CONWAY’S STUNNER PROPELS MUNSTER
Winger’s try for the ages gets Reds out of jail and into semi-finals
ANOTHER day of drama, another day of joy from the team that knows better than anyone in Europe how to handle pressure and deliver a result against all the odds.
This win by a depleted Munster side against a Toulon outfit who rolled into Thomond Park with a star-studded team, will sit right up there with any of the great days in Europe as Johann van Graan, only a few months in Limerick, master-minded a win that was as dramatic as it was unexpected.
Munster recovered from an early pummelling from the French to somehow stay in the game and then hit the front with a controversial try to lead 10-6 at the break.
They pushed that out to 13-6 with the wind behind them before the introduction of Francois Trinh-Duc turned the game in Toulon’s favour and they had one foot in the semifinals when they led 19-13 going into the closing stages.
But then it all unravelled for the French as Andrew Conway stepped forward and produced a score to rank up there as one of the most stunning and decisive scores in Munster’s chequered history in Europe.
Trinh-Duc, the architect of Toulon’s revival, was the guilty party when his touch-finder from deep inside his own 22 failed to cross the line, with Conway somehow fielding it as close to the whitewash as possible.
He caught a hesitant defence cold, sliding past two defenders with ease before facing Malakai Fekitoa as last man and he easily swept inside him to score. Ian Keatley added the easy conversion to edge Munster in front.
All they had to do then was survive a late Toulon onslaught but a 20-phase move from their own half to within drop goal territory ended with Chris Ashton being pinged for holding on.
Cue a massive roar of relieve from the Munster fans in the 26,265 crowd as another famous chapter in their European history was signed off.
And while experienced warriors such as Peter O’Mahony, CJ Stander and Conor Murray delivered when it was most needed, this was a day when Conway and the superb centre partnership of Rory Scannell and Sammy Arnold came of age.
They produced tackle after tackle, initially against Mathieu Bastareaud and Ma’a Nonu and then Fekitoa when he was introduced.
Alex Wootton also adapted to this level of rugby and Jack O’Donoghue did likewise in a superb back row.
In the end Van Graan got more from his squad than Fabien Galthie extracted from his bigger and more expensive outfit, even if it seemed it would be a mismatch early on.
Toulon had 21 points on the board when they dominated the opening quarter last week against Clermont but this time they only managed to open a 6-0 lead when equally on top.
Munster frantically defended everything Toulon threw at them, getting the first break after just 47 seconds when Ashton claimed he was impeded by Simon Zebo when they both chased a kick by Toulon No 9 Eric Escande.
But TMO Jon Mason made the first of three big calls in Munster’s favour in the opening half and while the home side coughed up a penalty on the resultant scrum, O’Mahony stole the lineout in the corner.
The reprieve was brief as Toulon continued to pile on the pressure as Munster just could not get out of their own half and it took a superb tackle by Conway to deny Josua Tuisova in the corner after four minutes.
Out-half Anthony Belleau, a prematch replacement for Francois Trinh-Duc, got Toulon off the mark with a penalty from 35 metres with the breeze behind them.
CJ Stander almost got in at the left corner after 14 minutes after Munster finally got out of their own half, but a 19-phase offensive from Toulon ended with Belleau dropping a goal.
Zebo’s final big European day at Thomond Park before his move to Paris, ended in tears after 25 minutes when he limped off, with Darren Sweetnam coming into the game.
The first big breakthrough for Munster came when Murray pounced after 28 minutes when Toulon hooker Guilhem Guirado knocked-on and with the ruck completed the Munster scrum-half picked and touched down, eventually getting the decision after a lengthy viewing by the TMO.
Keatley converted and extended the lead after 56 minutes, with a penalty won by a new Munster front row which had just come on.
But the introduction of Trinh-Duc injected penetration into the Toulon attack and while there were claims of a forward pass when he put Bastareaud through after 65 minutes for Chris Ashton to score, Trinh-Duc’s conversion and then a penalty made it 19-13 and the momentum was with Toulon as they seemed poised to book their place in the semi-finals.
But Conway had other ideas as he raced clear to send Munster into the last four in what could be a glorious maiden season for Van Graan.