Munster’s late show stuns Scarlets

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Ben Healy’s last-minute penalty saw the 14-man Munster snatch a dramatic 30-27 PRO14 victory against Scarlets at Parc and Scarlets on Saturday.

Leigh Halfpenny took nine penalties to break the Scarlets record for the most penalties in a game, surpassing the previous mark of eight set by Stephen Jones and Byron Hayward.

Halfpenny’s efforts appeared to have doomed Munster to defeat, particularly when Peter O’Mahony received a red card in the 68th minute after collecting two yellows.

However, the removal of the wing proved to be the catalyst for a remarkable turnaround.

Click here to see the teams and scorers

Jack O’Donoghue, Chris Farrell and Kevin O’Byrne scored tries for the Irish side, and JJ Hanrahan added a penalty and conversion. Healy also added two conversions and two penalties.

With respective scrum-halfs Gareth Davies and Craig Casey attempting to kick the ball at every available opportunity, the first 15 minutes were easily forgotten with neither side threatening the try line.

Scarlets stepped onto the board when Halfpenny made no mistake with two easy penalties in quick succession to give his team a 6-0 lead.

Munster suffered another blow when his captain O’Mahony was sent off for the sin of charging a ruck and taking a man off the ball, and in the wing’s absence, Halfpenny took another penalty.

O’Mahony was still absent when Munster took the game’s first try – a strong run from Andrew Conway paved the way for an O’Donoghue try.

Hanrahan converted before a fourth Halfpenny penalty gave Scarlets a 12-7 lead at interval.

After the reboot, a Hanrahan bug gave the Wales region a platform. The fly-half sent a kick from the touchline into the dead ball area for Scarlets to capitalize on with another halfpenny penalty.

Hanrahan atoned for his mistake by taking a penalty, but Halfpenny again responded with three more penalties as Scarlets grew increasingly dominant.

Munster rallied to score his second attempt when Farrell ended a period of pressure to force his way, but there was a pain in the story when O’Mahony was sent off for reloading the ruck when Farrell placed the ball over the line.

Halfpenny kicked the resulting, record-breaking penalty from the half before Healy responded with one to keep Munster in it.

Surprisingly, they then scored another 10 points, with O’Byrne finishing a driving line-out that Healy converted before the outer-half replacement maintained his courage to shoot over the winner of the match.

On the other hand, Bundee Aki’s two attempts in the second half, along with a late penalty from Jack Carty, led Connacht to a memorable 28-24 victory over the Glasgow Warriors in Galway.

Carty finished with 13 points and another of the province’s Irish internationals, Quinn Roux, also landed as the Westerners defeated the Scottish opposition for the first time since April 2017.

Glasgow’s pressure finally paid off just before halftime, Adam Hastings slipping Nick Grigg to make it 7-3 in response to Carty’s early penalty.

A series of attempts by Aki, Roux, Huw Jones, and Aki again produced some exciting exchanges. Tommy Seymour’s score in the 70th minute made it 25-24, but Connacht held on thanks to a Carty kick with four minutes remaining.

A forceful first half began with Oli Kebble penalized for a side tackle, allowing Carty to open the scoring in the second minute.

Carty and his counterpart Hastings missed penalty attempts after 11 and 20 minutes respectively. Scotland’s fly-half shot came after Roux second row was sent off by an unarmed tackle.

Glasgow looked on the more dangerous side, with co-captain Fraser Brown and Jones gaining ground, and Aki and Brown showed their prowess to win penalties.

Connacht quelled a shot from Glasgow in the 32nd minute, but they conceded just before the short whistle. Armed with a penalty lead, Hastings produced a half-break and a short pass to send Grigg to center.

The increasingly influential Hastings converted and then added a penalty, five minutes after the restart. Connacht hit back with Aki’s flurry of touchdowns down the line, which rewarded a good setup play from Tom Farrell. Carty converted to make it 10-10.

Up the pace even further, Farrell, Alex Wootton and Peter Sullivan stretched Glasgow’s defense before Roux crashed under the posts past Seymour’s entrance.

Glasgow quickly regained the level at 17-17 when Jones expertly pushed his way through a gap in midfield for Hastings to convert. Carty restored Connacht’s lead three minutes later when he punished a foul by Scott Cummings.

Even better followed for the 200 local fans allowed to be on the sports field, with John Porch causing a brilliant break from deep and Wootton’s kick gleefully peppered by Aki. Carty missed the touchline conversion.

With an eight-point deficit to overcome, a landslide attack by the Warriors ended with Grigg landing Seymour on the right. Hastings added the extras again, only for Carty’s 40-meter penalty to end Connacht’s six-game losing streak to Glasgow.

Late in the game, Mat Protheroe scored a double in his first start for the Ospreys as the Welsh team opened their PRO14 season with a dominant 25-10 win in Edinburgh.

The Swansea-born winger, a summer signing from Bristol, showed his pace and class as he crossed in each half at BT Murrayfield.

The hosts had taken an early lead via a penalty attempt, but Nicky Smith got ahead of the visitors with both sides down to 14 men.

The Ospreys dealt with the torrential rain much better than Richard Cockerill’s side, which spilled high balls multiple times and suffered a fourth loss in a row.

Edinburgh’s delayed final until last season ended with a disappointing semi-final loss by Ulster and the European Challenge Cup loss to Bordeaux and they had a flat performance, especially in a bland display of the second half.

Edinburgh was missing the wounded Blair Kinghorn, Bill Mata and Duhan van der Merwe along with self-insulator Jamie Ritchie.

And they suffered the first of a series of hits in the pack when wing Luke Crosbie limped out in the third minute, though they had a more than capable replacement in Hamish Watson.

The hosts opened the scoring in the 13th minute after a breakthrough from Jamie Farndale, who then passed Chris Dean down the left wing. The inward center pass was headed to fellow midfielder Mark Bennett as Ospreys captain Justin Tipuric deliberately struck, only managing to get a yellow card at the top of the penalty trial.

However, Grant Gilchrist leveled up the teams when he was sent to the trash for tipping an opponent and the hosts were effectively reduced to 13 men when Smith landed as the herd of Ospreys crossed the line while Magnus Bradbury received treatment.

Andrew Davidson entered the second change to the back row for Edinburgh and Stephen Myler soon took a penalty to add to his conversion.

The visitors went ahead after a direct race. Kieran Williams was still in his own half as he embarked on a penetrating run before his dummy made room for Protheroe, who was on the line after a clever side step.

Myler’s kicks brought the Ospreys 13 points ahead before Jaco Van Der Walt cut the deficit with a penalty in the final second of the half after missing two attempts earlier.

Edinburgh offered absolutely nothing going forward after the break.

The game went past them 15 minutes into the half when Protheroe took off behind a maul at the lineout and Rhys Webb saw his run to send him around the left corner.

The Welsh team only won two league games last season, but they were in full control and the only downside to new head coach Toby Booth was that he never turned his possession into an extra point attempt.



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