Munster complete successful South Africa tour by dismantling Lions
Munster became the first European team to win in Johannesburg in the United Rugby Championship this season after demolishing the Lions 33-13.
It was a sixth successive league victory for the champions and completed a successful two-match tour of South Africa having dispatched the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld a week earlier.
But Graham Rowntree’s side had to work hard for their scores and they spent lengthy spells of the second half defending their line having built a 28-6 lead before securing the bonus point in the final minute.
Jack Crowley kicked them into a nine-point lead through three penalties in a tight start to the round 15 clash.
It took until the 27th minute for the Lions to register their first points through the boot of Jordan Hendrikse and they almost added to their score when Erich Cronje chipped ahead and raced clear only to be wrong-footed by an unkind bounce.
Munster’s pack were getting the better of the hosts and they orchestrated the first try of the match with a driving maul finished by Jack O’Donoghue, which Crowley converted.
Crowley made a try-saving tackle on Hendrikse and although the Lions full-back landed his second penalty, a pivotal moment arrived in first-half stoppage time when Simon Zebo was taken out off the ball as he was close to scoring.
Referee Craig Evans awarded a penalty try and sent Marius Louw to the sin-bin for interfering with Zebo.
Munster had the victory wrapped up eight minutes into the second half when Shane Daly was offered a simple score with all the hard work being done inside him.
But after sustained pressure when the Lions hammered away at the visitors’ line through their pack, they eventually went over through PJ Botha with Hendrikse adding the extras.
They needed to score again quickly if they were to reel in Munster but instead they were met by a wall in defence as the champions soaked up phase after phase of attack.
In a final indignity for the Lions, they faded in the closing minutes to allow Gavin Coombes over for a maul try.
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The guy had just beasted himself in a scrum and the blood hadn't yet returned to his head when he was pushed into a team mate. He took his weight off his left foot precisely at the moment he was shoved and dropped to the floor when seemingly trying to avoid stepping on Hyron Andrews’ foot. I don't think he was trying to milk a penalty, I think he was knackered but still switched on enough to avoid planting 120kgs on the dorsum of his second row’s foot. To effectively “police” such incidents with a (noble) view to eradicating play acting in rugby, yet more video would need to be reviewed in real time, which is not in the interest of the game as a sporting spectacle. I would far rather see Farrell penalised for interfering with the refereeing of the game. Perhaps he was right to be frustrated, he was much closer to the action than the only camera angle I've seen, however his vocal objection to Rodd’s falling over doesn't legitimately fall into the captain's role as the mouthpiece of his team - he should have kept his frustration to himself, that's one of the pillars of rugby union. I appreciate that he was within his rights to communicate with the referee as captain but he didn't do this, he moaned and attempted to sway the decision by directing his complaint to the player rather than the ref. Rugby needs to look closely at the message it wants to send to young players and amateur grassroots rugby. The best way to do this would be to apply the laws as they are written and edit them where the written laws no longer apply. If this means deleting laws such as ‘the put in to the scrum must be straight”, so be it. Likewise, if it is no longer necessary to respect the referee’s decision without questioning it or pre-emptively attempting to sway it (including by diving or by shouting and gesticulating) then this behaviour should be embraced (and commercialised). Otherwise any reference to respecting the referee should be deleted from the laws. You have to start somewhere to maintain the values of rugby and the best place to start would be giving a penalty and a warning against the offending player, followed by a yellow card the next time. People like Farrell would rapidly learn to keep quiet and let their skills do the talking.
Go to commentsThe name “Kwagga” came to mind while I was reading this. And there’s another Sevens convert roaming the wide open kant at the Lions now - JC Pretorius. Keep an eye on him.
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