Beirne puts hand up in gritty win

TADHG BEIRNE gave Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt a timely nudge with a superb man-of-the-match performance as Munster beat the Ospreys in Swansea.

The Ireland international was a late call-up for South African Jean Kleyn who pulled out due to illness.

And Beirne was outstanding, winning a number of crucial turnovers to help his side stay at the summit of Conference A.

Beirne has sat out the first three rounds of the Six Nations with a knee injury, but on this evidence he is a serious contender to figure against France and Wales.

A penalty try and touchdowns from Darren Sweetnam and Mike Haley, plus two points from the boot of JJ Hanrahan was enough to get Munster over the line. All the Ospreys could muster was a try from Hanno Dirksen and six points from Luke Price.

Munster drew first blood with Sweetnam crossing in the corner after a lovely missed pass by Hanrahan.

But a Dirksen try and a kick from Price soon put the Ospreys into an unlikely lead.

Beirne was then illegally denied a try by offside Ospreys openside Sam Cross, leading to a penalty try being awarded, and Munster turned around 14-10 ahead.

The Ospreys came out firing in the second half with Price cutting Munster’s lead to a single point.

But the visitors went up a few gears in the final quarter and Haley touched down to clinch a gritty away win.

OSPREYS – Evans; Dirksen, Allen, Thomas-Wheeler (Hook 41), Giles (Morgan 64); Price, Aubrey (Morgan-Williams 54); Lay (Jenkins 64), Baldwin (Otten 64), Botha (Fia 55); King, Davies; Cracknell, Cross, McCusker (Ashley 40) (Griffiths 73). MUNSTER – Haley; Nash, Goggin, Taute (Scannell 50), Sweetnam (Johnston 64); Hanrahan, Cronin (Mathewson 50); Loughman (O’Connor 54), Marshall (O’Byrne 55), Archer (Parker 54); Beirne, Holland, Wycherley (O’Donoghue 71), Cloete, Botha (O’Shea 71) REF – S Berry (South Africa).