Saracens' dreams of reaching the Heineken Cup final were wrecked in agonising fashion at Coventry's Ricoh Arena this afternoon as Munster edged to a nail-biting 16-18 victory.

There was plenty of blood, sweat and, in the end, tears from the Men in Black as they more than held their own against the 2006 winners in a fascinating battle.

Munster bounced back from Kameli Ratuvou's early try for Sarries with the superb Ronan O'Gara and Alan Quinlan crossing to give the Irishmen a 7-15 lead.

However, three second half penalties from Glen Jackson sandwiched around O'Gara's second kept Alan Gaffney's brave troops in the hunt but Munster rode a late storm to book their place in yet another European Cup final, this time against Toulouse in Cardiff on May 24.

Sarries flew out of the traps and took the lead from a sublime end-to-end move. Jackson's cute grubber kick down the left touchline was superbly read by Ratuvou, who set Neil de Kock away on the charge. The Sarries skipper off-loaded for Adam Powell to hare through the middle but the young centre was stopped inches from the line after running out of steam.

However, Sarries kept their focus and Ratuvou finished the move by barging over to the right of the posts. Jackson converted to send Sarries' legion of fans behind the posts into raptures.

Munster came storming back, however, and Ian Dowling thought he had scored only for referee Nigel Owens to cut short his celebrations after spotting Lifeimi Mafi's foward pass. Play was brought back for an earlier infringement and O'Gara slotted over the penalty.

Sarries were doing their best to unsettle Munster at every opportunity with some ferocious tackling and it appeared to be having the desired effect as Mafi butchered a three man overlap down the nearside touchline before a knock-on added insult to injury.

However, Munster kept on pounding at Sarries' door and edged ahead after 25 minutes when O'Gara galloped through a huge hole in midfield seven metres out to cross under the posts. The Ireland fly-half then somehow missed his conversion which required confirmation from the TMO, Derek Bevan.

It was pretty much nip and tuck thereafter with both defences coming out on top, although Sarries suffered a blow when number eight Ben Skirving limped off with Tom Ryder coming on.

However, the Men in Black suffered a much bigger setback on the stroke of half time. A dazzling run by Munster's All Black wing Doug Howlett saw flanker Alan Quinlan dart under the posts as Sarries were still resetting their defence. O'Gara made no mistake with the conversion this time, giving his side a 7-15 lead at the break.

Jackson reduced the gap with his first penalty four minutes in the second half as the heavens opened, making for treacherous conditions. Indeed, Paul Gustard showed how greasy the ball had become by allowing it to squirm out of his grasp and gift Munster possession on halfway.

A great break by David Wallace then took play to with five metres of Sarries' try line but the defence once again held firm with old warhorse Richard Hill repelling everything Munster threw at him.

Some powerful running by Ratuvou then put Sarries on the front foot but they ended up settling for another successful Jackson kick after Munster centre Rua Tipoki was sin-binned for not rolling away in the tackle.

Sarries prop Nick Lloyd joined him in the cooler minutes later after playing a central role in some heated exchanges on the far side. O'Gara pulled his penalty wide but things got worse for Sarries when Cencus Johnston, on for Cobus Visagie, saw yellow for not rolling away.

No props meant uncontested scrums before Jackson's third penalty after Munster were caught offside at a line-out on 72 minutes set up a fascinating finish.

Sarries probed but Munster were now succeeding in cutting off the supply to the wings with both Powell and Kevin Sorrell dropping the ball under intense pressure.

Moses Rauluni replaced the injured de Kock with just minutes left but could not mastermind one final push for his side.

Saracens: Haughton, Leonelli, Sorrell, Powell, Ratuvou, Jackson, de Kock (cpt); Lloyd, Cairns, Visagie, Vyvyan, Chesney, Gustard, Hill, Skirving.

Replacements: Ryder for Skirving, 33; Johnston for Visagie, 47; Rauluni for de Kock, 78.

Attendance: 30,325.

Referee: Nigel Owens.

Scoring sequence: 5-0/7-0/7-3/7-8/7-13/7-15 HT/10-15/13-15/13-18/16-18

4:49pm Sunday 27th April 2008

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