Ken Borland

Control, composure and clinical use of their chances were the main vehicles for success for Munster on Saturday evening as the United Rugby Championship defending champions continued their push for a home playoff with an impressive 33-13 win over the Lions at Ellis Park.

The Lions, who had hammered log-leaders Leinster last weekend in Johannesburg, gave Munster a ferocious working over, especially in the second half. But Graham Rowntree’s team seldom wavered, keeping a firm grip on proceedings by defending brilliantly and managing the game well. Their tactical kicking, and the speed and aerial skills of wings Shane Daly and Calvin Nash, had their opponents under pressure.

The territory stats (62%) favoured the Lions, but they were only able to score one try. They broke the Munster line a few times, but the scramble defence was also full of passion.

Winning ugly is often the mark of champion sides, but two victories in South Africa will satisfy even the most aesthetically-focused supporter. To be fair, Munster were helped by a Lions team that shot themselves in the foot often, wasting numerous opportunities inside the 22 through their own lack of composure.

Munster were 23-6 up at halftime as the Lions added ill-discipline in their own half to their lack of execution inside opposition territory. Three times inside the first 22 minutes the kicking tee was fetched for Jack Crawley and the polished flyhalf succeeded with penalties from 42, 47 and 45 metres to give the visitors a 9-0 lead and a solid start, especially when playing away on the highveld.

Having successfully repelled three promising Lions lineout drives, Munster then scored from their first maul to ram home the stark contrast between the two sides. Crawley’s excellent penalty kick put them in the corner and eighthman Jack O’Donoghue dotted down for the opening try six minutes before the break.

The Lions then suffered a mortal blow when they had a penalty on the halftime hooter but lost the lineout and then Munster won a penalty. Fullback Simon Zebo hacked a loose ball ahead and then chipped it over a sliding defender, and was bearing down on the tryline when he was taken out off the ball by Lions centre Marius Louw.

Referee Craig Evans, in consultation with the TMO, awarded a penalty try and issued Louw a yellow card.

The terrible turn of events for the home side certainly seemed to raise the hackles of the Lions because they came out breathing fire after the break. Halfbacks Sanele Nohamba and Morne van den Berg broke through at times, but the Munster cover defence was always up to the task. Both Crawley and Zebo made important interventions in this regard.

In the 49^th minute, the Lions were not able to cover as well as Munster wing Shane Daly went over in the corner, space having been created by a forward thrust through the middle off a lineout.

The Lions were 6-28 in arrears and threw everything at Munster for most of the remaining half-hour, but were only able to cut the deficit by a converted try, from close range, by replacement hooker PJ Botha.

And they could not prevent Munster having the final say, either, as replacement loose forward Gavin Coombes rounded off a rolling maul.

Even though the Bulls, who Munster saw off last weekend in Pretoria, beat the Ospreys with a bonus point in the earlier game, the title-holders were not going to be denied a return to third place in the standings.

Munster look an extremely difficult team to beat at the moment, such is the precision of their play, their game-management and their commitment in defence.

Scorers

Lions – Try: PJ Botha. Conversion: Jordan Hendrikse. Penalties: Hendrikse (2).

Munster – Tries: Jack O’Donoghue, penalty try, Shane Daly, Gavin Coombes. Conversion: Jack Crowley. Penalties: Crowley (3).

Teams

Lions – Hendrikse (Lombard 70^th), Kriel, Cronje, Louw, Van der Merwe, Nohamba, Van den Berg, Naude (Smith 62^nd), Visagie (Botha 50^th), Dreyer (Ntlabakanye 50^th), Alberts (Nothnagel 52^nd), Delport, Pretorius, Tshituka (Venter 56^th), Horn.

Munster – Zebo (Haley 55^th), Nash, Frisch (Carbery 68^th), O’Brien, Daly, Crowley, Murray (Casey 46^th), Loughman (Wycherley 55^th), Scannell (Clarke 68^th), Archer, Snyman, Beirne, O’Mahony (Ahern 52^nd), Kendellan, O’Donoghue (Coombes 48^th).

Munster coach Graham Rowntree hailed a top-class performance and a plan coming together as the defending champions moved into the top three of the United Rugby Championship standings with a tenacious 27-22 win over the Bulls in Pretoria.

The bonus point win saw Munster leapfrog the Bulls, deserved reward for beating the South African powerhouses at their home fortress of Loftus Versfeld, where they had previously not been beaten this season in the URC.

A beautifully-controlled first half saw Munster lead 17-10, but the Bulls mounted a strong comeback in the third quarter to take a 22-17 lead. But a red card for a head-on-head tackle by flyhalf Johan Goosen in the 54^th minute was a big turning point against the home side.

A pair of tries in the 58^th and 74^th minutes sealed a hard-fought win for Munster and the 53-year-old Rowntree was a delighted coach afterwards.

“The composure was special today, we had a good plan at altitude and stuck to it. We were in a good place at halftime but not so good in the third quarter. But we are used to these end-of-season pressure games, we have learnt to deal with adversity and move on quickly, and we had a great bench today.

