It was a case of repeating history last night in Meadow Lane when Munster A snatched a last gasp victory in their British and Irish Cup clash against Nottingham Rugby.
The Billy Holland led side left it to the final minute to secure their win and similar to the January 2011 outing the Munster A side recorded a one point victory.
The home-side opened their account after five minutes when Munster were penalised at the scrum and Matt Jarvis stepped up for the chance at goal.
The subsequent Munster attack saw the back-line move the ball fast and wide with Andrew Conway just denied by the tackle of Henry Purdy.
But the pressure continued and minutes later Barry O’Mahony booted the loose ball from the 5m scrum and followed up to score Muntser’s first try. Johnny Holland converted to give Munster a 7-3 lead after 19 minutes.
Jarvis reduced the margin after slotting his second penalty from the 30m mark when Munster were pinged for not releasing in the ruck, before a high tackle on Cian Bohane gave Holland the chance to line up his shot from the halfway mark and Munster led by four once more.
Peter Malone’s charges were reduced to 14 when Dave Foley received yellow after a sequence of pack infringements in the closing minutes of the opening half and when play resumed, with the numbers advantage for Nottingham, Jarvis added his third penalty to bring his side within a point.
Twenty minutes later Nottingham broke out wide with Joe Munro making the yards before passing the ball inside to George Catchpole who finished the move, and with Jarvis adding the conversion Nottingham led by 6 going into the final 10 minutes.
Munster dug deep and continued to press on, and the final attack paid off with Duncan Williams drawing two defenders before releasing Ivan Dineen to break through. Rory Scannell was then on hand to carry in to open space as he darted over for Munster’s second try and the decisive kick fell to Johnny Holland who stepped up, displaying great composure, to convert the final score and give Munster a 17-16 victory.
Munster A: Rory Scannell; Andrew Conway, Ivan Dineen, Cian Bohane (Steve Hansel 63), Ronan O’Mahony; Johnny Holland, Duncan Williams; Alan Cotter (Paddy Ryan 50), Duncan Casey (Niall Scannell 60), John Ryan; Billy Holland Capt., Dave Foley (Darren O’Shea 72); Dave O’Callaghan, Barry O’Mahony, Shane Buckley. Replacements: Niall Scannell, Paddy Ryan, Darren O’Shea, Sean Dougall, Brian Haugh, Steve Hansel, Niall Kenneally.
