Munster retain Challenge Cup
Sun, 24 Aug 2008 13:02
Munster walked off with a 46-22 victory over the United States Eagles at Rentschler Field, securing the Challenge Cup for the second year in a row.
"We are happy to be able to walk away with this win," Munster coach Tony McGahan said.
"We knew coming into this match that the United States would provide tough competition and they didn't disappoint. To be able to put up 46 points against the US was no easy feat."
The Eagles came out tough and led early on after US flyhalf Nese Malifa converted a penalty kick in the fourth minute of the game to put the home team up by three.
The Eagles continued to show improvement not only on defence, but on their set piece, and just six minutes later Mike Petri cleared the ball to Malifa, who passed the ball out wide to Justin Boyd on the wing. Boyd used the opportunity and scored the first try in the corner to put the US up by 8-0, 10 minutes in.
Munster missed a few scoring opportunities, but kept the US on their toes after a penalty kick by Paul Warwick put the European Champions on the board in the 16th minute. A contentious try by Lifeimi Mafi in the 21st minute and Munster successfully swung the momentum in their favour. Munster continued, to score 17 unanswered points by the 30th minute.
The Eagles wouldn't go down easily and continued to defend with pure determination, stopping several phases within their own five meters. Finally, a couple of Munster penalties resulted in a bit of breathing room and Boyd ended up with the ball once again.
Boyd's pop kick to the centre of the field ended up in the arms of John Van der Giessen who then passed it out to Louis Stanfill for the dive in under the posts. Malifa converted and the US were only down by two.
A US penalty in reachable distance allowed Paul Warwick the final say, however, and Munster closed out the first half leading 20-15.
In the second half, Munster's offensive efforts finally started to pay off as Frank Sheahan scored not only one pushover try, but - following a US yellow card - a second pushover try within 10 minutes.
The Eagles remained competitive, though, and within a minute of that second try Malifa had picked up a mishandled pass off the restart and ran it 15 meters for a try. He converted his own and had single handedly got the Eagles back in the match, before being relieved by Hanno Dirksen in the 60th minute.
After a huge tackle by the Eagles' Chris Wyles stopped Munster's offense from putting another five points on the board, a US turnover put the ball back in the hands of the Irish and Barry Murphy was able to touch down his first try in the 66th minute. Jeremy Manning converted and Munster found themselves with a lead of 39-22.
Down, but not out, Wyles got an opening and grubber kicked down the sidelines until he picked it up and ran nearly 80 meters for what appeared to be a try. Unfortunately, the ball had been knocked on at the start and the try was not awarded and before the fans knew what was happening, Murphy was scoring again for Munster, bringing the final score, with the conversion, to 46-22.
"Once we had the ball in hand, we were about par with the competition," Eagles head coach Scott Johnson said.
"We continue to improve in some much needed areas, but these guys are young and just need to get more street smart in the other areas. That will come with time. We know what we have to do and we need to continue to work on our set pieces and contact areas.
"We did compete throughout the entire match and that was our aim.
"We were able to see everyone get on the field, which was also a great benefit, and from what I saw there was a lot of promise," added Johnson.
Scorers:
For the USA:
Tries: Boyd, Stanfill, Malifa
Cons: Malifa 2
Pen:
Malifa
For Munster:
Tries: Mafi, Holland, Sheahan 2, Murphy 2
Cons: Warwick 2, Manning 3
Pens: Warwick 2
Teams:
USA Eagles: 15 Chris Wyles, 14 Justin Boyd, 13 Alipate Tuilevuka, 12 Albert Tuipulotu, 11 Tyrone Coppedge, 10 Valenese Malifa, 9 Mike Petri, 8 Pat Quinn, 7 Kevin Sheahan, 6 Todd Clever (captain), 5 Louis Stanfill, 4 John Van der Giessen, 3 Brian Lemay,2 Mark Crick, 1 Matekitonga Moeakiola.
Replacements - from: 16 Joe Welch, 17 Ben Barclay, 18 Ben Wiedemer, 19 Rikus Pretorius, 20 Robbie Shaw, 21 Gary Golding, 22 Blaine Scully, 23 Casey Rock, 24 Hanno Dirksen, 25 Owen Lentz, 26 Hayden Smith.
Munster: 15 Denis Hurley, 14 Brian Carney, 13 Keith Earls, 12 Lifeimi Mafi, 11 Anthony Horgan, 10 Paul Warwick, 9 Mike Prendergast, 8 John O'Sullivan, 7 Niall Ronan, 6 Billy Holland, 5 Mick
O'Driscoll (captain), 4 Donnacha Ryan, 3 Tony Buckley, 2 Denis Fogarty, 1 Federico Pucciariello.
Replacements - from: 16 Frank Sheahan, 17 Darragh Hurley, 18 Mark Melbourne, 19 Tommy O'Donnell, 20 Tomas O'Leary, 21 Jeremy Manning, 22 Kieran Lewis, 23 Rua Tipoki, 24 Barry Murphy, 25 Ian Dowling.
Referee: Chris Henshall
