Finn Russell inspired Glasgow Warriors to their maiden Guinness PRO12 title with a solid kicking display and a 2nd-half try to sink Munster in Belfast.
But there was to be no repeat of last year’s defeat to Leinster, as Glasgow showed their superior cutting edge to clinch a 31 / 13 victory and give retiring captain Al Kellock the perfect send-off.
A blistering 1st half saw Rob Harley, DTH van der Merwe and Henry Pyrgos each cross over for the Warriors, but Andrew Smith’s score just before the break sent Munster in just 11 points off the pace.
That deficit was cut to 8 early in the 2nd half, but Russell flew over on the hour and the Warriors expertly saw out the contest to ensure Munster’s wait for a 4th PRO12 crown goes on for at least another year.
Glasgow were let off when Ian Keatley’s early long-range penalty fell short of the posts but they almost stole a march towards the Munster line soon after, only for a heroic tap-tackle from stand-in captain Denis Hurley to halt van der Merwe’s charge.
They didn’t miss out, however, just a couple of minutes later when Leone Nakarawa piled his way into the 22 and showed great awareness to find an offload to Harley.
The flank, restored to the starting 15 after being left out of Glasgow’s last 2 games, powered over under the posts and Russell added the simple conversion.
Nakarawa’s ball carrying continued to cause problems and after another surge forward Glasgow almost had a 2nd try, great work from Keith Earls preventing van der Merwe from latching onto a neat grubber kick.
CJ Stander sparked some life into Munster after 20 minutes when he charged down a Russell clearance and, from the resulting possession, Earls and Simon Zebo linked up neatly before the former was halted just shy of the line.
Keatley did put them on the board when a huge scrum yielded a penalty on the Warriors 22 – those 3 points taking the flyhalf to 179 this PRO12 season and confirming him as the competition’s top scorer.
But that only served to ignite the Scots and play-off hero Van der Merwe was at it again, streaking down the left touchline to cross over before Russell’s extras made it 14 / 3.
It got better for Glasgow on the half-hour mark when Stuart Hogg conjured up a 3-on-1 out of nothing with a lightning-fast break and fed Pyrgos to coast over unchallenged, Russell again tapping over the conversion.
But the response was a determined one and after a dozen phases of Munster battering away at the Warriors line the ball went wide to Smith.
He squirmed over the whitewash and, after a lengthy TMO decision, the try was awarded and Keatley reduced the deficit to 11 from the tee.
Munster picked up where they left off after the break and after Paul O’Connell was held up just short of the line, Glasgow conceded a penalty at scrum time and Keatley added 3 points.
The lead had begun to look a little slender, but Russell addressed that on the hour mark – picking a gap to slip through and dive over before converting the try himself.
Kellock was introduced to rapturous applause with just over 20 minutes left and instantly stole a Munster lineout on his own 22.
Duncan Weir – on for Russell at flyhalf – then added a penalty 6 minutes from time to make it 31 / 13 and that’s the way it stayed, Glasgow crowned PRO12 champions for the 1st time.
Man of the match: Why look any further than Warriors flyhalf Finn Russell – the man that sealed the win with a crucial try going into the final quarter.
Moment of the match: Again it is easy – the Finn Russell try in the 59th minute – which took the score from 21 / 13 to 28 / 13 and knocked the stuffing out of the Munster resistance.
Villain of the match: Nobody.
Scorers:
Glasgow Warriors:
- Tries: Rob Harley (1), DTH van Der Merwe (1), Henry Pyrgos (1), Finn Russell (1)
- Conversions: Finn Russell (4)
- Penalties: Duncan Weir (1)
Munster:
- Tries: Andrew Smith (1)
- Conversions: Ian Keatley (1)
- Penalties: Ian Keatley (2)
Teams:
Glasgow Warriors: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Tommy Seymour, 13 Richie Vernon, 12 Peter Horne, 11 DTH van der Merwe, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Henry Pyrgos, 8 Josh Strauss (Captain), 7 Ryan Wilson, 6 Rob Harley, 5 Jonny Gray, 4 Leone Nakarawa, 3 Rossouw de Klerk, 2 Dougie Hall, 1 Gordon Reid
Replacements: 16 Fraser Brown, 17 Jerry Yanuyanutawa, 18 Jon Welsh, 19 Al Kellock, 20 Chris Fusaro, 21 Niko Matawalu, 22 Duncan Weir, 23 Sean Lamont.
Munster: 15 Felix Jones, 14 Keith Earls, 13 Andrew Smith, 12 Denis Hurley (Captain), 11 Simon Zebo, 10 Ian Keatley, 9 Duncan Williams, 8 CJ Stander, 7 Paddy Butler, 6 Donnacha Ryan, 5 Paul O’Connell, 4 Billy Holland, 3 BJ Botha, 2 Eusebio Guinazu, 1 Dave Kilcoyne
Replacements: 16 Duncan Casey, 17 James Cronin, 18 Stephen Archer, 19 Sean Dougall, 20 Jack O’Donoghue, 21 Cathal Sheridan, 22 JJ Hanrahan, 23 Ronan O’Mahony.
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Assistant Referees: Ian Davies (Wales), Sean Brickell (Wales)
TMO: Derek Bevan (Wales)
Still feeling LEKKER about this one
A Warriors article I didn’t place, must be a first here
Finn has come on really well in the last few seasons. Quite a good all round player now although still a few edges to his game to work on such as the occasional charge down. But he is a good running flyhalf who attacks on his own when it’s on and can also distribute well as we saw last week when we floated the long pass out to DTH to score in the corner against Ulster. He also has a good relaxed temperament which again was evident as went on to put over the match winning conversion from the touchline after DTH scored late on in the semi final against Ulster. I like his work rate in defence and his technique, he seems to go in fearlessly and low most of the time to stop the player in his tracks, when he went a bit higher he seemed to fall away and Munster scored their try but I think on seeing the replay he was trying to wrap their player up and to keep him from flopping over towards the line but another Warrior player came flying in to help and seemed to knock Finn out of the way.
Here’s hoping he goes on to become a big name in rugby.
Interesting to read in the article he was rated man of match, as on the day they gave it to Leone Nakarawa, Glasgow’s Fijian lock, who had a superb game and for me was the man of the match too. Such incredible basketball-like skills in his offloading of the ball over the top of players with one hand. He had a direct hand in at least two of Glasgow’s tries and was all over the field in attack and defence.
@ Bullscot:
Hey Bullscot congratulations.
4 @ MacroPolo:
Hi Macro thanks a lot. It was so good to see, was very desperate for the win as it is something that has never happened. Saturday was just one of those rare days – following 3 teams in 3 finals (2 different sports) and all 3 won. For a while in the beginning went back and forth as the 2nd team’s final was still on but got to see most of the Warriors match. For me it makes up for our team’s Super rugby results.
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