Munster’s poor run of form continued in Thomond Park on Saturday with a 13-13 draw against defending champions the Ospreys on Saturday night.
Munster have been out-of-sorts at best in this year’s competition and came into the game on the back of a poor defeat to Treviso. Ospreys are six points ahead of Munster, having comprehensively beaten Edinburgh 24-7 in their last fixture.
Ireland fly-half Ronan O’ Gara put his recent poor performances behind him and scored two penalties early on. The first was a kick of pure quality and a sign that there’s life in the old dog yet. Matthew Morgan scored two penalties for the Welsh side to ensure the teams were level, 6-6,at the half.
Munster started the second half in the perfect manner when Damian Varley touched Down for a 44th minute try. O’ Gara took the resulting conversion and put the Munster-men in a commanding position, 13-6.
However, the Ospreys are the defending champions and showed great resilience to score a converted try of their own, thanks to Jonathan Thomas. Munster prop Stephen Archer was sent to the sin-bin a few minutes earlier and the Welsh side capitalised on their numerical advantage.
The final half hour was full of crushing tackles and hard work from both sides, but the scoreline remained level at 13-13.
The disappointing result leaves Munster in sixth place in the RaboDirect Pro 12, with just five rounds of games remaining.
The Ospreys stay six points ahead of Munster, as the race for a semi-final spot nears it’s climax.
