Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
MUNSTEROUS
Reds put in a huge shift to tame the Blue beast and win place in final
GRAHAM ROWNTREE hailed his Red heroes for never giving up after Jack Crowley’s late drop goal at the Aviva Stadium sent Munster into the URC final.
The province will face Stormers, the reigning champions, at their Cape Town Stadium on Saturday week after the South Africans beat Connacht yesterday afternoon.
This was a famous victory for Munster given Leinster’s dominance of the fixture in recent years – they had won 10 of their last 11 meetings.
And it was a deserved win as the Reds capitalised on their opponents’ need to keep their frontliners wrapped in cotton wool for next Saturday’s Champions Cup final against Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle.
“This group don’t give in and we have come through some fires in the last few weeks,” said Rowntree, whose side have now won four URC fixtures in a row on the road having lost at Sharks in the Champions Cup last 16 in the game before that.
“We go to Cape Town and it will be our sixth away game on the bounce – and that’s when we are finding out about people. We’re tough, battle-hardened so I was never without hope. This team don’t go away.”
It seemed that
Munster had blown their chance when, on three occasions,
Leinster won back possession on their own try line.
And, despite the Reds’ first-half domination, it was the Blues who led 10-6 at the break thanks to Jason Jenkins’ 38th minute try.
Munster hit back through Tadhg Beirne’s 46th minute try and Crowley, who moved to out-half when Ben Healy came off injured, made it 13-10 to the Reds.
Joe McCarthy struck for Leinster 17 minutes from time to regain the lead for his side but, crucially, Ciaran Frawley missed the conversion. Veteran winger Keith Earls, who started after his season was feared to be over due to a groin injury, recalled that Jack O’Donoghue spoke under the posts and said, ‘Win the next moment’. Earls added: “That’s the way we spoke all week. As Graham said, it wasn’t perfect, games like this are never perfect, there’ll always be mistakes and you have to accept it. You have to be brave enough to go for the next moment and Jack Crowley did.”
The door was left open and a controlled counter by Munster from deep in their own 22 after possession was ripped from Cian Healy saw Crowley (inset) take aim from just outside Leinster’s 22 to grab the glory.
“That’s an unbelievable skill, what’s just done under pressure,” said Rowntree. “The diligence of the kick, he’s practiced that every day after training.
Rowntree insists that Munster are in it to win it now that they’ve made the final – and having recovered from the slow start they endured as the Reds’ new management team were bedding in.
“I’ve seen tangible improvements in our game,” he stated. “I saw that when results weren’t going our way back in the autumn.
“I had full belief in what I had seen being done. We’re here to win in this sport. To get to this far, and to get to a final, we’ll be gunning for it.”