Munster hunt down prey

RUGBY: Invaluable away wins rarely come adorned with champagne rugby in the Heineken European Cup, and in one of those curious throwbacks that this competition produces, Munster yet again showed they can be the old dogs for the hard road with a titanic 20-18 win against the Ospreys at The Gnoll yesterday.

With that Munster went to the top of an ultra-competitive Pool Four, albeit by a point from Castres, whom they meet in pivotal back-to-back meetings in the first two weekends of December. The pity is that they now say goodbye to their frontliners for a month before renewing their Magnificent Obsession away to Castres at what amounts to five days' notice.

What's more, unlike last season when the World Cup meant that rounds three to six were compressed into a more fluid four-week time-frame, the tournament will then break up again until the New Year.

But for the moment, despite not playing to their best, Munster couldn't have done too much more than win their opening two games.

The tie itself also encapsulated what this tournament is all about, warts and all. Two rugby tribes went to war in a dilapidated, compact setting as a fastidious French official blew one of his trademark concertos and culminated in one of those nerve-jangling endings which are almost commonplace.

The game plan had clearly been to attack the Ospreys out wide, with Anthony Horgan, Christian Cullen and Shaun Payne all given space in the outside channel without extracting any great dividend but mostly they were cut off in midfield by the fast-approaching Sonny Parker and co.

So to their credit, Munster analysed the game, the opposition, the referee and themselves at half-time and adapted accordingly.

Ronan O'Gara sat back more in the pocket and turned the screw with a master class of tactical kicking, primarily to the most noisily congregated section of the Red Army in the main stand by the Ospreys' left-wing corner flag, renditions of the Fields of Athenry growing in volume accordingly.

Peter Stringer chipped in with growing assurance and some accurate kicking of his own. Munster took their chances, Stringer particularly with an opportunist try - the only one of the encounter - and in the end-game they backed a disciplined defence to hold on for a potentially invaluable win.

"It was heart-stopping stuff," admitted Alan Gaffney. "I thought we lacked a little bit of discipline in the first half. We conceded 11 penalties in the first half and I think we gave (Gavin) Henson about six kicks at goal but the boys responded very well in the second half, particularly in that last 10 minutes when we just backed our defence.

"It's something that we've been trying to do all season and in that last 10 minutes our defence was very, very strong. Credit to Graham Steadman and the work he's done on our defence," said Gaffney in praise of his defensive coaching recruit from British Rugby League. "But I'm delighted to come away from The Gnoll with a win."

Publicly at any rate, Gaffney declined to question the high penalty count against his team, maintaining "they were very well deserved. There's no point in us bleating about it; if he says, "hands off, hands off" then that's what we've got to do."

Of Stringer's ultimately crucial 44th-minute try, his fifth in 47 European Cup matches, the Munster coach revealed it was down to the scrumhalf's reading of the situation from a five-metre scrum to go it alone down the blindside with all his backs positioned in-field.

"It was a good scrum, we put a lot of pressure on the Ospreys scrum. It's something that people pillory Strings for, that he can't do that sort of thing. But we've just to give Strings better presentation."

Alongside him, O'Gara's influence grew more and more pronounced as he turned the screw with pinpoint touch-finders. "It's great when you have faith in your outhalf and you just know he's going to get you down there every time," admitted David Wallace afterwards. "It means you can just concentrate on your own job."

"I thought Ronan played exceptionally well," added Gaffney. "At half-time we knew what we had to do, we had to play territory, because we could put a bit of pressure on their lineout and Ronan played it ideally."

One of the morals of the tale was that opponents should think twice before kicking Marcus Horan on the head, the prop requiring seven stitches in a wound above the eye following a trailing boot by Ospreys winger Richard Mustoe - which looked a cheap shot. Thereafter, Horan was "outstanding", and Hayes and Paul O'Connell weren't far behind.

The incident, though, is likely to have repercussions.

"I did see the incident but I'll have to have a look at it. Obviously there was a yellow card for the obstruction but we'll have to see how much intent there was."

Gaffney's counterpart, Lyn Jones, who had said after their win over Leinster a fortnight ago that not only had they caught up with the Irish provinces, but were going to overtake them, admitted Munster's experience and capacity for making fewer mistakes deservedly earned them a win.

"We're not out of it, but we probably have to win our (remaining) four matches now, which includes winning in Thomond Park." Anthony Foley concurred with Jones in refusing to write off either their Welsh opponents or Harlequins in a competitive pool but this win left his team well placed.

"We trusted in ourselves and we got the result. We have a tough trip down to Castres and if we can get something out of that I will be confident of getting out of the pool. Every week is a hard game in this competition. At half-time we talked about patience and discipline and I think we were far more positive in the second half.

"Our composure in defence, especially in the last five or 10 minutes, won us the game. We hung on in there and it's a massive win - any win away from home is important if you want to get to the knockout stage."