensure themselves of European Cup rugby next season.

Laing did well to take the drop goal that was/wasn't from a ruck which was set up by his quickwitted kick-off, a short straight grubber kick, which he gathered himself.

Laing was again the orchestrator for a try three minutes later, his deft sleight of hand and delayed skip pass putting Maurice Field clear for a perfectly weighted chip which Andy Park raced on to.

Ulster rucked better and recycled the ball better, despite far less of the line-out, and both defensively and going forward held a decisive edge in pace out wide. Field was a soothing presence, Andy Ward had a lively game and Stuart Ritchie typified their high workload, if still looking back to his post-development tour best.

Thus it took Ulster only three minutes to achieve their basic target. If only referee Murray Whyte had called it all off there and then. Instead, he blew a veritable concerto. Thus, for the next 77 minutes, Laing and Ronan O'Gara traded four penalties apiece and that was about it.

Munster were distinctly unhappy with Whyte's performance. He penalised them heavily until a late flurry of decisions almost evened out the penalty count at a ridiculously high 16-15. Yep, another set-piece game. Only in Ireland? There's no point in turning up for games like that.

Whyte punished Munster an additional 10 metres three times for dissent. He declined to explain his sometimes mystifying decisions to the gallery and, once, even to his regular inquisitor, Munster captain Mick Galwey. He never applied the advantage law - once giving Ulster a penalty five metres out when they had the ball and were about to orchestrate a rolling maul. He repeatedly gave Ulster the scrum when the Munster ballcarrier was tackled to ground.

And he also dismissed Shane Leahy at the behest of linesman Tony Redmond for two mild, handbags at 10 paces flurries of fresh air punches.

Admittedly, Munster were their own worst enemies. Ill-discipline manfiested itself in dissent and Leahy's dismissal, for he was on a yellow card when retaliating against Keith Gallick and should have known better. That left them 33 minutes without their prime ball-winner. For the second week running the tempo of the Munster A team's performance was in striking contrast to that of the senior team. They completed a grand slam with an eight-try, 48-15 win, and presumably showed what Munster are aiming for. But you'd hardly have guessed it from the seniors.

The runners up front, Galwey, Eddie Halvey, Anthony Foley and David Wallace sporadically, very sporadically, took on ball but there was little cohesion, even less continuity.

Wallace, suffering from a cold, gave way after 46 minutes and his excellent support play was missed. As for Peter Clohessy, he was hardly seen.

But it was the back play that was truly dreadful. Virtually everyone made basic handling errors. Dominic Crotty, with one counter-attack alongside O'Gara, did show some small signs of a mental recovery from his crass treatment by the national selectors last season. But, elsewhere, the midfield again didn't function and they chronically lacked pace out wide.

It makes little obvious sense to play Michael Lynch, a good footballer and decent centre, on the left wing - especially as the unwanted Brian Roche now plays with Bath. Once, when Munster worked a break-out in front of their line Lynch was in the clear but had to check before the 22 metre line.

The pacey John Lacey and the adopted Kiwi Mike Kenworthy on the wings, along with new New Zealand inside centre Rhys Ellison, all on the A side, looked better options. All the provinces have problems, Munster's declining graph making theirs particularly worrying with the Harlequins European Cup opener next Saturday in mind.