>> Cipriani gets a red card
MUNSTER claimed a bonus point win against Gloucester but were visibly unhappy with their performance in another match hugely influenced by rugby’s determination to rid itself of tackles to the head.
Danny Cipriani was sent off in the 28th minute which completed a less than memorable week for the Gloucester fly-half while Tom Savage had earlier been binned for ten minutes for a fairly innocuous clearance at a ruck.
Those two cards cost Gloucester dear especially as Munster, despite giving away a string of penalties, didn’t incur the referee’s ultimate displeasure until the 78th and 79th minutes when their yellow cards resulted in little or no inconvenience.
Come the final whistle, however, Munster looked underwhelmed with their showing while somehow Gloucester had found the wherewithal to score three second half tries which was a decent effort up against it at Thomond Park.
The first half was poor fare despite the seemingly perfect benign conditions.
Former Sale and England Saxons full-back Mike Haley, who also played for an England XV against the Barbarians, crossed for the first try and Rhys Marshall also scored from a lineout rumble.
But it wasn’t the rugby fans were talking about at half-time, it was Cipriani’s red card and indeed the red card that Billy Twlevetrees might have received – but didn’t – had the same criteria been applied.
Cipriani was covering in the line as a support tackler as Val Rapav Ruskin actually went in with a swinging arm on Rory Scannell.
The Gloucester prop missed and Cipriani suddenly found himself in a collison. He stood tall and even tried to keep his right arm straight down but didn’t sink down and try and match the height of the ducking Scannell as the Munster centre drove into him and technically a high tackle was the result
As recently as a year or two ago it wouldn’t have been worthy of comment but under the new law and interpretation – as Jerome Kaino discovered last week for Toulouse – it was a red card.
Referee Alexandere Ruiz was clearly apologetic and Cipriani took the decision without whinging but these are confusing transitional days that rugby is going through.
A few moments later a high flying right arm tackle by Twelvetrees looked much more an offence than Cipriani’s challenge but resulted in just a penalty.
After Cipriani’s dismissal a very long afternoon lie in wait for Gloucester – and the only real interest left in the game was if Munster could go for the jugular and garner the try bonus. Of course they could, in fact it took just 15 minutes after the break as the game turned into the Joey Carbery show.
The former Leinster man ghosted through for a fine individual try and soon after it was his deft inside pass that kept another Munster move going which resulted in replacement Rory Arnold storming over from 25 yards.
A cricket scored seemed likely but Gloucester pride kicked in. Gerbrandt Grobler rumbled over from short range and although another piece of Carbery magic made a try for Andrew Conway it was Gloucester who dominated the last 15 minutes with a beautifully worked try for Jason Woodward and a well deserved effort for Ben Morgan who kept going well all afternoon.