Fightback supreme breaches the French fortress
MUNSTER produced the greatest European fightback of modern times to topple ASM Clermont Auvergne at their Stade Marcel Michelin fortress.
Johann van Graan’s men looked as if they were going to wave the white flag to surrender their perfect start to the season as scores from Alivereti Raka, Damian Penaud, Etienne Fourcade and penalty try put the hosts 19 points clear.
But 24 points from the boot of JJ Hanrahan and scores from Mike Haley and CJ Stander completed a famous comeback to put Munster on course for the knockout stages before Kevin O’Byrne sealed one of the province’s greatest European nights.
It took just 26 seconds for Clermont to steamroll their way into the ascendancy.
Keith Earls spilled the kick-off straight into the hands of second-row Peceli Yato, who shrugged off Gavin Coombes with a fierce handoff before he offloaded to Raka.
The France star crossed the line unchallenged to score, and Camille Lopez converted for an early 7-0 lead.
Munster outside-half Hanrahan steadied the ship with his first penalty, but another error from the restart compounded their dire start.
After racking up phase after phase of tight attacks, Lopez looked to exploit the overlap to send Penaud in at the corner, only to be foiled by a desperate Shane Daley.
The winger deliberately knocked the ball on to deny a certain try, but his actions resulted in a penalty try and ten minutes in the sin-bin to taint his European debut.
And the French giants made their man advantage pay after Hanrahan had added a second penalty for Munster.
Lopez shifted the ball to midfield where Raka looped a long pass to Penaud, who strolled in at the corner Daly had vacated, and Lopez added the extras again to make it 21-6 after only 15 minutes.
Hanrahan chipped away at the growing lead, but Clermont secured the bonus-point after 25 minutes when Fourcade fed a short-range lineout and latched onto the rolling maul to crash over.
Lopez converted and at 28-9 the game looked to be dead and buried, but Munster gave themselves a glimmer of hope before half-time when Mike Haley scythed through to score after a powerful run from Coombes. Hanrahan converted to cut the gap to 28-16 at half-time.
The Munster No.10 narrowed the deficit to six points with a pair of penalties after the restart as the Irish side edged their way back into it.
The lead was down to three after 57 minutes thanks to a sixth Hanrahan penalty after Judicael Cancoriet was sin-binned for a no arms hit on Munster hooker Marshall.
Lopez reinstated the sixpoint lead with a penalty of his own, but Thibault Lanen opened the door for the visitors again when he saw yellow for pulling Tadhg Bierne at a lineout.
And this time they took their opportunity to complete the comeback as Stander barged over at the back of a maul after a fivemetre lineout, and Hanrahan held his nerve to convert and make it 32-31.
Replacement hooker Kevin O’Byrne sealed the unlikeliest of victories when he crashed over, and Hanrahan maintained his perfect record off the tee to secure a 39-31 win.