Glasgow Warriors upset the odds to beat defending champions Munster 17-10 at their Thomond Park fortress to reach their first BKT United Rugby Championship final since 2019.
The Warriors will play the Vodacom Bulls in Pretoria in next Saturday’s title decider, having boxed clever after losing two players to the sin bin and making the most of limited scoring opportunities to stun a Munster side on a 10-match winning streak.
Warriors captain Kyle Steyn’s opportunistic 23rd-minute try came when team-mate Richie Gray was in the bin while Matt Fagerson also saw yellow but the visitors still led 7-3 at half-time, with Munster’s response coming from a lone Jack Crowley penalty.
Despite having 63 per cent possession and 71 per cent territory during the first half, a try eluded the Irish province and they fell further behind when Sebastian Cancelliere surged over in the 50th minute to make it 14-3.
Antoine Frisch pulled back seven points with a converted try, but the hosts had Alex Nankivell red carded and George Horne’s resulting 74th-minute penalty kick proved enough for the Scottish side.
A visibly-devastated Munster Head Coach Graham Rowntree rued missed chances when speaking to Premier Sports after the game:
“That’s going to sting for a while. You have to take your chances at this level and we didn’t do that well enough.
We weren’t accurate enough and looked like we were trying to force it at times. I’m proud of the team this season and it feels cruel but that’s sport.”
With a nod towards the retiring Simon Zebo amongst others, Rowntree reflected on not giving them the send-off they deserved:
“There’s a few guys moving on and we it’s not the way they deserved to go out. To get ourselves a home semi-final after a wonderful season and then not make the most of it will hurt for a while.”