Garryowen brush aside lumbering Munsters

Well, as the saying goes, if Mohammed won't go to the mountain then bring the mountain to Mohammed. The Limerick invasion of Dublin next Saturday for the AIB League final was copperfastened after Saturday's first semi-final, and Garryowen completed the line-up by making the formguide and home advantage tell at Dooradoyle yesterday.

The invasion mightn't be as great as it would have been had Munsters been the other half of the equation, but no less than Shannon 24 hours beforehand, there could be little doubt that Garryowen deserved their place in the decider.

If the truth be told though, it was a suprisingly bloodless coup. Munsters drew first blood after 90 seconds, and last blood 90 seconds from time, but drew a blank in between. The decision to restore Stephen Tuohy over Aidan O'Halloran, who kicked perfectly a week ago, must have been a tight one and must have been regretted in the Munsters' think tank as Tuohy missed six successive kicks with the wind behind him in the first-half.

As can be seen for a team who only managed 21 tries in 13 league games, Munsters needed most of those to go over to have a meaningful lead facing into the breeze. Instead they trailed 5-3 at the break, and Killian Keane put Tuohy's profligacy into perspective by landing four successive penalties and a conversion to Dominic Crotty's sixth try of the campaign.

And that, pretty much was that. Even the Munsters' coach Brian Hickey conceded that his team only began to play their driving, rucking game in the last few minutes, "and that was only because we were allowed to, as the game was already over."

It was scant consolation to think that Munsters had pretty much maximised their resources (they need their anticipated infusion of a few new backs) and acquitted themselves well over the season. "Our players are sitting in there now and what is the most disappointing thing for them is that they didn't do themselves justice."

Admittedly, Hickey readily conceded that his players didn't perform primarily because they weren't let. The narrow side defending of Paul Hogan and the outstanding David Wallace typified the Garryowen pack's resolve. Worryingly for Garryowen, Wallace was carried off after turning his ankle but Philip Danaher reckoned "he'll be fine" for the final.

Although they conceded a couple of penalties for collapsed scrums, Paul Spain and Gavin Walsh wouldn't budge an inch, and their hookers Paul Cunningham and Pat Humphreys, consistently hit Van Humphreys, a fired up Shane Leahy (who had a big game generally) and on occasion Dave Wallace, despite Munsters being one of the most effective disrupters around.

Stymied at source, Munsters couldn't rumble and the increasingly frustrated Clohessys had surprisingly little impact. It didn't help Munsters cause that Derek Tobin was a first-half casualty and with the result that their policy of four forwards and two backs on the bench prevented them from switching things at out-half.

Nor did it help that the fastidious Bertie Smith blew a veritable concerto in a stop-start game that seemed to belong to another era. Twenty-six penalties, 13 to each side, prevented any flow until the game was up, which only made the anti-climactic nature of the whole event all the more frustrating.

Everything was set fair, a bumper crowd of 7,000 or so on a sunny, warm day had Dooradoyle looking resplendent - the home club clearly going to great lengths to lay on the event. The game was also quickly kick-started by Peter Boland's opportunistic drop goal from Stephen McIvor's clearance kick.

However the edgy, error prone exchanges were merely interrupted by Tuohy's wayward radar. A sequence after Ger Earls's 23rd minute line-out and successive rucks made Munsters look clueless and directionless as first Declan Edwards and then other ball-carriers looked around for support with seemingly nothing planned or in mind. Finally presented with a penalty for offside, Garryowen supposedly transgressing, Tuohy missed from 25 metres.

Garryowen scored within four minutes when McIvor's quickly tapped penalty and break was supported by Leahy, Hogan then breaking off the back of a ruck and offloading to McIvor, whose quick-witted skip pass gave Kevin O'Riordan sufficient room to round James Carey.

Keane then systematically pushed Garryowen out of Munsters' range as the resourceful McIvor and the classy Everitt (who seems to be adding to his game all the time) ensured that the home side played in their opponents' half. The coup de grace came when Everitt first sent Clarke away down the blind side, Wallace giving support and further momentum before Everitt picked up after Keane was nailed in midfield to nimbly send Crotty over.

It was scant consolation for Munsters when Mark Hayes popped over as Garryowen switched off. As that adopted sporting anthem Simply the Best bellowed out at the end, Frank Hogan - a big critic of the knockout formula - beamed and led the singing. Presumably the Garryowen treasurer wasn't crying into his pint either.

Scoring sequence: 2 mins, Boland drop goal 0-3; 27 mins, O'Riordan try 5-3; 43 mins, Keane pen 8-3; 54 mins, Keane pen 11-3; 66 mins, Keane pen 14-3; 68 mins, Keane pen 173; 71 mins, Crotty try, Keane con 24-3; 79 mins, Hayes try, Lynch con 24-10.

Garryowen: D Crotty; J Clarke, K Keane (capt), J Brooks, K O'Riordan; B Everitt, S McIvor; P Spain, P Humphreys, G Walsh, S Leahy, V Humphreys, P Hogan, D Wallace, A Bermingham. Replacements: P Cunningham for P Humphreys (58 mins) T Tierney for McIvor (68 mins), K Ronan for Walsh (72 mins), D O'Sullivan for Wallace (76 mins).

Young Munster: P Boland; J Carey, N O'Meara, M Lynch, N McNamara; S Tuohy, D Tobin; D Clohessy, M Hayes, P Clohessy, M O'Halloran, D O'Meara, B Buckley, D Edwards, G Earls (capt). Replacements: J O'Connell for D O'Meara (19 mins), M Prendergast for Tobin (33 mins), A O'Herlihy for Edwards (62 mins), N Hartigan for D Clohessy (72 mins).

Referee: B Smith (Munster)