Keatley drops in late to halt gutsy Glasgow comeback
MUNSTER dug deep to steal an important 16-15 victory over Warriors on Friday night to go top of the PRO12.
A late drop-goal from Ian Keatley was enough to secure victory for Munster and consign Glasgow to a third consecutive loss.
The hosts came back from 13-3 down at halftime to lead 15-13 in the closing stages, only to be overhauled by a hugely spirited Munster side determined to come away from Scotland’s second city with more than just a losing bonus-point.
Keatley calmly slotted his 76th minute drop-goal to add to two penalties and the conversion of Andrew Conway’s early touchdown to secure the win.
“It was definitely a grind,” Munster head coach John Erasmus said. “Both sides were committed to get the win so we are happy, even if it was ugly.
“We’ll go back and look at the performance. I think we won’t see a great performance but we will see a gutsy one.”
Munster were nowhere near their slick best amid damp conditions and struggled to keep hold of the ball. They still managed to take an early 3-0 lead through Keatley, before Conway scored the game’s first try, latching onto a Keatley cross-field kick completely misplayed by Warriors full-back Peter Murchie. Keatley’s conversion made it 10-0.
Glasgow toiled to get back into the game and took control of proceedings with 60 per cent possession and 60 per cent territory when Munster’s Dave Kilcoyne was sin-binned for taking a man out at a lineout.
Glasgow failed to make much of a mark on the scoreboard with their man advantage and Peter Horne and Keatley traded penalties before half-time.
After the break, Glasgow gave the sold-out crowd something to cheer about, hitting Munster with a double punch to wrestle back control.
Scrum-half Ali Price darted through a gap before Mark Bennett ran 60 metres for the second, Clegg converting one to put Glasgow up 15-13.
Munster refused to panic, working good field position and with four minutes left, Keatley kept his nerve to strike the winning drop-goal.
“Tonight was similar to the Ulster game in that we fought hard then lost out,” Glasgow head coach Gregor Townsend said.
“We were much better in the second-half, showing real desire to get back into the game and points on the board.”