Borders Take Munster Right To The Wire

It needed a penalty from replacement Jeremy Manning for Munster to see off the Border Reivers in this opening game of the Celtic League in front of a modest sized Thomond Park audience.

It needed a penalty from replacement Jeremy Manning for Munster to see off the Border Reivers in this opening game of the Celtic League in front of a modest sized Thomond Park audience.

Manning kicked the penalty just moments after coming on as a 62nd minute replacement for Paul Burke to leave Munster 9-7 in front and despite a very nervous sequence in the closing minutes they held on to deny the Scottish side what would have been their first away victory in this competition.

Munster: Shaun Payne; David Wallace, Trevor Halstead, Rob Henderson, John
Kelly; Paul Burke (J Manning 62 min), Peter Stringer; Marcus Horan, Jerry Flannery (F Sheahan 50 min), Federico Pucciariello; Trevor Hogan, Mick O’Driscoll; Stephen Keogh (A Quinlan 50 min), Denis Leamy, Anthony Foley capt

Border Reivers: Stuart Moffat; Simon Danielli, Ben MacDougall, Charlie Hore,
Garry Law; Gregor Townsend, Chris Cusiter; Paul Thomson capt, Ross Ford, Bruce
Douglas; Opeta Palepoi, Colin Stewart; Wayne McEntee, Scott Gray, Kelly Brown

Referee: Tim Hayes (WRU).