Four Ronan O’Gara penalties, two in either half, helped Munster to a 12-9 victory over Northampton Saints and a place in the Heineken Cup quarter final for a record breaking 12th consecutive season.
It was a tense and nervous affair played in front of as vociferous a crowd as the famous ground has ever produced, with the home crowd getting behind their side as never before. That noise level reached a crescendo on the hour when, reduced to 14 with the harsh yellow card for skipper Paul O’Connell, Munster came under intense pressure, scrumming down on their own five metre line, the put in to the Saints.
With the crowd baying their support, they somehow managed to survive – Doug Howlett adding his less than considerable bulk to the scrum – and indeed prosper, turning the ball over and clearing their lines.
Right from the off the tone was set with hit hits, ball in the air rugby. It wasn’t classic stuff nevertheless enthralling and when it came down to making the difference it was O’Gara’s 4 from 5 plus his all round game management that was so superior to his opposite number Shane Geraghty, that made all the difference. Man of the Match Alan Quinlan was all over the park in the opening quarter fielding four of those ill directed Geraghty bombs.
The one kick O’Gara did miss was in the opening half from the half way. That penalty came after Geraghty had kicked the ball dead from a stride inside his 10 metre line. However, when referee Romain Poite restarted with a scrum, he did so on the half way line rather than from where it should have been and when Northampton were penalised, O’Gara’s effort, straight and true, fell short.
He kicked them into an early lead with a 35 metre penalty and after Geraghty had equalised in the 31st minute O’Gara was again on the mark just before the break.
Bruce Reihana tried a long range penalty in the 44th minute that never threatened, Geraghty was wide again six minutes later but tied the game with an easy 52nd minute penalty.
Shortly after O’Gara had restored Munster’s advantage O’Connell received his marching orders and Munster were forced to dig deep to defend with 14. But survive they did and O’Gara edged them six clear with ten minutes remaining.
Replacement Steve Myler narrowed the gap to three with a 76th minute penalty but Munster controlled the closing stages ending the game attacking inside the Northampton 22.
Munster: P Warwick; D Howlett, K Earls, J de Villiers, I Dowling; R O’Gara, T O’Leary; W du Preez, D Fogarty, J Hayes, D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell [capt], A Quinlan, N Ronan, D Wallace. Replacements: D Varley for Fogarty, D Ryan for O’Callaghan (both 56 mins), M Horan for du Preez (68 mins), T Buckley for Hayes (71 mins). Not used: J Coughlan, P Stringer, L Mafi, T Gleeson.
Northampton Saints: B Foden; C Ashton, J Clarke, J Downey, B Reihana; S Geraghty, L Dickson; S Tongauiha, D Hartley [capt], E Murray, I Fernandez Lobbe, J Kruger, C Lawes, P Dawson, R Wilson. Replacements: C Day for Fernandez-Lobbe (58 mins), N Best for Lawes, S Myler for Geraghty (both 72 mins). Not used: B Sharman, A Waller, B Mujati, A Dickens, C Mayor.
Referee : Romain Poite (France).