Halfpenny kicks 27 points but Scarlets stung at the death
LEIGH Halfpenny broke Scarlets’ points record but Ben Healy shattered Welsh hearts with a last-kick-of-thegame penalty from 55m to complete a remarkable turnaround.
Scarlets, who had dominated the second half, led 27-17 after Halfpenny had kicked his record-breaking ninth penalty with only ten minutes remaining.
Munster flanker Peter O’Mahony had just been sent off and a Scarlets victory seemed inevitable – but Munster conjured a miracle.
Munster’s head coach Johann Van Graan said: “They told me back home in South Africa about Munster’s never give up culture and today it was there for everyone to see. However we have got to start cutting out the errors and improve our discipline.”
Munster certainly made it hard for themselves. O’Mahony’s sending off after two yellow card ruck offences was needless and there were numerous unforced errors which prevented the Irish from gaining valuable platforms.
Both JJ Hanrahan and Healy missed penalty kicks to touch and scrum-half, Craig Casey, overdid the box-kicking. However they were the more penetrative, scoring three tries to nil with Andrew Conway and Mike Haley lively attackers to support a strong centre partnership of Chris Farrell and Damian de Allende.
Scarlets will rue their failure to create anything in attack as the efforts of hard-working flankers, Blade Thomson and Josh Macleod went largely unrewarded.
Hence they had to rely on an exemplary goal-kicking performance from Halfpenny, who was also his side’s best attacking threat.
After a tedious opening 15 minutes, Scarlets had the first chance for points with Halfpenny making no mistake with two straightforward penalties in quick succession.
Munster suffered a further blow when O’Mahony, was sin-binned for charging into a ruck and taking a man out off the ball. In his absence, Halfpenny kicked another penalty.
O’Mahony had still not returned when Munster picked up the first try. From inside their own 22, the Irishmen lost possession for Ken Owens to launch an aimless kick downfield. Munster counter-attacked with a strong run from Conway paving the way for a try for Jack O’Donoghue.
Hanrahan converted before a fourth penalty from Halfpenny gave Scar
lets a 12-7 interval lead.
After the restart an error from Hanrahan gifted the Welsh region a platform after sending a touchline kick into the dead ball area. Scarlets capitalised by winning another penalty for Halfpenny to stroke over. Hanrahan atoned for his error by kicking a penalty but this was soon nullified by three further penalties from Halfpenny.
Munster looked dead and buried at 24-10 but they rallied to score their second try when Farrell finished off a period of pressure – but there was a sting in the tale with O’Mahony sent off for again charging into the ruck as Farrell scored.
Halfpenny kicked the resulting and record breaking penalty from half-way before Healy responded with one to keep Munster in it.
Remarkably they scored another ten points. Kevin O’Byrne finished off a driving lineout which Healy converted before the replacement outside-half held his nerve to fire over the match winner.
Scarlets coach Glenn Delaney said: “It’s a bit of a sucker punch. I thought we had done enough to close it out but we got over enthusiastic and doubled up on our errors – their red card seemed to affect our focus.
“It was a super human effort from Leigh as he took points at every opportunity.”