Sport

Quinlan lauds Munster character as Warwick strikes for late winner

Llanelli 23 Munster 24: ALAN QUINLAN heaped praise on his Munster team-mates' character and endurance after their impressive…

Mon May 05 2008 - 01:00

Llanelli 23 Munster 24:ALAN QUINLAN heaped praise on his Munster team-mates' character and endurance after their impressive fight back at Llanelli on Saturday. Declan Kidney's men looked lost for long periods in a thrilling Magners League contest at Stradey Park. After trailing 23-13 with just 15 minutes remaining, replacement outhalf Paul Warwick's 52-metre penalty secured a last-gasp win.

Hailing the never-say-die spirit of his team-mates, Quinlan said, "We never gave up. We were disappointed at half-time and the scoreline could have been even worse.

"We made far too many mistakes and missed tackles and Llanelli punished us. We didn't make enough one-on-one tackles.

"But we tried to remain positive at the break and get an early score in the second half to get us back into the match. Thankfully we did.

READ MORE

"It was great character and we're delighted at the way we dug in. There's a lot of honesty and belief in our squad and we're a bit of a freak show in the way we always fight back.

"We didn't play well in the semi-final last week as well but I was listening to the Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill the other day and he was right when he said good teams are those who can play poorly but still win."

Kidney restored all his big guns following the reserve side's midweek defeat to Ulster. And it took the Heineken Cup finalists only three minutes to get into their stride, wing Ian Dowling touching down in the left corner.

Llanelli had a week to forget after sacking their head coach, Phil Davies, but the hosts quickly burst into life, two penalties from Stephen Jones firing them into a 6-5 lead.

The second penalty came after the Munster flanker David Wallace was sinbinned for a professional foul on Llanelli scrumhalf Gavin Cattle.

And Llanelli wasted little time in exploiting numerical advantage; within six minutes Dafydd James had ghosted past three defenders to score under the posts.

And any Toulouse scouts present will have taken note on 30 minutes when Darren Daniel steamed through the weak tackles of Tomás O'Leary and Ronan O'Gara. Jones converted to hand Llanelli a 20-5 interval lead.

But Munster rallied and O'Gara got them on their way by firing home a close-range penalty before Ian Dowling struck after taking Federico Pucciariello's pass.

Jones and O'Gara's replacement, Warwick, exchanged penalties before Warwick touched down in the left corner in the 83rd minute. Then Warwick clinched victory with the last kick of the match from distance.

LLANELLI SCARLETS: M Stoddart; D James, G Evans, N Brew (D Daniel 60), M Watkins; S Jones (capt, R Priestland 80), G Cattle (L Davies 60); I Thomas (P John 66), M Rees (M Schwalger 62), D Manu; V Cooper, S MacLeod (L Reed 70); D Jones, N Thomas (J Bater 56), G Thomas.

MUNSTER: D Hurley; D Howlett (Carney 61), L Mafi, R Tipoki (P Stringer 50), I Dowling; R O'Gara (P Warwick 61), T O'Leary; M Horan (F Pucciariello 36, M Horan 74), J Flannery (F Sheahan 49), J Hayes; D O'Callaghan (M O'Driscoll 61), P O'Connell (capt); A Quinlan, D Leamy (D Ryan 50), D Wallace.

Referee: Neil Paterson (SRU).