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Munster and Glasgow may be familiar foes in the Guinness PRO12 but they will meet for the first time in the European Rugby Champions Cup this weekend. - 20/10/2016 13:11
Munster and Glasgow may be familiar foes in the Guinness PRO12 but they will meet for the first time in the European Rugby Champions Cup this weekend.
The two sides are among just 10 to have played in over 100 games in Europe’s top-tier competition, but their paths have not crossed until they were matched against each other in Pool 1 of this season’s tournament.
Glasgow will be looking to build on their impressive bonus-point win over Leicester from the opening weekend but they do not have the best of records on the road against Irish opposition. Since winning on their first trip across the Irish Sea to face Ulster back in 1997, the Warriors have lost on all four subsequent visits by an average of over 20 points.
The task will not be any easier at Thomond Park, a fortress where Munster forged their position among this competition’s elite sides and are rarely beaten. Added to that will be the fact that the day before the game the former Munster coach Anthony Foley will have been laid to rest in his native Limerick after tragically dying in Paris last weekend.
No doubt the Munster players and fans will want to turn the game into a fitting tribute to one of the greatest rugby sons of Munster, an icon of the European club game in the professional era and a man who lifted the European Cup in triumph in 2006.
The men in red have played 68 home Champions Cup fixtures across their proud European history, they have been beaten on just five of those occasions. Foley was at the heart of so many of those victories as either a player, captain or coach.
They also have a particularly strong home record against Gregor Townsend’s Warriors side, losing just one of the last eight PRO12 fixtures between the two sides on Munster soil. They have yet to meet in league action so far this season but sit fourth and fifth in the table, both with four wins but Glasgow ahead courtesy of two additional bonus points.
Match Facts
- Munster and Glasgow will meet in Europe for the first time despite being two of just 10 clubs to have played over 100 games in the competition.
- Munster have won three of their four meetings against Scottish opposition in the European Cup, while Glasgow have lost seven of 10 against Irish opposition.
- The 2006 and ’08 champions have lost just five of 68 home games in the competition (W63).
- Glasgow won on their first trip to Ireland in the competition against Ulster in 1997, but have lost all four since by an average margin of 23 points.
L'émotion était palpable à Thomond Park
What a day, what a tribute and what an occasion for European rugby. At the end of a horrendous week for the Munster rugby family they all came together to pack out Thomond Park and put on a display of which Anthony Foley would have approved.
It was emotional from start to finish and the occasion seemed to get the better of Keith Earls, who was issued with a straight red card by French referee Jerome Graces in the 18th minute for a tip tackle on Glasgow hooker Fraser Brown. On any normal occasion that might have been critical, but not on this day.
By then Munster were already two tries ahead thanks to a third minute try by man of the match Tyler Bleyendaal and a second from Springbok centre Jaco Taute. Bleyendaal converted both and the only return Glasgow could muster was a Finn Russell penalty.
With many of the Munster greats of the past, like team mates of Foley such as Paul O'Connell and Ronan O'Gara, watching on from the stands, the team worked harder than every before and coped admirably without Earls. At times it even seemed as though they had extra men on the field such was the passion and fervour with which they played.
Bleyendaal kept the scoreboard moving with a penalty and then Simon Zebo wriggled his ay over in the left corner just before the break for a try which the outside half again improved off the touchline to give Munster a 24-3 interval lead.
Now it wasn’t merely the win that Munster were chasing, but a bonus-point to kick-off their Pool 1 campaign following the postponement of the Round 1 fixture against Racing 92 in Paris. The fans didn’t have to wait long for the fourth try.
The power of the Munster scrum came to the fore and after a succession of collapses on their own line the Glasgow eight were punished with a penalty try. Bleyendaal added the extras and it was shaping into the perfect farewell for the man that one banner in the crowd proclaimed was the ‘Lost King of Thomond’.
Gregor Townsend’s Warriors rallied as the home side naturally tired and there were tries from Pat MacArthur and Mark Bennett, both of which Stuart Hogg converted, but nobody was going to deny Munster the final word. A fifth try from centre Rory Scannell added the final seal of approval and Ian Keatley popped over the conversion.
It was a vintage performance from Munster and a day that nobody who was among the 25,600 crowd will ever forget. The day ended with the Munster players taking Foley’s two sons, Tony and Dan, into the team circle on the pitch to join in a stirring rendition of ‘Stand Up and Fight’.
The crowd joined in and the deafening roar that had accompanied the action from start to finish was heard one final time. It was a magnificent end to a magnificent Munster rugby occasion.
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