Irish international fly-half Ronan O'Gara steered Munster through to the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup, notching up 29 points with a superb performance in Munster’s 39-24 victory over Newport at Rodney Parade tonight.
O'Gara led a remarkable revival by his team, clocking 19 points in the second half as the Munstermen went on the rampage in the closing stages. O'Gara nosed them in front 25-24 in the 74th minute. Then replacement centre Mike Mullins stormed over for a try four minutes later and wing Anthony Horgan sealed the victory with a dramatic injury-time touchdown.
Apart from O'Gara, who not surprisingly was declared man of the match, Munster had a highly effective back row trio in Alan Quinlan, David Wallace and Anthony Foley.
Newport made a brilliant start but fell away badly as the game progressed and skipper Gary Teichmann will be bitterly disappointed with the eventual manner of their defeat, which eliminates Newport from the competition.
The Welsh dominated the first quarter and swept into a 15-0 lead. Outside half Shane Howarth and full-back Matt Pini created the space for right-wing Matt Mostyn to crash over for a 13th-minute corner try which Howarth converted.
Three minutes later Howarth coolly slotted a 38-metre penalty. But the capacity crowd really found their voices in the 21st-minute when the home side capitalised on a rare O'Gara mistake for Pini to storm over for an unconverted try.
Almost immediately Newport suffered a setback when Mostyn was yellow-carded for what was judged to be a dangerous tackle. O'Gara made them pay with a 26th-minute try which he also converted - and soon after the outside-half kicked a penalty.
Howarth gave the home side a 21-10 interval lead by hitting the target with a drop goal and following this up with a 40-metre penalty with the last kick of the half.
But any celebrations by Newport supporters were soon cut short as O'Gara and his team-mates fought back in the second period and eventually took control in the final minutes of the game.
Munster captain and international lock Mick Galwey said his team did not panic although they were trailing heavily at the interval.
“You have to keep going whatever problems you run into and that's just what we did,” said Galwey. “We were pleased to score a try in that torrid first half which kept our confidence up although, to be fair, Newport went off like a rocket.
“Our forwards did really well in the second half because we were able to play a lot of the game in Newport territory. Of course, when the scoreboard needs to tick over Ronan O'Gara is just the man.
“The Newport crowd was fantastic and we thoroughly enjoyed the match and of course the victory.”
Afterwards a shellshocked Newport captain Gary Teichmann said: “I'm still not sure why we lost our way in the second half although we certainly made too many basic mistakes. To be fair to Munster they never gave up and in that last quarter they showed how good a team they really are.”
Filed by Seán Folan
