Northampton edge out battling Munster in Champions Cup thriller

Saints had the team that won the Champions Cup back in 2000 out on the field at half-time of this match, for an anniversary lap of honour. It’s maybe long odds that this current squad will be doing likewise in 25 years time given the strength of the competition, but they are at least a step closer along the way, at least. They beat Munster 34-32 in their final pool game, and earned themselves home advantage in the last 16 by doing it.

They had to work hellishly hard for it. The Munstermen just didn’t quit. It was a game that Saints had to win once, twice, three times before they were finally able to kick the ball into touch and celebrate their victory. Munster clawed their way back to within two points once, when Conor Murray set up a try for Diarmuid Kilgallen with a wizardly flick behind his back, and then again, when Kilgallen scored a second with a couple of minutes left to play.

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For their part, Saints owed plenty to wing Tom Seabrook, who peeled off a hat-trick of tries. It meant they had just enough leeway when Munster came roaring back into it. Seabrook’s first gave Saints a lead, but Munster came rumbling back in a passage in which they scored 15 points without conceding any. Their skipper Taidhg Beirne was in the thick of it, rampaging around the field like a grizzly bear searching for his first good meal after six months in hibernation. Beirne’s a one-man army when he’s in this sort of form.

In one five-minute stretch he charged down a kick from Alex Mitchell, chased the ricochet back into Northampton’s 22, and arrived in time to smash James Ramm with a tackle that injured his right shoulder, dropped to his knees so the medic could treat him, got up in time to spring back and help defend a Saints’ line-out in the Munster 22, stole the ball, and broke back down field again, scattering tacklers as he went.

The steal led directly to Munster’s first try. Murray whistled a kick downfield, and Calvin Nash sprinted off after it down the wing, accelerating through a gap in between Alex Mitchell and Curtis Langdon who were tracking back ahead of him. Nash controlled the ball with his knee and gathered it in before scoring in the corner. It was superb work. Nash scored a sharp second soon after, too, with a lovely, looping run to the corner after Diarmuid Barron’s break.

Seabrook’s second, and his superb solo third, got Saints back in front, and Ramm scored another when Fin Smith put him through with a brilliant tip pass. But Munster kept after them, and Northampton were desperately relieved when Henry Pollock won the final turnover to stop an attack, and end the match, as the Irish came pouring on one last time to try and win it in the final minute.