Munster stretched to breaking

MUNSTER...32 WASPS...37: With most of the crowd having trundled away and Wasps having completed their valedictory lap of honour, as usual you could barely hear yourself think above the din from the PA system. But Simply Irresistible was about right. The match itself, of course, but most of all Wasps.

Munster will look back on the video and reflect again that at one point, however unlikely it had looked, somehow they were 32-22 ahead and had the winning of the game. They didn't close it out, and to a large extent have only themselves to blame. But this awesomely impressive and, it has to be said, more complete Wasps only needed a glimmer of a chance and they were bounding toward the Heineken European Cup final. They're some unit.

Their lineout was good, their maul and scrum didn't give an inch, and offensively they kept asking questions of Munster across the gain line, whether with the heavy hitters or the sniping Howley close in, or their pacey, elusive outside three. Inevitably, mismatches or cracks appeared.

Wasps' rush defence played Nigel Williams to the hilt and smothered the life out of Munster. Without David Wallace's dynamic ball carrying, Munster's only means of go-forward ball was their maul and the boot. Many a team would have crumbled altogether, but true grit kept Munster in the hunt and even hinted at an improbable win.

Alas Munster had to be error-free to take their winning chance, but in that critical juncture of the game Jason Holland missed two vital kicks to touch and Munster went on missing first-up tackles - a relatively untypical feature of their game heretofore but something that has contributed to the concession of nine tries in their two knockout matches. Ten points followed, to draw the sides level, and thereafter the force was very much back with Wasps.

Munster might feel a tad aggrieved over the legality of Trevor Leota's 77th-minute, match-winning try given he didn't appear to ground the ball properly as it squirted out behind his back, and there was a touch of the Super 12s in TMO Hugh Watkins of Wales awarding the score.

But it was a very fine call either way, and even had the game gone into extra time Warren Gatland's indefatigable outfit would probably have prevailed. Wasps looked fresher, fitter and certainly more dynamic.

However, this impression was also in large part because Munster had suffered two yellow cards in the final quarter, the sin-binnings of Donncha O'Callaghan and Rob Henderson actually overlapping in the minutes in which Holland's sliced touchfinder (with O'Callaghan waiting to come back on if the ball went out of play) was run back for the spring-heeled Tom Voyce to score the equalising try.

Given Wasps were the more cynical of the two sides, especially from the outset when Lawrence Dallaglio might twice have been binned had he not been Lawrence Dallaglio, it seemed harsh that the yellow cards were produced (Joe Worsley and Fraser Waters having rightly been binned earlier), and in particular O'Callaghan's was an awful decision by Nigel Williams.

The Welsh official, having just binned Waters for the same offence, maintained he was merely being consistent. But O'Callaghan made no obvious attempt to play the ball with his hand, and not only was it Munster's first offence in their own 22, but at the time the penalty count was 18-5 against Wasps. Where's the consistency in that?

It was also Munster's misfortune that they lost Ronan O'Gara to a tweaked hamstring by the half-hour mark. The 93-year-old former Irish international player and referee Ham Lambert wasn't alone in venturing beforehand that O'Gara was "the key" to Munster's hopes. O'Gara is invariably Munster's barometer.

One wonders too how much his injury was the result of his legitimate targeting by his ex-Ireland boss Warren Gatland. "Roadkill" came to mind as time and again the heavy rumblers, Lawrence Dallaglio, Simon Shaw, et al, ran down his channel. In any event, you had that sinking feeling when he went off to be replaced by Holland.

More damaging though, had been the inroads Wasps made through a porous Munster midfield, while as a last line of defence Christian Cullen again gave the impression of someone who was reluctant to test his shoulders in head-on tackles.

With Wasps testing Williams to the limit, O'Gara had kept Munster in touch with three penalties, though there'd been an ominous early warning of their menace out wide. Their lineout again a precise launching pad, Wasps stretched Munster right and left before the strong-running Lewsey stepped inside Cullen's right shoulder and took Mike Mullins's tackle to score, pointedly glaring at the crowd after the touchdown.

It would be unfair to apportion particular blame to Holland, for having conceded a try to Rob Howley's charge-down and offload for the supporting Paul Volley, he kept his game together impressively and unerringly assumed the goalkicking duties with three penalties of his own after Wasps scored a second try, through Mark van Gisbergen, while numerically disadvantaged.

Munster made better use of Waters's binning, Cullen's vision and floated double-miss pass to Simon Keogh enabling Anthony Foley to pounce. Holland converted from the touchline, found a fantastic long touch and cometh the hour O'Connell nicked a Leota throw, O'Callaghan and Foley punched for the line, before Williams burrowed over. Holland converted again for 32-22.

Cue O'Callaghan's sin-binning. Munster were stretched to the limit, Shaun Payne and Cullen making try-saving tackles on Lewsey and Waters on either flank. Their desperation grew as Holland's first missed touch led to King's penalty. Henderson came in wildly from the side and was obliged to assume a watching brief.

Voyce straightened inside Stringer and an outnumbered defence, and then beat Kelly on the outside and Cullen on the inside in the build-up to Leota's match-winner. And, ultimately, five tries to two doesn't leave too much room for argument.

SCORING SEQUENCE: 2 mins: O'Gara pen 3-0; 4: Lewsey try, King con 3-7; 7: O'Gara pen 6-7; 9: King pen 6-10; 14: O'Gara pen 9-10; 33: Holland pen 12-10; 35: Volley try, King con 12-17; 40: Holland pen 15-17 (half-time 15-17); 41: van Gisbergen try 15-22; 48: Holland pen 18-22; 57: Foley try, Holland con 25-22; 61: Williams try, Holland con 32-22; 68: King pen 32-25; 75: Voyce try, King con 32-32; 77: Leota try 32-37.

MUNSTER: C Cullen; J Kelly, M Mullins, R Henderson, S Payne; R O'Gara, P Stringer; M Horan, F Sheahan, J Hayes, D O'Callaghan, P O'Connell, S Keogh, A Foley, J Williams (capt). Replacements: J Holland for O'Gara (29 mins), A Horgan for Keogh (78 mins). Sin-binned: D O'Callaghan (63 mins), Henderson (73 mins).

WASPS: M van Gisbergen; J Lewsey, F Waters, S Abbott, T Voyce; A King, R Howley; C Dowd, T Leota, W Green, S Shaw, R Birkett, J Worsley, L Dallaglio (capt), P Volley. Replacements: A Erinle for Voyce (46-50 mins), P Richards for Howley (79 mins). Sin-binned: Worsley (33 mins), Waters (53 mins).

Referee: Nigel Williams (Wales).