O'Gara wins it for Munster

A late penalty from Ronan O'Gara ensured Munster will retain a nine-point lead at the top of the Magners League after a 22-20 win defeat of Glasgow.

The Scots outscored their hosts by two tries to one but with the visitors a man down through Bernardo Stortoni's sin-binning, Munster piled on the pressure to set up O'Gara's penalty four minutes from time.

It was an O'Gara error that led to Glasgow's first points, his clearance being charged down before John Hayes was penalised for not rolling away after a tackle, Ruaridh Jackson booting the three points.

But after 11 minutes the Ireland fly-half made amends with the simplest of penalties after Richie Gray had been yellow-carded for killing the ball under the sticks following a Paul Warwick attack.

Munster were unable to make their numerical advantage count though, and Jackson missed a penalty at the other end before the Irish started to take control.

But the frustration grew as infringements at the scrum and breakdown cost them valuable possession and territory and Glasgow caught them off guard three minutes before half-time.

Fast feet

Max Evans broke out of a double tackle near the Munster 22 and although Warwick caught up with him, his well-weighted pass inside was carried on by scrum half Colin Gregor whose fast feet saw him glide in behind the posts for a converted try.

On the stroke of half-time, Munster were pressing for a score when Keith Earls was very harshly sin-binned for not coming through the gate at a ruck.

Munster had got on the wrong side of referee James Jones in the opening half, but they quickly turned the 10-3 interval deficit around.

They stormed out of the blocks for the second half, with O'Gara landing a quick hat-trick of penalties. Referee Jones did little to help the game's flow, drawing the ire of the crowd on a number of occasions.

However, Glasgow, hunting for their first away win of the season, had other ideas. Jackson was involved twice and Evans did brilliantly to pass out of the tackle, before the former unleashed DTH van der Merwe for a 65th minute score.

Gregor stepped in to add the conversion and three minutes later, Jackson followed up with a tidy drop goal. A repeat of the Warriors' 2008 win at this venue was on the cards.

Yet Munster had time on their side and although their try-scoring attempts were thwarted - Stortoni saw yellow for deliberating knocking on, with the hosts about to convert an overlap - O'Gara landed his sixth successful kick from six attempts to keep his side on the winning trail.