“We had to stick to the plan with great skill, there was no panic. We had to kick very smartly, go away from the way we’ve been doing things for the last two years, when we have generally tried to keep the ball on the field.

“There are still elements of our game that need to be better, but this was an incredible performance against a team we really respect. They have power and pace and can really rip teams apart and we needed to be so much better at the start of the second half. But we believe in our defence, it’s one of the best in the league. It’s got to be against such a powerful team,” Rowntree said.

While Bulls coach Jake White said Goosen’s red card was a 50/50 decision that could have been deemed a ‘rugby incident’, Rowntree said it was an obvious call.

“I thought it was quite clear and easy. There was no mitigation and I was happy with the process. We make sure that we keep our tackles low, we practise that late drop into the tackle,” the former England prop said.

Wing Shane Daly, the scorer of the opening try, said Munster were a team with belief.

“We believe in ourselves, we play against the big teams and we get the results. That’s the big thing about this team,” Daly said.

Munster will next take on the Lions, who slayed top-of-the-log Leinster on the weekend, at Ellis Park.

Veteran scrumhalf Conor Murray scored for Munster in the 74th minute to snatch a 27-22 victory over the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday night, moving the defending champions into the top three in the United Rugby Championship standings.

Graham Rowntree’s team were inspired in the first half as they took a 17-10 lead, but the second half saw them embroiled in a punishing dog-fight with the Bulls, despite the home side losing their flyhalf, Johan Goosen, to a red card in the 54^th minute.

Goosen was sent from the field after he rushed forward to try and envelop replacement scrumhalf Craig Casey ball-and-all, he was always upright in the tackle and made head contact with the halfback as he stood up. In a double blow for the Bulls, Canan Moodie’s try after he gathered the loose ball was disallowed. It would have put the home side 27-17 up after a strong start to the second half.

Casey left the field for a concussion check and never returned, and it was ironic that that brought the seasoned Murray back on the field and he claimed the matchwinning try.

The Bulls had dominated the opening exchanges of the second half, but as soon as Munster enjoyed a one-man advantage, they turned the screw and dominated the rest of the match.

The equalising try came just four minutes later when excellent flyhalf Jack Crowley put in a crosskick for John Hodnett, the replacement flank going around Moodie and through Kurt-Lee Arendse to score.

But the Bulls then stepped up a gear and were in their faces with tremendous defence, making it hard graft for the visitors to seal the deal.

With both packs bashing away at each other, Murray sniped around the defence to give himself some space and then reached over the decisive try.

Having been mostly the architects of their own problems in the first half, one could bet one’s house on the Bulls fighting back strongly after the break and they did that with two tries in the first 10 minutes. Lock Ruan Vermaak’s powerful surge set up field position, but the Munster defence was superb at close quarters. Eventually the Bulls went wide to the blindside wing and Kurt-Lee Arendse sniped over for the try.

Goosen’s arcing run then put the Bulls on attack again, leading to hooker Johan Grobbelaar going over from a tap penalty.

The former Springbok flyhalf kicked some lengthy touchfinders and a brilliant 50/22 that led to their opening try, eighthman Elrigh Louw muscling over from eight metres out, but Munster had the better kicking game and looked more secure tactically in the first half.

Lock RG Snyman showed why he is in the high-finance section of the rugby world with a dominant display, ruling the lineouts. The Bulls felt the pressure in the first half with several throws going astray, including the one pouched by hooker Niall Scannell in the 19^th minute, with the ball then slickly shipped out wide for wing Shane Daly to score in the corner.

The Bulls did level matters seven minutes later, but Munster were able to give themselves a handy halftime lead with 10 points in the last three minutes of the first half. The scrambling, never-say-die defensive effort kept the Bulls pinned in their 22, and as the visiting pack rumbled forward carry-after-carry, Snyman reached over for the try.

A Jack Crowley penalty on the whistle was an encouraging end to the half. It was not smooth sailing in the second half and the Bulls did help by shooting themselves in the foot, but Munster deserved the spoils for a performance of great character and control.

Scorers

Bulls: Tries – Elrigh Louw, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Johan Grobbelaar. Conversions – Johan Goosen (2). Penalty – Goosen.

Munster: Tries – Shane Daly, RG Snyman, Josh Hodnett, Conor Murray. Conversions – Jack Crowley (2), Penalty – Crowley.

Teams

Bulls: Le Roux, De Klerk, Moodie, Kriel, Arendse, Goosen, Papier, Steenekamp, Grobbelaar, W. Louw, Vermaak, Van Heerden, Hanekom, Ludwig, E. Louw.

Replacements – Williams for De Klerk (40th-41^st), Gumede for Hanekom (52^nd), C. Smith for Le Roux (63^rd), Van der Merwe for Grobbelaar (64^th), Matanzima for Steenekamp (64^th), M. Smith for W. Louw (64^th), Swanepoel for Van Heerden (69^th), Burger for Papier (72^nd), .

Munster: Zebo, Nash, Frisch, Nankivell, Daly, Crowley, Murray, Loughman, Scannell, Archer, Snyman, Beirne, O’Mahony, Kendellen, O’Donoghue.

