O’Mahony the star as Exeter fall short
CAPTAIN Peter O’Mahony led the way with a superb display as Munster advanced to the quarter-finals of the Champions Cup for the 20th time in their history as Exeter Chiefs came up short at Thomond Park.
A fired-up Munster side won all the key battles, with Joey Carbery kicking 16 points and getting in for their first try before World Cup winner Damien de Allende wrapped it up in the closing stages as Chiefs, five points up from the first leg, just could not get a foothold in the contest.
“That’s the sort of performance needed to beat a team like Exeter,” said O’Mahony. “They put us under a lot of pressure in the last game and we knew we needed to come in and go after the game. I thought we did that in the first half particularly but we knew we had to be at our best to beat a team like Exeter by more than five points.”
Munster led the game 13-5 at half-time and by 2118 on aggregate after a tight opening half where Exeter struggled at the breakdown as O’Mahony and Jack O’Donoghue bossed matters on the floor for an interval turnover count of 7-1.
But scoring chances were scarce as Exeter dealt with Munster’s kicking game and, in turn, Van Graan’s men were organised sufficiently to deal with the Chiefs’ more expansive game.
Exeter were unable to make a yellow card to Conor Murray count when the Munster scrum-half impeded a quick tap from his opposite number Sam Maunder a few metres short of the line. Maunder managed to score but Joe Simmonds missed the relatively easy conversion and the Chiefs did not extend their 5-3 lead when they had the extra man.
Carbery, who got Munster off the mark with a sixth-minute penalty, edged them back in front with a 20-metre penalty after Maunder strayed offside as the home side pressed.
Carbery then pushed them ahead in the contest when he skipped inside winger Tom O’Flaherty and tighthead Harry Williams to score a converted try after 26 minutes, with Simmonds off target with a penalty from 45 metres.
Exeter, having strung a 10-phase move together, opted to tap two penalties in front of the posts and they were rewarded for their ambition after 49 minutes when No.8 Jacques Vermeulen did enough to squeeze over to make it 13-10 and edge them in front by two points on aggregate after Simmonds again fluffed the conversion.
Munster hit back and another turnover steal by O’Mahony presented Carbery with a penalty from 25 metres which he slotted to put them ahead by one on aggregate and then pushed it out to four with 15 minutes remaining.
O’Mahony continued to win superb ball at the breakdown and Munster pushed for home while enjoying a penalty advantage with Zebo doing superbly to offload infield in the left corner and De Allende brushed aside the challenge of Henry Slade to score and Carbery maintained his perfect kicking record when he landed his sixth with the conversion from the touchline.