Ronan O’Gara crafts last minute penalty to keep Munsters on top – Rugby news
Last minute penalty by Munster’s Fly Half Ronan O’Gara has further cemented Munster Place at the top of the Magners League 2011 table.
Munster defeated Leinster 24 – 23 at Thomond Park, Limerick during the weekend. On the other hand Leinster defeat by a single point had slipped them from 2nd slot to the 4th slot with just one point behind Ospreys and three points behind Ulster in the Magners
League with anything possible for teams reaching the play off.
Munster now has 12 points lead over the second placed Ulster and would likely to retain the top position at the end of the round matches.
Match itself can be characterized as the competition between the Fly Halves of the opposite team scoring the penalties against each other. At the end of the first half it was Leinster who was comfortably placed with a lead of 11 points. However, Munster’s
forward were able to cut the deficit and secure a win for their team.
Five minutes in first half, the scorecard read 0 – all before Munster’s Fly Half O’Gara open his and team account with a penalty goal. Leinster again levelled the score through their Fly Half Jonathan Sexton’s first of six penalties in the 7th minute. Both
teams had momentarily ball possessions and were on the attack, with the team’s defences doing most of the work.
In the 12th minute of the match, Munster was again in the lead with O’Gara’s second penalty. In the following passage of play till the end of the first half, Leinster exhibited an excellent phase of play that is characterized by balance of defence
and attack.
With Leinster controlling the game and its pace, Jonathan Sexton successfully kicked the penalties in the 14th and 19thminute to put the Leinster in lead. Leinster lead was extended their Winger Shane Horgan scored a try in the 21st minute of the game to
take the score to 14 – 6.
Munster temporarily reduced the lead by 3 points with O’Gara’s third penalty in the 26th minute but failed to score any other point in the remaining time of the first half. On the hand, Leinster extended their lead by 11 points with Sextons penalty during
the last four minutes of the first half. The bulk of the scoring was done by the Fly Halves and Leinster Fly Half had six points (2 penalties) lead over the Munster’s Fly Half.
In second half, Munster’s attack and defence were faultless as they scored 15 points while conceded only three points. Munster’s top scorer for the game O’Gara was substituted at the half time by Paul Warwick who scored the maiden penalty of the second half
at the 45thminute and afterwards was taken off and O’Gara again took the field. Munster kept on exerting pressure on the Leinster defence that came under pressure and started to make the mistakes.
O’Gara then reduced the lead just by two points when he scored penalties in the 48th and 53rd minute of the game. Munster was awarded by another penalty when Leinster Center was handed over a yellow card in the 61st minute.
O’Gara scored his 6th penalty of the match to again put the Munster’s in lead. Due to certain lapse in concentration, Leinster was able to win a penalty on which Sexton score to put Leinster in lead again. Leinster defied the Munster charge and
showed a real character for playing most of their remaining time with a man less. However in the end it comes down to the O’Gara class who scored a tremendous penalty which was kicked from far left side (wide out on left) during the last minute of the game
to give Munster’s their 1st win against the Leinster in their last six encounters.
Although Munster’s played exceptionally in their second half, Leinster definitely wouldn’t be happy with their second half efforts that allowed Munster to come back in the game and control it. With three rounds remaining, Leinster needs to win at least a
game and also to secure some bonus point to ensure a place in top four.
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