Australian native Paul Warwick returns to haunt the Wallabies
Munster recorded a fantastic 15-6 victory over Australia in atrocious conditions at Thomond Park on Tuesday 16 November.
The former Australian under-21 international Paul Warwick scored all of Munster’s points against his home country.
The Wallabies captain Berrick Barnes knocked over two penalties, but the Wallabies failed to score a single point in the second half as the weather deteriorated.
With heavy rain and wind, Munster chose to play into the torrid conditions in the first half and were rewarded as Warwick kicked over a penalty and a drop goal.
Barnes added two penalties of his own to bring the teams in level, but the half-time score was a moral victory for Munster who played into the wind.
Some dogged defending and clever kicking by Warwick allowed Munster to dominate the game.
A forward pack missing a number of Irish internationals bullied Australia’s front five and coped with the slippery ball during the line-out. Munster’s dominance was particularly evident in the second half
at the break-down.
This dominance allowed Warwick to extend Munster’s lead and the out-half added two more penalties and a drop goal in front of a partisan home crowd.
Speaking to reporters after the match the Munster coach Tony McGahan said: “I thought our lineout was superb but I thought more than anything it was our breakdown work and also our defence was certainly
well marshalled and tough. If you get those two areas right and that’s built on the back of spirit and passion and determination, and you bring those elements and bring all that together with the exuberance of youth you get a great result.”
James Coughlan who was asked to captain the Munster team in the absence of Irish international Denis Leamy, believes that the pride and passion of the Munster players was the reason the Irish province
won the match. “Everybody showed up and showed what it meant to wear the Munster jersey,” said Coughlan.
Australian coach Robbie Deans suggested that the weather conditions played a huge part in proceedings, but believed his midweek team would learn a lot from the match. He said, “They were difficult unique
conditions, which the boys are not accustomed to and that’s what we came here for; a different type of rugby. Munster knew how to play the conditions and won the toss which was pretty handy as well, because the conditions got worse. Holding the line intact
was a pretty impressive effort in the circumstances. It’s not conditions we’re used to and some of the boys are still suffering from the hypothermia in there.”
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