WATCH: Dogged Munster hold on for 30-26 BP win over Cheethas

A far from perfect Munster side held out for a narrow Guinness Pro14 win in Bloemfontein, pipping the Cheetahs 30-26 in Conference A.

Five minutes into the second half and it looked as if Munster had total control of the game when Gavin Coombes crossed for their 3rd try of the afternoon following first half efforts form Arno Botha and Kevin O’Byrne.

The Cheetahs however bounced back and hit what had become a somewhat disjointed Munster with three tries in a blistering 11-minute spell. Munster needed a score to settle nerves and Mike Haley duly obliged cutting a nice line through the home defence on 69 minutes to make it 27-26.

It looked as if it would be a three point game but a poor conversion attempt – from an angle that Ian Keatley would have expected to convert from – would mean that the hosts were within a penalty of retaking the lead. 

The crucial penalty would go in favour of Munster and for the second weekend in a row Rory Scannell stepped up to strike a huge long range effort to make it 30-26 to Munster.

The Cheetahs weren’t done and one last penalty presented them with a five metre lineout. Some excellent maul defence from Munster forced a knock on and saw Munster came away with all five points to move into second place behind Glasgow Warriors.