Glasgow 11-11 Munster

Date: Friday, 26 October
Kick-off: 1930 BST
Venue: Firhill Stadium, Glasgow
Match report follows later.
Glasgow: B Stortoni, L Fa'atau, A Henderson, D Gibson, T Evans, D Parks, C O'Young, E Kalman, F Thomson, M Low, A Newman, A Kellock (capt), S Swindall, J Barclay, K Brown.
Replacements: E Milligan, M Collins, D Turner, J Beattie, S Pinder, S Barrow, H O'Hare.

Munster: S Payne; B Carney, R Tipoki, L Mafi, I Dowling; P Warwick, P Stringer; T Buckley, F Sheahan, J Hayes; D O'Callaghan, M O'Driscoll; A Quinlan, D Wallace, A Foley (capt).
Replacements: J Flannery, M Horan, M Melbourne, D Leamy, T O'Leary, J Manning, K Earls.

The Herald reports
Glasgow Warriors 11 - 11 MunsterKEVIN FERRIE October 27 2007
Glasgow Warriors preserved this season's unbeaten home record at Firhill, but it was a night of deep frustration as any prospect of a decent match was wrecked by inept officiating.

James Jones, the Welsh referee, looked out of his depth and as a consequence neither side was able to put together any sort of meaningful rugby in what were tricky but perfectly playable conditions.

Perhaps because the Warriors have, in a few weeks' time, the same official in one of their Heineken Cup ties, Sean Lineen, their coach, was guarded in his comments, restricting himself to generalisations about inconsistencies.
Television replays also seemed to suggest Thom Evans had scored a first-half try only for it to be ruled out because Chris O'Young was adjudged to have been in touch before releasing the ball to the winger, when his feet and legs were actually in the air. It was not referred to the fourth official.

Yet Lineen still believed his men should have secured the victory. "We had the better of the first half and could have scored three or four tries, so while Munster were the better team in the second we could have closed the game out before that," he said.

"It is very frustrating. It is a new side gelling and we are in it for the long haul, but I'm in a hurry."

Warriors had a difficult start, dropping behind after conceding a penalty for offside under their posts, then being forced into a reshuffle when Stevie Swindall was stretchered off.

Momentum switched, however, with a turnover on halfway which led to Dan Parks' equalising penalty. Soon after that came the first try, an intelligent kick straight down the middle from the stand-off dissecting the two deep cover defenders. Lome Fa'atau and Fergus Thomson chased well and when Ian Dowling ran into trouble after fielding the ball, Peter Stringer was hit by Daryl Gibson's crushing tackle which forced the ball loose and into the path of Fa'atau, the Samoan, who marked his debut in his customary fashion.

Evans' disallowed try followed soon after, but from that point it was scrappy stuff for the rest of the half. A greasy surface was not helping and further scoring before the break was restricted to Paul Warwick's injury time penalty.

After the break Parks struck again after an odd incident in which Stringer conceded a penalty deep in his own 22 for, apparently, screeching too long and too loud at the referee. Thereafter the game took on a rather frenzied feel as both teams seemed to realise the official was struggling with the pace of play.

Munster finally secured good field position and usable ball when awarded a scrum deep in opposition territory and Tipoki Rua sliced through the midfield with an ease that must have infuriated Gary Mercer, Warriors' defence coach, given the overall excellence of their play in that area. He committed last man Bernie Stortoni before feeding to fellow centre Mafi Lifeimi, whose path was clear.

Having put his side level Lifeimi then put them in trouble, albeit he was entitled to feel unlucky. The centre looked like being the latest to get away with charging into a ruck offside until Sam Pinder roared at the referee to point out the offence. Once it was brought to his attention Jones not only gave a penalty but seemed to take the chance to make up for all those he had missed by over-reacting and sin-binning the centre.

Fortunately for him Parks was unable to add to his pain, pushing his long-range penalty attempt short and wide.

A pernickity decision almost decided things when Munster were awarded a penalty wide for encroaching within 10 metres at the lineout, but Jeremy Manning was unable to hit the target. The replacement stand-off was also wide with two desperate drop goal attempts deep in injury time.

This article was originally posted on 26-Oct-2007, 20:48 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 27-Oct-2007, 07:39.