Survival instincts kick in for Reds
Murray comes off bench to save day
MUNSTER, unlike most teams who have visited the Highveld this season, survived a late Cheetahs onslaught to book a home quarterfinal in the Pro14.
Cheetahs had won four of their last five matches in the closing minutes and looked set to repeat the dose when they forced a succession of scrums inside the 22 in the final minute but after two resets, Munster won a penalty and claimed the win.
The impact of Conor Murray off the bench, much earlier than expected through injury, was huge as Munster set themselves up for the Champions Cup clash with Racing 92 next weekend by notching the second win of their South African tour.
A heavy pitch after overnight rain, combined with the thin air in the Highveld ensured this was going to be a tough test for Munster and the task became even more difficult when they fell 14-0 behind after 28 minutes.
Both sides won penalties off each other’s scrum put-ins and the Cheetahs made it count, with full-back Clayton Blommetjies, who is heading to the Scarlets next season, bursting through to score, aided by a slip by Simon Zebo on the boggy surface.
Johan Goosen, back for his first competitive game since walking out on Racing 92 in December 2016, landed the difficult conversion as he chalks up some gametime before his controversial summer move to Montpellier.
Good tackles by Andrew Conway on Francois Venter and by Sammy Arnold on No 8 Uzair Cassiem — another who is heading to Scarlets next season — kept the Cheetahs at bay, but it was only a matter for how long after Zebo was binned for what was deemed a professional foul.
Munster rolled up their sleeves, going to the right corner with a penalty from the 20-metre line, but they lost the lineout and the chance was cleared. And just when it looked like they would survive the binning without conceding a score, the Cheetahs struck for their second try.
Niall Scannell did well to turn the ball over inside his 10-metre line but Munster failed to secure possession and with scrum-half James Hart down injured, his opposite number Tian Meyer got in to score after a break by Blommetjies down the right, with Goosen again converting.
Jack O’Donoghue looked to have opened Munster’s account seven minutes from the break but the score did not count as Robin Copeland was adjudged to have knocked-on in a scrum, even though it was more than two phases previously. The scrum came after Goosen knocked-on behind his own lines, but it was rare error from a guy out of the game for 17 months.
It took Murray less than half a minute to make a telling impact when he was introduced for the injured Hart, skipping around from a scrum to score, with another unnecessary visit to the TMO to confirm what everyone in the ground already knew.
JJ Hanrahan converted to cut the gap to seven but the Cheetahs led 17-7 at the break when Goosen landed a penalty from distance.
But it was all Munster in the second half and they took control from the restart with the constant interruptions to play doing them no harm in the trying conditions.
Three Hanrahan penalties cut the gap to 17-16 after 62 minutes and then Murray edged them in front with a penalty from 51 metres four minutes later — the ball cleared the crossbar by at least 10 metres.
All that had to be done then was survive the late onslaught but with Sammy Arnold, Gerbrandt Grobler and Jack O’Donoghue leading the way, Johaan van Graan’s first visit back to his native South Africa could hardly have ended on a better note. CHEETAHS: