If the intensity carries on at this rate, the winner of the pool containing these two teams, plus Toulon and the Ospreys, will not so much depend on points accumulated but who simply has the strength to stand at the end. This was a brutal encounter, light on tries – just the one apiece – but overloaded with contact, most of it wholesome.
London Irish began last year in grand style in Dublin, only to lose at home to the Scarlets. This year they have set off again with a victory over one of the giants of their motherland. Can they kick on from here? We will not know until the last whistle sounds on the last day of pool matches in January.
Such has been the expansion of the London branch of Irish rugby into a multinational force that it is sometimes felt that some of the old, core spirit has vanished along the way. Not here. This was still a derby, even if played across the Irish Sea.
Its preamble was given a layer of pure blarney by the Exiles coach, Toby Booth, who heaped such praise on Munster – No1 in Europe, rightly so … fabulous, fabulous – that it had to be too good to be true. It truly was, and soon George Stowers and Denis Leamy were squaring up to each other on the touchline.
Keith Earls and Delon Armitage, from a lower weight division, also went chest to chest. It was all a bit spiky, and it came as no surprise when Sam Tuitupou was sin-binned for upending Paul Hodgson and dumping him without much regard for his safe landing.
This spirit of confrontation was matched by a scoreboard that moved in threes: four penalties by Ryan Lamb and a neatly struck drop goal by the same player, against two penalties by Ronan O'Gara. The drop goal by the smallest player on the home side came after he packed down at No8 on the edge of the Munster 22, presumably to allow Declan Danaher, standing out of the scrum, to have a run at the O'Gara clearance. The ball was struck against the head, Lamb picked up and passed and hung around, like any good back rower, until the ball came back his way.
The movement in threes on the board and the toe-to-toes in twos also disguised a lot of daring. With their very first movement, Munster tried to run out of their own 22. Earls may have been playing his first game since May, but he was full of enterprise in the centre.
There was a price to pay for this. No sooner was the second half under way than Johne Murphy tried to release Denis Hurley on the left wing. Topsy Ojo was lying in wait, intercepted and ran away to score. The two-time champions were adrift by two converted tries.
Never exactly prone to panic, they plugged away. Munster will never respond with an explosion of creativity; they simply cut down on their errors and upped the pressure on their opponents. The opportunities came their way, a penalty that O'Gara missed, and then a second that he landed.
A third second-half kick was awarded, plus a warning from Christophe Berdos to the home pack. This time O'Gara did produce a surprise, nudging a kick towards the corner. From the lineout, Mick O'Driscoll raised a finger nail an extra millimetre to win the ball and the rest of the forwards scooped up his scraps to produce one of their trademark assaults on the line. Not many hold out against Munster in such a position.
Elvis Seveali'i threw himself at Tony Buckley and Armitage wriggled underneath to cause a knock-on. Munster had been stopped for the moment.
On came the oldest of the old guard, Marcus Horan and John Hayes. The scrum five metres out gave way to a lineout, where O'Driscoll soared to catch, only to have the ball ripped away.
As if to acknowledge the snarl of the terriers in defence, O'Gara opted for a shot at goal from his next penalty. Down went the lead to eight points. Earls gave way to Paul Warwick, but the ball rarely went further than Sam Tuitupou at inside centre. The battering runs there were supposed to help reduce the errors but suddenly there was a knock-on, the error compounded at the breakdown by the award of a penalty.
From the centre spot, Armitage sent the kick sailing between the posts and there was breathing space again, Munster four points light of the defensive bonus point that might prove so important in this pool.
Armitage had a chance to repeat his feat but fired wide, but at least he was eating up time. With two minutes remaining, Munster had a last series of chances. They earned the right to build up a final chain of attacks through their scrummage. A penalty kick led to a lineout and a surge by another of their veterans, David Wallace. Tuitupou was on hand to finish off the very last move of the game. The unconverted try at the death was so typical of Munster. The game could not be won but they are wise mathematicians who know the value of points even in batches of one.
The Ospreys lost away with a bonus point in France and Munster did it here. The margins are going to be filed away until it is the prevention of a losing bonus point that may determine who goes where in the quarter-finals. It is highly unlikely that the winner of this pool will win enough points to have a home tie in the last eight. Only we will be able to enjoy their ride across Europe.
