O’Mahony grunt paved the way for Scannell kick for glory

The headlines are Rory Scannell’s, and rightly so. Kicking the winner with the clock gone red from forty-five metres out against your biggest in-conference rivals is the kind of stuff you dream about doing when you’re a kid (and a back).

The images of Scannell’s kick and the resultant celebration are the ones that’ll be burned into the memory when people think of this game. For me though, it’ll be the image of Peter O’Mahony sitting bruised and hurting on the Thomond Park turf.

It’s the archetypical picture of a captain, receiving treatment after taking a battering while winning a game-deciding penalty with 16 seconds left on the clock.

It was controversial, it was hotly contested (just search for “Munster” on Twitter – actually, maybe don’t) and it was the epitome of dark art, “get the job done” rugby intellect.

If you’re a Glasgow fan – or an obsessed Welsh Twitter weirdo – you hate it. If you’re not either of those things, you’ve got to admire O’Mahony’s problem-solving ability under pressure and against the ticking of the clock.

To understand the end game to this one, you’ve got to first understand the context. Glasgow were defending a two-point lead while in possession of the ball for the last 5 minutes of the game.

Prior to winning a penalty for a high shot in the 76th minute, Glasgow were playing “keep ball” with good width and tempo in a very conventional way.

The resulting penalty went down the line where an overthrow was spilt by CJ Stander – scrum Glasgow with 78 minutes on the clock.

From here, Glasgow’s job would be simple – get the ball out of the scrum, hang onto the ball for two minutes and then kick it into the stands for a 5-1 bonus point win.

Ideally, you wouldn’t want to have a scrum in this scenario because it means you have to retain possession for at least 3 or 4 phases while your forwards reset post-engagement.

A lineout you can maul for a bit, box kick, chase and align and then see out the game defending the opposition in their half of the field but a scrum?

Much tougher to kick from in a way that you can work with while protecting a lead. In these situations, I’d normally prefer to not have the ball because of the risk and reward nature of how the game is refereed. But Glasgow having the put-in to the scrum made it so that they would have to keep possession.

From Munster’s perspective, they had to win possession back but faced a near impossible job with Glasgow pre-binding and pre-building rucks.

So what do you do? The first thing you have to do is narrow your defensive line and aim your tackles low and at the ball to try and force a spill in possession.

Glasasdsdgow were taking the ball less than 5m away from the previous ruck to reduce the chance of a passing or handling error and then twisting their body away from the incoming tackle to stop Munster from ripping the ball or forcing a spill.

Munster then began to try to target the “pre-build” as much as possible. Stander would attack the ball carrier while Holland targeted the leg of the latched player to take him off his feet before the ball hits the deck so O’Mahony could try to attack the ball before a ruck is formed. It didn’t work.

Munster would have to change tack. Glasgow’s pre-binding was making it almost impossible to win the race to the breakdown so Munster couldn’t steal the ball before the ruck was formed. The pre-build would have to be attacked.

Initially, we tried to separate the ball carrier from the latchers by pulling him out of the pod. We could attack the guy on the floor or, as is more likely, make the latchers fly off their feet to protect the briefly isolated player in an obvious manner that wins a penalty for Munster.

Glasgow did that here but, again, most refs won’t call that penalty with a minute left in the context of the game as it was at this point.

Time was running out. The Dark Lord. A few phases later, Glasgow could see the end. Just one more phase and they could kick the ball out, knock it on, whatever – it would be all over. Peter O’Mahony had other ideas.

Pulling the carrier out of the pod just wasn’t going to work. Glasgow weren’t going to have a sealing off penalty called on them at this late stage of the game so the pre-build would have to be attacked before it hit the deck.

Stander would have to hit the ball carrier and then make sure that he sheared off the latcher too. He started his run up with his body at an angle to sell the double contact. He hit the ball carrier first and then powered through on Gibbins with enough force to dislodge him.

That presented Peter O’Mahony with the opportunity he’d been waiting for – an isolated ball carrier and half a second to work with.

O’Mahony gets over the ball carrier and into position. This is the key part of the jackal turnover. You’re presenting the picture to the referee that you are finally competing for the ball on a ruck that wasn’t pre-built.

You are also challenging the ref to uphold the risk/reward part of trying to close a game out like this as long as you survive the clean out long enough to satisfy him.

O’Mahony got the reward for his in-the-moment thinking under pressure and for Stander’s brick wall physicality and skullduggery in defence. It was beautiful. Glasgow ran the risk of closing a game like this and lost.

Big players make big plays in big games to win big rewards. That’s exactly what O’Mahony’s Dark Lord mastery of the wicked arts won for Munster – a chance for Rory Scannell to win the game.