Warriors stun champions

Munster start title defence with defeat

Last updated: 5th September 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Warriors stun champions

Jackson: On the mark

Related links

Teams

Also see

Munster kicked off their Magners League title defence with a shock 22-6 defeat to Glasgow Warriors at Firhill.

Dan Parks booted over 15 points for the Scottish outfit, but it was Ruaridh Jackson's solitary score of the match with eight minutes remaining that made victory certain.

Three penalties from Jeremy Manning were all Munster had to show from their trip north as Sean Lineen's men claimed a famous victory in front of their home fans.

Munster started the opening exchanges brightly and notched their first points of the season through the boot of Manning seven minutes in.

Glasgow hit back and Thom Evans and Bernie Stortoni sliced through the Munster defence, forcing the penalty which Parks slotted to level the scores.

Defining moment

More home pressure told as Parks converted two further penalties to extend Glasgow's lead to 9-3. And when Chris Cusiter's break in injury-time resulted in another kicking opportunity, Parks kicked over to take Glasgow into the interval 12-3 ahead.

Glasgow piled the pressure on after the break, rookie prop John Welsh had the crowd roaring with a scorching run down the wing but Munster held out then worked back to Glasgow territory for Manning to kick his second penalty on 55 minutes.

Number three followed seven minutes later, only for Parks to hold his nerve and restore the margin with 12 minutes left with penalty number five.

However the defining moment in the match came eight minutes from the end when fine play from Stortoni allowed Morrison to blast through to five yards from the line and Jackson, who had been on the field for two minutes, barged over.

Mark McMillan converted from wide out and Glasgow ran the clock down to collect a morale-boosting win.