JJ TAKES A CALL TO ARMS

Hanrahan steps up to deliver for Reds with 20-point haul

ALATE call up didn’t concern JJ Hanrahan as his 20-point haul helped Munster reclaim top spot in their Champions Cup pool with a dominant performance at Thomond Park.

After a tight first half, Rory Scannell crossed just after the break before CJ Stander and Hanrahan completed the job for Johann van Graan’s troops.

Only Martin Laveau’s late try breached Munster’s defence, but it was all the French champions deserved after they were bossed entirely with Hanrahan at the helm.

‘That first half was one of the toughest I’ve been involved in,’ said Hanrahan, who replaced the injured Joey Carbery before kick-off.

‘As No 10 no matter who is wearing the shirt in Munster it always helps when the pack is going forward. We’re really happy overall but it is going to be a tough ask next week going to Castres. We went down there last year and dug out a draw. It will be really tough next week but we’ll go again.

‘Joey was unlucky to pull up and it was unfortunate for him. There is plenty of competition here in Munster between myself Tyler (Bleyendaal), Bill (Johnston)and Keats (Ian Keatley), anyone would have stepped in today and done a job.’

In the lead up to this game there was great excitement surrounding the partnership of Conor Murray and Carbery at halfback for the first time in a Munster shirt, but a tight hamstring meant Carbery was withdrawn an hour before kick-off, with Hanrahan coming into the side.

Half an hour later it emerged that Chris Farrell wouldn’t start either after he picked up a knock to his thigh in the warm-up, with Sammy Arnold named in his position at outside centre.

‘Joey, we made a call at the latest possible hour. He had a very tight hamstring and we didn’t want to risk that,’ said van Graan.

‘Chris is more difficult to say because it literally happened in the warm-up. We’ll give it over to our medical team. It will be a short week, turning around to play again on Saturday.’

But despite all the upset and rejigging before the start Munster it was the home side that bossed the early stages and Hanrahan put Munster three points ahead after seven minutes.

As Top 14 champions, Castres certainly looked a more confident outfit on this trip to Thomond Park, in comparison to the 45point trimming they tasted earlier this year, but despite showing strength at the breakdown in defence, they struggled on the front foot. Their lineout was a bit of a lottery in the first period with Peter O’Mahony and Billy Holland both completing steals, while Munster – and Beirne and Chris Cloete in particular – ensured the French outfit didn’t have a supply of clean ball from the ruck.

Munster’s own lineout was far from prefect. Early in the Castres 22, it looked overly complicated and Niall Scannell and his jumper failed to connect, while another trick play that involved O‘Mahony peeling off the tail for a long throw was well read by Gimeno.

With Castres choosing to pass just 18 of their 66 first-half possession the tactic was clear with the wind, and their strong carrying and territorial game kept try-scoring chances to a premium for the home side.

In fact, the closest Munster came to breaching the try-line in that half came when Murray intercepted Alex Tulou off the back of a scrum, only for the ball to slip out of his grasp as he faced a 30-metre clear run to the line in the 38th minute. But Munster carried a 6-0 lead in to half-time and with the wind at their backs still to come they’d have been satisfied. Hanrahan kicked their second penalty after 21 minutes when John Ryan showed his scrummaging power to force a penalty on the Castres put-in.

It was almost total dominance in this facet of the game for Munster, who won three penalties at the scrum and put the French under huge pressure.

‘Our scrum did pretty well to put pressure on them and our lineout contesting — they didn’t get any scrum or lineout base until late in the game and that went a long way to helping us win the game,” said van Graan.

After struggling to fire in the first half, it only took Munster three minutes of the second to bag the first try of the game.

Stander was almost robbed as he controlled the ball at he back of the scrum, but when he got the ball away to Murray, the scrumhalf shook off Thibault Lassalle to offload and Rory Scannell finished off the job on the right.

Hanrahan’s conversion was very tough but he maintained his perfect record to make it 13-0.

Beirne continued to disrupt Castres’s possession with two brilliant turnovers, but after Benjamin Urdapilleta missed their first kickable penalty, an uncharacteristic knock-on behind the posts from Murray gave them a second chance. But a great hit from Hanrahan and a poach from O’Mahony completed the clearance for Munster.

At the other end Munster stretched their lead to 16 points when Hanrahan kicked his third penalty after Tulou was caught competing for the ball while off his feet, but 12 minutes from time there was more better to come.

The offside line had been liberally refereed by JP Doyle all afternoon, and a delayed Murray pass saw the Castres defence creep forward.

The scrum-half crept through the fracture and sent Stander over for a try with a beautiful underarm offload.

Hanrahan maintained his perfect run to make it 23-0. The perfect kicking performance turned into a

perfect day for the out-half when he rounded off a stunning flow of passes, started when Rory Scannell and Sammy Arnold swapped passes, and from the tee he brought his personal tally to 20 points with the conversion.

The only blot on the performance was Andrew Conway’s yellow card two minutes from time – he tackled Rory Kockott without the ball and denied the winger a run to the corner – and the late try that followed from Laveau.

MUNSTER: M Haley (T Bleyendaal 77); A Conway, S Arnold, R Scannell (J Taute 76), K Earls; JJ Hanrahan, C Murray (A Mathewson 69); D Kilcoyne (J Loughman 73), N Scannell (K O’Byrne 45), J Ryan (C Parker 77); T Beirne, B Holland (F Wycherley 69); P O’Mahony (c), C Cloete (A Botha 65 HIA), CJ Stander. Scorers - Tries: R Scannell, Stander, Hanrahan. Pens: Hanrahan (3). Cons: Hanrahan (3).

CASTRES: S Spedding; A Batlle (M Laveau 59), T Combezou, F Vialelle, T Paris; B Urdapilleta, L Radosavljevic (R Kockott 69); A Tichit (P Fa’anunu 45), J Jenneker (K Firmin 45), D Kotze (M Clerc 45); L Jacquet (C Samson 63), T Lassalle; M Babillot (c), K Gimeno (Y Caballero h-t), A Tulou (J Caminati 70).

Scorers - Try: M Laveau Referee: JP Doyle (England).

LEINSTER and Munster are sweating on the fitness of their first-choice No 10s with Johnny Sexton and Joey Carbery both suffering leg injuries over the weekend. Sexton limped off with a calf problem in the later stages of his side’s win at Bath, while Carbery was withdrawn from the starting line-up to face Castres having suffered with a tight hamstring in the lead up to the game at Thomond Park. Both provinces will issue injury updates on the pair this afternoon. Leinster have in-form Ross Byrne in reserve, while Munster head coach Johann van Graan said he is confident in JJ Hanrahan and fellow fly-half Tyler Bleyendaal filling Carbery’s boots. ‘I think that’s the beauty of