Munster Lose Place-Kicking Competition As Toulouse Advance

Munster exited the Heineken Champions Cup at the quarter-final stage as Toulouse earned a place in the semi-finals after a place-kicking competition.

The sides finished level at 24-all after 80 minutes with no scores in the 20 minutes of extra-time that followed.

Peter O’Mahony was Player of the Match with Munster producing a superb team display. Greencore Munster Rugby Academy man Alex Kendellen, Keith Earls and Mike Haley scored the Munster tries with Joey Carbery kicking three conversions and a penalty.

Ben Healy, Carbery and Conor Murray were Munster’s nominated trio for the place-kicking competition but Toulouse were faultless off the tee to progress as Healy and Murray were off target.

A fantastic attendance of 40,479 made the Aviva a sea of red with a fantastic atmosphere for the 100 minutes.

Munster started well with Kendellen showing his trademark power to score the first try after nine minutes with the score confirmed by the TMO. Carbery converted for a 7-0 lead but Toulouse replied immediately with Romain Ntamack scoring after a Thomas Ramos break in midfield.

The Toulouse pack had the upper hand in the scrum and won a number of penalties. From one scrum penalty advantage, they spread the ball to the right flank for Mathias Lebel to touch down. Ramos converted to make it 14-7 after 25 minutes.

The game was level at the break as Earls scored in the right corner with great hands in the build-up from Josh Wycherley, Chris Farrell and Carbery, who converted from the touchline to make it 14-all.

A superb Chris Farrell break on 43 minutes led to the third Munster try as he raced clear of the defence before passing outside for Haley, who did very well to ground the ball under pressure.

Toulouse had a let-off on 50 minutes when Rory Arnold was yellow-carded for a dangerous tackle on Simon Zebo that could have been red.

Farrell was then taken out off the ball to give Munster the penalty and Carbery made it 24-14 with 57 minutes played.

Back to 15 for the final quarter, Toulouse started to turn the screw. Munster looked to have all the answers before Libel raced through after a clever move off a lineout. Ramos kicked the conversion to make it 24-21 with 14 minutes to go.

When Toulouse won a scrum penalty on 74 minutes, Ramos made no mistake to level the scores at 24-all. Ben Healy had a 56-metre penalty opportunity in the final play but it was off target and we went to extra-time.

Both sides had attempts at drop-goals during the two 10-minute periods of extra-time but defences were mainly on top.

The score remained 24-24 after 100 minutes with Toulouse trio Antoin Dupont, Romain Ntamack and Thomas Ramos perfect off the tee to secure a semi-final place.

Munster: Mike Haley (HIA, Ben Healy, 71); Keith Earls, Chris Farrell, Damian de Allende, Simon Zebo (HIA/Blood, Conor Murray, 96); Joey Carbery, Conor Murray (Craig Casey, 59); Josh Wycherley (Jeremy Loughman, 54), Niall Scannell (Diarmuid Barron, 54), Stephen Archer (John Ryan, 50); Jean Kleyn (Jason Jenkins, 59), Fineen Wycherley (Thomas Ahern, 71); Peter O’Mahony (C) (inj, Jack Daly, 64), Alex Kendellen, Jack O’Donoghue.

Video | Post-Match Press Conference