Perhaps these two-legged knockout ties will catch on. The suspense of a tight, relentlessly physical contest was prolonged until Damian de Allende’s try, eight minutes from time, that proved the knockout blow. Munster emerged battered but victorious from a high-class collision between unstoppable force and immovable object, with a last-eight match against Toulouse looming into view.
Joey Carbery, the Munster and Ireland fly-half, scored 21 of their 26 points but this was fundamentally a defensive masterclass by Munster and one that evoked memories of the good old days when they won this competition twice in three seasons between 2006 and 2008. It was, in particular, a mammoth individual display by Peter O’Mahony in the back row, the captain refusing to allow Exeter time to settle at the breakdown.
Exeter huffed and puffed but, as so often this season, failed to find the necessary cutting edge to end the resistance of determined opponents. They may still make the Premiership playoffs but if they do not rediscover their old killer instinct soon, this campaign will end in intense disappointment.
“We let Munster get on the front foot emotionally,” Exeter’s director of rugby, Rob Baxter, told BT Sport. “I can stand here and talk about all the details of the game, but we just weren’t where we needed to be.”
Exeter began brightly, too, as they carried a five-point lead into this second leg. The visitors spent much of the first quarter with ball in hand, sometimes attempting to run through Munster’s red-brick wall, at other times looking to the fast hands and dancing feet of Sam Maunder and Henry Slade. They crossed the try-line early thanks to a fine sniping finish by Maunder, which also prompted a yellow card for Conor Murray.
That score aside, disciplined competition in the tackle area by O’Mahony, Jack O’Donoghue and their teammates set the tone, as Exeter failed to capitalise on their early territorial dominance.
O’Mahony, switching to temporary scrum-half after 25 minutes, fizzed a fine pass to Carbery who easily jinked past prop Harry Williams to run in Munster’s first try. Carbery converted his own score and the seven-pointer put his side ahead in the tie for the first time.
Joe Simmonds thumped a long-range penalty wide with the final kick of the first half and it was abundantly clear that a nervous second half awaited in Limerick. Munster had achieved seven turnovers in the first half while conceding just three penalties.
The second half began to unfold in much the same vein as the first: Exeter in possession, smashing into tackles, the ranks of defenders lining up dutifully to absorb another impact. Matters appeared to have swung in the visitors’ favour when Jacques Vermeulen powered over eight minutes after half-time. Joe Simmonds sent the conversion against the post, but Carbery showed no such wastefulness with two penalties that edged Munster back into the lead, the passionate crowd willing them on.
Munster were squeezing Exeter into the final 10 minutes. After Slade narrowly failed to pull off a potentially gamechanging interception, a scruffy pass made its way to Simon Zebo on the left, but the quality of delivery did not matter. Zebo scorched down the outside before offering a world-class offload inside to De Allende, who dived over the line to send the home fans into ecstasy.
“We knew we came up short physically last week, and we needed to get on top of them physically. I believe we did,” the Munster coach, Johann van Graan, said.
“Dogged” was the word O’Mahony used to describe Munster’s performance. Yet another thing he got right.
