Peço licença para falar de outro esporte bretão e tão apaixonante como o football: o rugby. E qual clube melhor representa a raça do rugby que o glorioso Munster (aka Grêmio do rugby) de Limerick?
Neste fim de semana recomeçou a Heineken Cup (Champions League do rugby), agora na sua fase de playoffs e o Munster tem a difícil tarefa de defender o título conquistado em maio do ano passado contra os valorosos franceses do Toulouse. Pois bem, quartas-de-final, não há mais bobo no rugby, todo esse papinho e... 43 v. 9 contra os galeses do Ospreys. Foi um passeio (literalmente...). Classificados, iremos agora para a capital jogar contra o Leinster nas semi-finais dia 2 de maio. A tarefa será mais difícil (sendo adversários no campeonato irlandês), mas nada que não possamos vencer. Se alguém conseguir um ingresso eu prometo que viajo para ver o jogo.
Sobre os outros jogos o único que me surpreendeu foi a derrota do Toulouse, mas o adversário era o tradicional Cardiff e o placar (9 v. 6) mostra que foi muito parelho o embate.
Para não perder o hábito, copy-paste do Irish Times...
GO MUNSTER!!!
Reigning champions in irresistible mood
Munster's Paul O'Connell is congratulated by team-mate Donncha O'Callaghan after delivering what in effect was the knock-out try against the Ospreys in yesterday's Heineken Cup quarter-final game at Thomond Park.Photograph: Jamie McDonald/Getty Images
Munster 43 Ospreys 9: AS STATEMENTS of intent go, this was pretty vivid and ran along the lines of Watch Out, Europe. The reigning champions were at their imperious, ruthless best yesterday and even allowing for home advantage were probably in the mood and the form to have beaten anybody on the continent. They were that good.
Underlined by a phenomenal collective desire, as with all their best days, the men in red played with a Test-match intensity from the first whistle to the last.
Leading 43-9 entering the last 10 minutes, they were defending the opposition 22-metre line with the kind of ferocity and concentration as if they were on their own line and a point ahead entering the end game.
Long before the end of a glorious occasion on a gloriously sun-kissed day, the Ospreys had wilted and simply looked as they didn’t want to be there any more. You couldn’t really blame them.
There was also a level of ball-handling skills, vision and ambition which revelled in the conditions and confirmed Munster’s culture change from gluepot stick-it-up-their-jumpers maulers to top-of-the-ground, fast-track free spirits. And their Southern Hemisphere imports enjoyed themselves especially.
Lifeimi Mafi was simply electric in virtually everything he did, transfixing would-be tacklers with his footwork and accelerating into and often through the tiniest gaps of daylights, while always looking to free his hands and coming up with the day’s outstanding play. He also tore into contact in defence with typical gusto, leading the impressive red line up sharply.
Behind him, and often alongside him, Paul Warwick continued his finest campaign ever with another virtuoso performance, returning two defensive box kicks by landing two killer drop goals on the run from deep and scoring the game’s breakthrough try with his own stunning footwork. The Australian has simply added another dimension or two to Munster’s game.
First, though, of course, they had to make the hard yards, and no one did this more impressively than David Wallace, who eked out yardage with that distinctive and phenomenal high leg action of his. As a Lions’ marker, the sight of him drifting Ryan Jones back yards off the base of an Ospreys scrum was something to behold – admittedly with a little help from Tomás O’Leary, who had another tour de force and thoroughly eclipsed an almost uninterested looking Mike Phillips. Amongst the somewhat leaderless and spineless Ospreys, he was not alone.
Paul O’Connell’s restart and lineout work was outstanding and complemented his usual stuff, Jerry Flannery appeared to be everywhere in a monumental performance and Alan Quinlan continued his personal mission to destroy right up to the last minute.
And then there was Ronan O’Gara, pulling the strings and landing seven from seven for a 17-point haul in a manner that suggested he has rarely been more at ease with his game and could probably have kicked them from the rooftops of the impressive new stands.
Playing into the breeze, Munster were full of width and running from the off, but another slightly unconvincing performance by Wayne Barnes, whose penalty count was almost two-to-one against the home side, contributed to a jittery if high-octane mood.
