Munster beat Clermont Auvergne 23-13 in a pulsating Heineken Cup Pool 1 clash at Thomond Park.
The defending champions conjured a late flourish to prevent a second successive defeat at the hands of the formidable French Top 14 side and remain on course for the quarter-finals. Trailing by two points with only a couple of minutes on the clock the hosts snatched victory thanks to tries from Marcus Horan and Niall Ronan. Fly-half Ronan O'Gara set the seal on the night with a conversion that saw him become the first player to score 1,000 points in the tournament.
From the first whistle it was clear that Clermont Auvergne were intent on spoiling the party and despite missing captain Aurelien Rougerie (jaw) and prop Thomas Domingo (shoulder) they dominated the early exchanges.
Showing early abrasion and dominating territory, Vern Cotter's men settled quickly with Pierre Mignoni and Brock James combining well behind an athletic pack. Munster took 12 minutes to get close to the Clermont 22 and O'Gara uncharacteristically missed his first shot at the posts, firing his 13th-minute penalty wide on the left.
The tension was obvious and it spilled over six minutes later when Clermont lock Jamie Cudmore threw a succession of punches at Paul O'Connell and the Munster captain, after initially drawing the touch judge's attention to the incident, sought retribution. O'Connell saw yellow for using his fists while a clearly-ruffled Cudmore, who clashed in the aftermath with Donncha O'Callaghan, was sent off by referee Chris White.
Cotter's charges faced playing three-quarters of the match with 14 men but, although O'Gara was successful with the resulting penalty, Munster gave away a cheap three points off the restart, which James added his name to. Using their numerical advantage, Munster began to find more space and a superb counter attack from Keith Earls ended with Doug Howlett being hauled down only metres from the whitewash.
O'Gara kicked Munster into a 6-3 lead with his second penalty but Clermont continued to look dangerous. A thumping Marius Joubert tackle produced a turnover and, but for a knock-on, Julien Malzieu would have been in open country. However, Munster wrestled back the advantage and grabbed a timely try just before half-time.
No.8 David Wallace, supported by Alan Quinlan off a close-range ruck, powered forward through three tackles to make the line and send the Irishmen into a 11-3 lead, with O'Gara failing to convert. Determined to take the champions' scalp, Clermont Auvergne made a strong start to the second half with their seven-man pack producing some heroics.
The French outfit starved Munster of possession and the hosts were spun into a slump, akin to the one that proved costly for them in last weekend's 25-19 loss at Stade Marcel Michelin. James punished a Quinlan indiscretion with his second successful penalty and nerves jangled as both kickers missed penalty shots coming up to the hour.
Right on cue, deadly finisher Malzieu threw a spanner in the works. The Clermont winger blazed a trail down the left touchline and got over in the corner, after fending off both Barry Murphy and Earls. James curled his conversion over for a 13-11 scoreline and Munster were staring at a rare European defeat on their home patch.
Napolioni Vonowale Nalaga barged his way forward and chased his own kick down, which could have led to a second Clermont try, but replacement Paul Warwick came to Munster's rescue. Then, in a thrilling finish, Munster showed just why they are in the running for their third European title in four years.
Tony McGahan's side needed a late O'Gara kick to see off Montauban in October but they bettered that here with a fantastic two-try comeback. Inspired by sprightly replacement Peter Stringer and the lung-busting work of O'Connell, Munster spread the ball out to the right wing where a flicked pass from Lifeimi Mafi helped Horan burrow over past Mario Ledesma.
Television match official Graham Hughes confirmed the grounding but O'Gara pulled his conversion attempt. There was more drama to come as only a minute from the finish, flanker Ronan spotted a mismatch with Davit Zirakashvili, chipped over the top and beat the prop for pace to score to the left of the posts.
O'Gara's conversion from wide out was good, taking his impressive European haul to 1,001 points and completing a fine comeback.
Paul O'Connell was delighted to see his side come through another stern test of their credentials. "That's probably the closest we've come to going out," O'Connell admitted. Clermont are an excellent side. I thought they played excellently today and excellently last week. Maybe we let them play a little bit but they're a very good side.
"We're very happy to get out of there with a win. We knew they'd come out strong like they last week. They've some fabulous players but they also play with a lot of heart as well. You could see that today. They've a bit of both, very similar to ourselves. They play a very good game and they play with heart. We'd no doubt about today and how tough it was going to be. I wish it wouldn't have been as tight as that but we're delighted to get the win.
"We found it hard to get territory and we found it hard to get our hands on the ball. I don't know how many lineouts we had in the second half - we didn't seem to have that many. Then when we did have possession, we made a few little errors. The ball was so precious in the second half, we didn't want to be letting that happen. We needed to hold onto the ball, make them defend a little bit like they were doing to us but unfortunately we didn't do that."
O'Connell was also at the centre of the first half's most controversial moment. "I saw him (Cudmore) going for Jerry (Flannery) on the ground, so I went to grab him, and pull him off Jerry. I think he had three punches in on me before I knew it. That's it, but we've kissed and made up already! These things happen. They're a team that play with a lot of heart and passion and these things will happen in rugby matches.
"I've a lot of respect for them, the way they played today and the way they played in the last few weeks and I'm looking forward to their performance against Sale."
Meanwhile, Clermont Auvergne coach Vern Cotter said he was proud of his side despite their late capitulation. "I don't think the players got a just reward after putting in some good footie for 60-odd minutes with one player down," said Cotter. "I'm disappointed for them really. We just needed to have one more possession and keep it, and we probably could have sneaked away with a victory here. We didn't, so that's testament to Munster as well - they got the ball back and scored. The second try... well, I felt that one was difficult to swallow as well to be honest.
"All in all, it was a good arm-wrestle. In fact, it went past arm-wrestling at one stage and went to something else which cost us a player! We have to look at the positive side of that game. Teams like Munster help teams grow," he added.
"I'm sure we'll get over the initial disappointment and have a look at it analytically and see if we can improve certain parts of our game. We'll move forward again. There is a lot of emotion in the dressing room now but I need to look at the facts. We need to sit back and look at decisions.
"It wasn't just Brock James' (missed) drop at goal near the finish. There was another kick that went in-field as well. I need to look at the video to give a more analytical response, but from a coaching perspective, I'm disappointed for the players. I'm disappointed we didn't mange to control those last few minutes."
Cotter also said his initial reaction was that the sending-off of Canadian international Cudmore was an unbalanced decision.
"I will have to look at footage. Obviously everyone thought the game was over when we had to play against 15 having only 14 on the paddock. Perhaps the Munster players thought the game was over as well - credit to our boys, they came back into it.
"I always find it difficult when these decisions have such a big effect on a game, and the decision must be justified to have balance. I thought the red card and yellow card was a fairly imbalanced decision. We need to look at footage and be objective about it."
Munster: K Earls; D Howlett, B Murphy, L Mafi, I Dowling; R O'Gara, T O'Leary; M Horan, J Flannery, J Hayes, D O'Callaghan, P O'Connell [capt], A Quinlan, N Ronan, D Wallace
Replacements: D Fogarty, T Buckley, D Ryan, J Coughlan, P Stringer, P Warwick, K Lewis
ASM Clermont Auvergne: A Floch; J Malzieu, M Joubert, B Baby, N Vonowale Nalaga; B James, P Mignoni; L Emmanuelli, B Cabello, J Roux, J Cudmore, T Privat, J Bonnaire, A Audebert, E Vermeulen [capt]
Replacements: M Ledesma, D Zirakashvili, C Samson, E Etien, J Senio, S Bai, G Esterhuizen
Referee: Chris White (England)
Attendance: 25,623
