Munster out-hit, out-thought and out of the quarter-finals

Toulon 32 Munster 16:IN THE final analysis, Munster could have few complaints. Toulon bossed the collisions and played smarter, using the ball better and outscoring them by two tries to one. The Stade Felix Mayol throbbed to a famous home win, which will also perhaps stand as a landmark low for the two-time champions.

Aware of Toulon flooding the back court, as it were, Munster determinedly kept the ball in hand, but this meant plenty of moving the ball back and forth across the pitch with little in the way of headway or inroads being made against a well-drilled defence.

The net effect was that Munster played far too much rugby, and far too much of it in their half, and ineffectually at that.

Munster’s running game was very lateral, with little hard, straight running or even hard, straight decoys.

Toulon handsomely won the collisions, putting in some monster hits through the likes of the outstanding Joe van Niekerk (indisputably the man of the match), Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe and Fijian centre Gabiriele Lovobalavu.

Working off better set-pieces – Toulon overcame some early difficulties by varying their lineouts and using the long, accurate throwing of Sebastien Bruno – the home side also moved the ball much better.

There were only six scrums in the first hour of the game, but all of them caused Munster pain of one sort or another. At the game’s first scrum, on the Munster put-in, their initial hit was okay, but Denis Leamy undid some great work previously at the breakdown with poor control at the base, which scrumhalf Pierre Mignoni capitalised upon, and this led to James Coughlan being penalised for offside. Jonny Wilkinson duly drew the sides level.

Handling errors by Damien Varley and Ronan O’Gara led to a couple more Toulon scrums, yielding the home side a tap penalty by Fernandez Lobbe and a full penalty when the Munster frontrow went down, which Wilkinson converted into three points from 45 metres via the upright. A third followed when referee Dave Pearson harshly did O’Gara for crossing when Munster went sidewards for Doug Howlett to do some jinking back infield.

Although Wilkinson did miss from inside his half, things were already looking ominous. Paul Warwick was clearly dazed, to be replaced at half-time, by an illegal high hit by Toulon lock Christophe Samson, which went undetected.

Worse followed when Munster couldn’t regather Paul O’Connell’s tap down from O’Gara’s restart, and with Pearson playing advantage to the home side Mignoni chipped for winger Christian Loamanu to beat Howlett in the air and force his way through Warwick for a try.

Almost as ominously, it seemed, O’Gara – who had been hit hard by O’Connell’s knee at Toulon’s first restart when the lock was pushed from behind – looked increasingly agitated.

Angrily gesticulating when done for crossing, he then had a minor, off-the-ball exchange with the tetchy Mignoni and, inevitably, Contepomi – all minor stuff, but you never like to see O’Gara looking even a little rattled.

Munster were then caught off guard by a quick throw and kick ahead, but though Rudi Wulf was offside there was enough cover for Donncha O’Callaghan not to take out the Toulon fullback. Once Pearson went to one of his English touchjudges, you sensed the worse for the Munster lock, but a player of his experience should have known better.

What’s more, Toulon outscored Munster 13-3 in his absence either side of the break – championship minutes.

Warwick had performed a minor miracle in averting a five-metre scrum with some in-goal trickery, but from Peter Stringer’s box-kick Mignoni sidestepped through several tackles and from the recycle Johne Murphy and Keith Earls in turn missed Paul Sackey for a try.

Wilkinson landed the touchline conversion and two penalties – either side of one by O’Gara on half-time – after Munster were penalised for offside – a highly selective decision by Pearson.

Again, Munster were then done for running ball inside their half, and from a tap penalty too, when Lifeimi Mafi (on for Warwick at half-time) bumped into O’Callaghan and Pearson very harshly adjudged it “crossing”.

That made the penalty count 8-3 at the time, though Wilkinson hit the post with the penalty.

Just as damaging, though, a second card followed for Munster – albeit a joke yellow if not a very amusing one for the away side. The off-the-ball incident started between Mignoni and O’Gara, with the two wrestling on the ground. Having got to their feet, Contepomi – in his most significant contribution of the match – needlessly grabbed O’Gara by the face and neck from behind, which prompted Leamy to enter the fray by doing likewise to Contepomi, which prompted a free-for-all.

After consulting one of his touchjudges, Pearson contrived to brandish only one yellow, and to O’Gara, while his sparring partner, Mignoni, and the prime culprit (Contepomi) escaped scot-free.

With David Wallace left to patrol at outhalf at a scrum, van Niekerk made hay and scrumhalf Tomás O’Leary played the ball illegally for Wilkinson to make it 32-9 with his eighth kick out of 10.

That was pretty much it, though Munster kept knocking on the Toulon door until the end.

Murphy and Saimone Taumoepeau each had a try not given by the TMO, before Wallace, who had kept going better than most, earned a deserved, individual try after an initial break by O’Leary.

But it couldn’t even be ranked as a consolation.

Match Statistics In Toulon

SCORING SEQUENCE:

3 mins: O’Gara pen 0-3; 9: Wilkinson 3-3; 15: Wilkinson pen 6-3; 17: Wilkinson pen 9-3; 23: Loamanu try, Wilkinson con 16-3; 26: O’Gara pen 16-6; 35: Wilkinson pen 19-6; 37: Sackey try, Wilkinson con 26-6; 40: O’Gara pen 26-9 (half-time); 42: Wilkinson pen 29-9; 60: Wilkinson pen 32-9; 78: Wallace try, O’Gara con 32-16.

TOULON: R Wulf; P Sackey, G Lovobalavu, F Contepomi, C Loamanu; J Wilkinson, P Mignoni; L Emmanuelli, S Bruno, D Kubriashvili, C Samson, D Schofield, J Fernandez Lobbe, G Smith, J van Niekerk (capt). Replacements: K Chesney for Samson (32 mins – h-t), for Schofield (61 mins), S Taumoepeau for Emmanuelli (53 mins), L Magnaval for Mignoni (59 mins), J Orioli for Bruno (60 mins), R Lamont for Loamanu (65 mins), F Auelua for Lovobalavu (72 mins), J El Abd for Smith (74 mins). Not used: M Merabet. Sinbinned: Kubriashvili (65 mins).

MUNSTER: P Warwick; D Howlett, K Earls, S Tuitupou, J Murphy; R O’Gara, P Stringer; W du Preez, D Varley, J Hayes, D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell, J Coughlan, D Wallace, D Leamy (capt). Replacements: L Mafi for Warwick (h-t), T Buckley for Hayes (47 mins), T O’Leary for Stringer (49 mins), D Ryan for Coughlan (54 mins), M O’Driscoll for O’Callaghan (61 mins), Darragh Hurley for du Preez (73 mins), N Ronan for O’Connell (74 mins), M Sherry for Varley (78 mins). Sinbinned: O’Callaghan (33 mins), O’Gara (48-58 mins).

Referee: Dave Pearson (England).