Initially, the Ospreys’ line speed and physicality in defence was pretty ferocious too, but Munster were only denied the opening try by the TMO when Wallace could not be seen to ground the ball after Quinlan’s steal and O’Leary’s typical dart.
Compensation came quickly by dint of an O’Gara penalty after Wallace attacked off the scrum, though after O’Gara landed his second three-pointer James Hook soon levelled again. Filo Tiatia was binned for a late charge on Paul Warwick, though curiously the penalty was from halfway and not where it landed, just outside the 22, but eventually Munster made the power play tell.
Upping the tempo, recycling the ball quickly and using both wings, Mafi was heavily involved, once making an astonishing one-handed pick-up and then plundering over the gain line after bouncing tighthead Adam Jones before Warwick stepped inside Alun-Wyn Jones and sidestepped Tommy Bowe for a superb try, then tagging on a drop goal from Phillips’ box kick to make it 16-6 at the break.
After O’Gara had cancelled out Hook’s third penalty with a 45-metre effort of his own, Munster delivered the knock-out blow. Shane Williams, having not quite forced a scrum back by touching down short of the end-goal line, Doug Howlett’s presence of mind by the touchline from Hook’s restart forced a scrum back.
O’Leary and Mafi worked the ball to Howlett, who cleverly stepped infield to create a blindside channel from the recycle, effected by Quinlan and Wallace before Mafi hit the ruck at 100mph, and O’Leary alertly put O’Connell over in the corner.
After more good football by O’Leary, Warwick landed an astonishing drop goal on the run from halfway which seemed to gather momentum and height as it travelled, and the rest was varnish. Joyous varnish nonetheless.
An O’Connell steal and rumble by Wallace led to another dart of a scrum by O’Leary, Mick O’Driscoll keeping the ball alive for O’Gara to hit Mafi. Tackled by Shane Williams and with Bowe moving in, Mafi uncorked a stunning under-arm flipped offload to put Earls over.
The young centre, underlining his own credentials as a bolter for the Lions, struck again from the restart when Ian Dowling did superbly to tap down a reverse restart under pressure. Accelerating on to the ball and through a gap, he ran 60 metres up the touchline and kept his feet off the ground as Phillips dragged him over the touchline to gain the verdict by the corner flag. It summed up a day when pretty much everything went right for the men in red. They look the real deal.
Scoring sequence: 14 mins: O’Gara pen 3-0; 16: Hook pen 3-3; 18: O’Gara pen 6-3; 30: Hook pen 6-6; 34: Warwick try, O’Gara con 13-6; 39: Warwick drop goal 16-6; 45: Hook pen 16-9; 50: O’Gara pen 19-9; 56: O’Connell try, O’Gara con 26-9; 57: Warwick drop goal 29-9; 63: Earls try, O’Gara con 36-9; 65: Earls try, O’Gara con 43-9.
MUNSTER: P Warwick; D Howlett, K Earls, L Mafi, I Dowling; R O’Gara, T O’Leary; M Horan, J Flannery, J Hayes, D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell (capt), A Quinlan, D Wallace, D Leamy. Replacements: M O’Driscoll for O’Callaghan (62 mins), N Ronan for Leamy, P Stringer for O’Leary (both 66 mins), T Buckley for Hayes (67 mins), B Murphy for Mafi (71 mins), D Fogarty for Flannery (75 mins), D Hurley for O’Gara (76 mins).
OSPREYS: T Bowe; J Vaughton, S Parker, A Bishop, S Williams; J Hook, M Phillips, P James, H Bennett, A Jones, I Gough, A Jones, R Jones (capt), M Holah, F Tiatia. Replacements: F Levi for Gough (58 mins), R Hibbard for Bennett (60 mins), C Griffiths for A Jones, T Smith for Tiatia, D Biggar for Bishop (all 65 mins), A Lloyd for Wyn-Jones, J Nutbrown for Phillips (both 75 mins).
Sinbinned: Tiatia (24-34 mins).
Referee: Wayne Barnes (England).
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