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An 82nd-minute red card sours Munster win over Saracens

Arno Botha is sent off

An 82nd-minute red card left a sour taste in the mouth as Munster overcame Saracens 10-3 in a scrappy Heineken Champions Cup contest at a weather-beaten Thomond Park.

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O’Mahony’s 30th-minute touchdown – adding to JJ Hanrahan’s five points from the tee – was all the hosts could muster from their first half wind advantage and a two-thirds share of both possession and territory.

Ben Spencer kicked a penalty for Saracens.

The driving wind and rain became much bigger factors during an error-strewn second half, the ball becoming a veritable bar of soap.

Spencer suffered his second penalty miss and Munster stood firm despite replacement Arno Botha’s 80th-minute red card for leading with a forearm into Nick Tompkins.

Despite a number of notable absentees, the defending European champions still travelled with a team that contained players of the quality of captain Brad Barritt, Alex Lozowski, who led them out on the occasion of his 100th cap, and formidable locks Maro Itoje and Will Skelton.

It was nip and tuck early on, Sarries winning the first scrum penalty before Munster disrupted the visitors’ lineout, and Chris Farrell and Keith Earls increased the pressure with a couple of clever kicks in behind.

Munster went for the corner from a subsequent penalty, and after Tadhg Beirne was held up, Hanrahan took the three points courtesy of a 17th-minute scrum infringement.

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Prop Richard Barrington’s show-and-go got the visitors on the move, but they needed a Farrell knock-on to deny Rory Scannell a try at the other end.

Having foiled a threatening counter-attack from Matt Gallagher, Munster’s first touchdown duly arrived on the half-hour mark.

Lifting the pace, centre Scannell’s pinpoint pass invited Earls to cut inside and the quick ball, a few metres out, allowed Conor Murray to put his skipper stretching over.

Hanrahan nailed the tricky conversion for a double-figures lead, although Saracens enjoyed the stronger finish to the half.

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Scrum-half Spencer hit the post with a penalty effort, Munster failed to clear with a Farrell shank, and Barrington seized possession which led to Spencer punishing an offside with three points.

With the weather conditions deteriorating considerably on the restart, Saracens got their big carriers on the ball but again Spencer lashed a penalty against the post.

Skelton then lost the ball in contact near the Munster line, before Nick Isiekwe’s charge-down on Murray went dead.

While Munster’s Mike Haley coped well with the slippery ball from a couple of kicks, retaining possession and building attacks was proving very difficult, especially with both lineouts under pressure on a very tough night for hookers.

Defences continued to be on top during a tense final quarter, with some terrific maul defence from Jack O’Donoghue and Billy Holland lifting the Irish province, while Itoje and company won the breakdown battle to send Sarries back downfield.

Mark McCall’s men had one last-gasp opportunity, afforded to them by South African Botha’s foul play highlighted by a TMO review.

Botha was sent off for the elbow to the throat of Nick Tompkins.

However, O’Donoghue came up with a vital lineout steal, with the the result keeping Munster second in Pool Four ahead of next Saturday’s rematch at Allianz Park.

Press Association

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J
John 1 hour ago
Super Rugby draw heavily favours NZ sides but they can't win in Australia

Cheers for the comment HHT!


I think your point on unfair draw and mine, which in essence is about an unfair draw actually aid each other for a rather strong argument that the draw needs to be looked at.


I think this is a case of two things can be true at once.


I have chosen in around 1000 words to explore this particular issue with the draw I have identified.


Your point, with having the NZ teams playing each other twice on some occassions while others in Aus not is also not fair.


But with the way the table looks currently, would the NZ sides all be in the top six if the draw had been done more in line with my and your point?


For instance, 4 of the 6 Aus wins against NZ sides have come against the Highlanders, 3 in Aus, 1 in NZ.


The Landers have beaten the Blues and lost to the Canes by 2 points, those are their only two NZ games to date and they play the Chiefs this weekend. Their 3 games against the Aussie sides in Australia compared to the Blues 1 is a massive disadvantage because travel takes it’s toll.


