Harlequins produced a famous victory on Saturday afternoon as they beat Munster at Thomond Park to advance to the final of the Amlin Challenge Cup. This was only Munster's second defeat in 42 European games at home and the result is one of the biggest upsets of the season.
First Half
Harlequins came roaring out of the blocks and penned Munster into their own half for the first ten minutes of the game. The English side got the try their early dominance deserved and it was their lock George Robson who trundled over in the right hand corner 9 minutes in. Most of the credit though goes to Gonzalo Camacho. The Argentinean winger jinked his way down the left touchline and left Doug Howlett for dead before the ball was sprayed across field for Robson to finish. Nick Evans converted and the Quins were seven in front.
Despite this early breakthrough Conor O'Shea's side continued to dominate and bombarded the Munster back line. The Irish side were putting bodies on the line constantly and it was no surprise when the statisticians worked out that they had put in 50 tackles in only the first 15 minutes. One of these tackles was a superb bit of defending by Ronan O'Gara who managed to just about stop George Lowe when it looked certain that the centre would score.
Even though the Quins must have been delighted with this first half performance they must also have been disappointed with the fact that they hadn't gained as many points as their dominance deserved. This was something that seemed even more frustrating for their fans when Evans missed two simple penalties.
But the team from London did finally get their second try just after the half hour mark. After a long period of pressure the ball was shipped into the middle where a hoard of bodies converged to try and steal the ball. Amidst the mayhem scrum-half Danny Care managed to wriggle his way free from the pack and poke the ball over the line with an outstretched hand. Television replays were needed to confirm that the ball had been grounded and Care brushed himself off to convert and turn the lead into 14 points.
At this stage there looked like there was only going to be one winner but Munster showed how dangerous they can be on the stroke of half time. O'Gara opted for touch instead of three points from a penalty and from the resulting line out the ball was delivered to the right hand touchline where Felix Jones strolled over. O'Gara converted and suddenly there was only seven points in it at half time.
Half Time: Munster 7-14 Harlequins
Second Half
It was no surprise when Munster were quick out of the blocks for the second period and the Quins received a dose of their own medicine when they were forced to defend deep in numbers. Replacement lock Paul O'Connell seemed to give the home side a boost but the Quins forwards were playing superbly to cut out any threat and Ugo Monye in particular was making sure that the Munster wingers knew he was there.
Unfortunately Nick Easter and Donncha O'Callaghan allowed the tension to boil over and both forwards were sinned binned after a little scuffle 5 minutes into the second half.
The flow of the game wasn't affected though and replacement fly-half Rory Clegg heaped more pressure on Munster with a penalty 49 minutes in the increase the lead. This seemed to affect any momentum that Munster had and 10 minutes later Clegg increased the lead even more with another penalty, this time right in front of the posts.
Referee Romain Poite then had his work cut out with three tough calls in quick succession. First George Lowe was denied a possible penalty try for the Quins after he thought he had been impeded by Paul Warwick in a foot race. Poite then disallowed two Munster tries after he deemed that the ball had been passed forward. Doug Howlett was the man that was denied both times but Poite was also spot on with each decision.
The referee was again involved 70 minutes in when Nick Easter was shown a red card for going in at the side of a ruck. This obviously gave the Munster players confidence and they put it all in for the final ten minutes. They did get themselves a try 2 minutes from time when the ever willing Howlett finally crossed over but O'Gara couldn't convert and the Quins were left to celebrate a brilliant victory.
Full Time: Munster 12-20 Harlequins
This was a fabulous victory for Harlequins who owe this win to the explosive start they made to the first half. They will now face Stade Francais in the final on the 20th May in Cardiff. Munster will obviously be bitterly disappointed but can feel proud of their home record and did well to stay in the match after the start that the Harlequins made.
Man of the Match “ Gonzalo Camacho
Munster
Tries: Jones (1), Howlett (1)
Conversions: O'Gara
Sin binned: O'Callaghan
Harlequins
Tries: Robson (1), Care (1)
Penalties: Clegg (2)
Conversions: Evans (1), Care(1)
Red Card: Easter
.jpg "Andre Esterhuizen scored the opening try for Harlequins")
