Munster leave it late

Munster scored two late tries to claim a 23-13 victory over 14-man Clermont Auvergne at Thomond Park.

Marcus Horan and Niall Ronan both touched down in the final five minutes to turn a two-point deficit into a crucial win for their hopes of progressing from Pool One of the Heineken Cup.

Clermont had lock Jamie Cudmore sent off for punching in the 18th minute and fell 11-3 down by half-time due to two Ronan O'Gara penalties and David Wallace's 38th-minute try.

But the reliable boot of Brock James, who had scored all their points in last week's 25-19 win against the same opponents over in France, and a 60th-minute try from Julien Malizieu moved Clermont into a deserved 13-11 lead.

And they looked set to hold on for the win until Horan and Ronan made their late interventions.

Cudmore sees red

The game, which had initially been an uninspiring kicking festival, exploded into life on 18 minutes when a punch-up broke out at the ruck.

Clermont's Canadian international lock Cudmore and his opposite number Paul O'Connell - the Munster skipper - were the most obvious culprits, the pair raining blows at each other right in front of referee Chris White.

White consulted his touch judge, who also had a prime view of events, before issuing a red card to Cudmore and yellow to O'Connell, a fair decision given that Cudmore had sparked the duo's furious disagreement.

O'Gara slotted the subsequent penalty, although James brought Clermont level just a minute later with a three-pointer of his own.

Another penalty in the 25th minute allowed O'Gara to edge Munster back in front and move his career Heineken Cup tally to 999 points.

Once O'Connell returned from his enforced 10-minute absence to restore the Irish province to their full complement, they began to take control.

The opening try arrived from a familiar source just before half-time when number eight Wallace powered over from short range following several forward-dominated phases.

O'Gara missed the conversion so the hosts went to the break with an 11-3 lead.

Turnaround

It was all very different after the interval as Clermont made light of their numerical disadvantage to dominate proceedings.

James landed a 50th-minute penalty to reduce his team's deficit to 11-6 and they moved ahead 10 minutes later with Malzieu's powerful finish in the left corner.

After the ball had been spun wide across the field, the winger handed off Barry Murphy and resisted Keith Earls' attempted tackle on his way to the line. James' touchline conversion put Clermont 13-11 in front.

Munster struggled to find any inspiration as Clermont's intelligent kicking game kept them pinned in their own half and ran down the clock.

With just eight minutes remaining James sliced wide a prime drop goal chance for a five-point lead.

And they were made to pay when Munster, finally enjoying some field position, turned the game on its head with two tries in the closing stages.

Horan burrowed over in the right corner on 76 minutes from the sixth phase after Jerry Flannery and O'Connell had been stopped just short.

O'Gara missed the difficult coversion opportunity but it made little difference as, just three minutes later, Munster were in again.

Openside flanker Ronan spotted a mis-match against Clermont prop Davit Zirakashvili in the defensive line and exploited it perfectly with a pinpoint kick ahead, which he then easily won the foot race to touch down.

This time O'Gara was on target with the conversion to become the first player to 1,000 Heineken Cup points, the icing on a particularly tasty cake for the 26,000 inside Thomond Park.