Replacements – Coombes for O’Mahony (52^nd), Hodnett for Kendellen (52^nd), Casey for Murray (52^nd), Wycherley for Loughman (54^th), Murray for Casey (54^th), Clarke for Scannell (63^rd), Jager for Archer (63^rd), Carbery for Nankivell (67^th).

Jordan Hendrikse was able to channel his inner Naas Botha and kick the Sharks to a last-ditch victory in the Currie Cup final at Ellis Park on Saturday night, his astonishing 59m penalty in the freezing cold and wet giving the Natalians a thrilling 16-14 win.

Hendrikse’s massive kick came in the 83^rd minute and was the last act of the match. Having been booed heartily when he first touched the ball by the Ellis Park crowd he called his own a few months ago, the fullback certainly had the last say with the final touch.

But the 23-year-old would shun all suggestion of revenge or proving a point after the match.

“No-one expected the Lions to have the season they’ve had and they deserved to host this final. But my move to Durban was all about challenging myself,” Hendrikse said. “The coach prepared us well and we knew there would be no friends here tonight, this was a personal one and I knew they would come for me.

“But I just tried to be in my space, stay in my own mind. The crowd is always a factor in the pressure moments, but I just tried to stay in my own mind. I just tried to stay calm and think about my processes. Getting that sort of pressure kick over makes all those 5am early kicking sessions worth it,” Hendrikse said.

With a drizzle accompanying the icy temperature that peaked at 6°, both teams found the going tough as hell in the first half, which ended scoreless. If the conditions were not bad enough for the crowd, the attritional rugby with understandably many kicks made the final an even tougher sell. And yet it ended up being a thriller, one of the most memorable finals of recent times.

While the damp underfoot conditions did make kicking for poles difficult, it was not particularly blowy and it was surprising, especially considering Hendrikse’s epic effort that decided the match, that both teams spurned opportunities to shoot at goal in the first half.

The Sharks had two chances in kickable range but instead kicked to the corner to set up the rolling maul. But setting the maul properly and getting traction for momentum is also tough on a wet, slippery field, and the visitors were unable to convert any of their dominant territory (68%) or possession (63%) into points.

The Lions also turned down a shot at goal in the first half, and their best scoring chances came from a couple of searing breaks by flyhalf Sanele Nohamba, but they then blew the move on both occasions.

Under John Plumtree, the Sharks have favoured an attacking philosophy, but it was hard to play expansively in the prevailing conditions.

“We could have played a bit more, but the opportunities were really around what happened in the air. We had to put them under pressure and put the ball in space. Both teams really had the same plan,” coach Plumtree said.

The Sharks were also able to find space out wide with ball-in-hand and 13 minutes into the second half, their efforts bore fruit.

It’s been a tough time for Andre Esterhuizen since he returned to South Africa, what with suspensions and injuries, but the centre showed his class throughout the match and his slick hands and perfectly-timed pass to Ethan Hooker set the youngster up for a classic winger’s try, going inside-and-out to beat Nohamba.

The Lions levelled matters at 7-7 four minutes later as scrumhalf Nico Steyn opportunistically sniped over on a tap-penalty, but the Sharks tightened their grip going into the last 10 minutes with two penalties. While the Lions had the edge in the scrums, the Natalians were strong at the breakdowns, and a dominant ruck presented flyhalf Siya Masuku with a 65^th-minute penalty.

The second penalty came with a yellow card for the Lions as replacement prop Juan Schoeman made contact with the chin in a tackle on Hendrikse, who then got up and, in a portent of what would happen at the end of the match, slotted a superb angled, long-range kick to put the visitors 13-7 up.

But the seven-man Lions scrum then forced a penalty at the set-piece – double World Cup winner Trevor Nyakane may need his ego to be massaged a little after the battering he took in the scrums – and it gave the home side a lineout in the Sharks’ 22. The ball was spread and hooker Morne Brandon made the break with a storming run, before replacement lock Sibabalo Qoma crashed over for the try.

Nohamba’s conversion put the Lions 14-13 ahead with less than five minutes remaining.

Why the Lions then decided to maul at a lineout after the final hooter had gone will only be known in the intimate leadership circles of the team. All they needed to do was win the lineout and kick the ball out, but a pointless maul resulted in the ball somehow popping out on the Sharks’ side. Hendrikse made sure his former team were fully punished.

“I’m really proud of the boys because they never give up. With time up on the clock, you wonder how you are going to get possession, and then the next minute they give us a sniff. When the Lions won their last penalty, I thought it was game over, but they gave us one more chance,” Plumtree, who won the Currie Cup for the sixth time – twice as a player and now four times as coach – said. He is still a little way behind Botha, who kicked Northern Transvaal to nine Currie Cup crowns.

“The URC may be our main goal, but this win was really important for this group, it’s a big-time boost before we get on the plane on Monday. The Currie Cup is still something unique and special, I’ve had ex-players sending me messages all day, and a lot of people in Natal are very happy. It’s a beautiful trophy that I didn’t think I would hold again … ”