Then looking at your example the Blues, they have the toughest season of any side by far but I would also argue that the limited travel is a massive help in preparation, recovery etc. But their draw must be looked at, any side would suffer with a draw like that.


Although I am not suggesting the Aus sides are better than the NZ sides overall, the current ledger and table set up suggests the rift is not as big currently as the underlying assertion to your argument suggests.


More will absolutley be revealed over the coming rounds as the strength of the two franchises.

9 Go to comments
J
JW 1 hour ago
'We offered him a three-year deal': Hurricanes priced out of U20 star

I see I’m not getting my point across.

If the plan from his family for him was to make more cash

Lets play along with you presumption these “shackles” existed then. Logically, as I’ve already tried to show, that makes no sense, but I’ll try to use it to show what I mean by saying/answering.. they would have got more cash by playing hard-to-get with the French clubs by returning to New Zealand and signing with the Hurricanes. Now you should see returning to NZ is not relevant to the discussion, it is also a euphemism, as he would already be (have returned) when he first decided to stay. His family would know that signing a development contract for the Hurricanes in no way legally affects his ability to take an offer in France.


Now, that wasn’t what I was saying happened, but if you can now follow that thread of logic, I’m saying its because this situation happened, signing for Toulon just months later, that you are wrong to think “returning to New Zealand” must mean he wasn’t “shackled”.


Actually, I’m not saying that he was “shackled”, the article is saying that. That is how you would read the words “His parents see that as the route they want their son to take, and we support that.” and “but it’s probably a slightly different package to what Toulon can offer” here, and I’m pretty sure in most English speaking places GD.


Of course without those statements I agree that it is very possible he’s grown, changed his mind from wanting to develop here with players and coaches he’s comfortable/friends with, to where he wants to take on the challenge of a rich and prestigious club like Toulon. A few months is perhaps enough time to people he trusts to open him up to that sort of environment even, but that’s simply not the message we go, is it? I also think you maybe have an over defense stance about thinking intrinsically or literally about money meaning he was thrown lots of dollars? It might be far from the case, but the monetary value of been given a home and jobs for the family, all the bells and whistles a wealthy club can provide etc is far removed from the mentality he’d currently be in of “cleaning the sheds” after a game. Even without real money just the life style they got given when there last would no doubt be enough to change the mind of some grown up living day to day off your own sustenance/plantation or like that they would have had.

11 Go to comments
J
JW 3 hours ago
Ex-All Black Richie Mo’unga teases return to ‘Test match setting’ in 2025

They didn’t really let him go though did they. He was gone, already signed to leave some 18 months earlier. Not much they could do.


Definitely a shame though, hence why I criticize the coaching for not unlocking that composure earlier. We would have seen he was definitely the player we need to take us through that WC, and the next, before the contract talks started. After, was too late. Conversely, if he had of continued to play the way he had been when he signed to go to Japan, I have no doubt Damien McKenzie would have been the player to lead us in 23’, and then we very likely would have won that Final. I’m not so sure Dmac would hve been good enough to get us past Ireland, Richie definitely deserves a lot of credit for simply getting us to the Final.


But that was all my message to HHT was. That class, or talent in this case, is permeant, and games like Ireland showed he did definitely had that. Obviously Richie’s got a large responsibility in realizing it sooner too, but in terms of not displaying it when it counts in 2019 or 2023, I reckon that’s on the coachs more than a lack of talent on his part, and it’s the same shame when it comes to your sentiment. If he was at the point were he could have saved out bacon against Ireland in 2022, it might not have been too late for NZR to have come in with a big contract offer. The bigger problem now is that Razor is only exasperating that problem with this new group. We now clearly know he was a big factor in Richie taking so long, because he’s replicating the same problems with the current batch. Thankfully NZR had no other option but to offer a big contract to secure Dmac this time though, regardless of how he must have felt after being treated like that.

8 Go to comments
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