SARACENS 32-16 MUNSTER
Munster landed one decent blow but they were outpointed and outclassed by a Saracens side that were on a whole other plane.
Munster captain Peter O’Mahony, speaking in Bordeaux last season after Racing had eliminated his side in the semis, said he was sick of learning lessons from defeats.
The lesson today was that Saracens are a superior outfit and would have won this match 9 times out of 10. Munster’s only hope was going into these sort of games with a full deck to choose from. With Joey Carbery, Keith Earls and Tommy O’Donnell all out, and Jean Kleyn far from 100%, they were always going to struggle.
There was a relentless to Saracens over the opening 30 minutes of the game. The hosts were kicking a lot of ball away, intent on keeping Munster pinned in their half.
Munster were happy to stick to their kicking game-plan too but David Strettle, Liam Williams and Alex Goode were handling just about everything that hurtled through the Coventry skies.
Covering tackles from Rory Scannell and, brilliantly, Mike Haley kept Munster in touch but three Owen Farrell penalties had it 9-3 to Mark McCall’s side. Referee Jerome Garces was pinging players for infringements at the breakdown and, on 31 minutes, Maro Itoje was the next to suffer. Tyler Bleyendaal nailed his kick to make it 9-6.
When Garces awarded them a penalty, four minutes later, from 50 metres out (on the angle), Conor Murray stepped up and pinged one over the bar to make it 9-9.
Conor Murray with an absolute rocket 🚀
50 metres out… not a bother! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/170eA3WUc7
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) April 20, 2019
Just as Munster looked to get into the dressing room all square with Sarries, Peter O’Mahony was penalised for a deliberate knock-on as he was making a tackle on Owen Farrell. The outhalf picked himself up and edged his side back in front. HALF-TIME: Saracens 12-9 Munster
(Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile)Saracens then won the ball from the second half kick-off and retained possession for three whole minutes until the Munster defence cracked.
Tighthead Titi Lamositele was brought to ground, out on the left wing, but Munster had been stretched and, faced with a two-on-one, John Ryan was left in a tough spot. Michael Rhodes cut inside Ryan and Mike Haley and scored a try that Farrell converted for 19-9.
Saracens then built on that when Haley shelled a Murray offload and Munster were then penalised at the resulting scrum. That made it 22-9 and it was soon 25-9 when Farrell chipped another penalty over after Niall Scannell was penalised at the breakdown.
Going into the final quarter, Munster finally put some attacking phases together. A scoring opportunity looked to have been spurned when the excellent Chris Farrell was held up but Munster put the pressure on at the scrum and Conor Murray stole possession back. The ball was slung wide, Farrell found Darren Sweetnam and the winger scored in the corner, with sub JJ Hanrahan converting.
25-16 and Munster fans had more reason to believe as Farrell missed his first placed kick of the afternoon. Arno Botha and Rhys Marshall were brought on for the final push.
Instead, though, it was Saracens that finished on a high. Nick Tompkins went close down the left wing but the ball was kept alive and Billy Vunipola bounced and rolled off a clatter of Munster bodies to dot down.
Chris Farrell, Andrew Conway and Dave Kilcoyne were the Munster stand-outs but, otherwise, there was very little to shout about.
MAN OF THE MATCH: Michael Rhodes (Saracens)
