Ronan O’Gara showed off his full array of kicking skills to put the boot into Llanelli as Munster came up with an epic away win in the first round of the Celtic League. Not normally a difficult task for the Scarlets at their beloved Stradey Park home, but this was no ordinary challenge. The last time Munster had been in Wales was for the Heineken Cup final and they quickly showed why they have been a permanent fixture among Europe’s top sides over the past three years.It was very much a case of the old routine for the mighty men of Munster, even though new skipper Jim Williams was ruled out at the 11th hour and there no was no Peter Clohessy. Gone, but not forgotten, the spirit of “The Claw” lives on in the Munster pack.As befitting a game billed as the match of the day on the opening weekend of the season in Europe, the forward exchanges were ferocious, the skill levels high for this time of season and the tackling tenacious.Little separated the teams, and while the Munster attack created a few openings around the Llanelli midfield, the home side’s ball carriers found it almost impossible to bypass the red shirts.Predictably then, in such a close contest, it came down to the goal-kicking skills of the two international marksmen.

Ireland’s Ronan O’Gara hit the mark with three kicks in the first half, while Wales’ Stephen Jones had two out of two, one from 52 metres.O’Gara kicked another penalty at the start of the second half to increase his side’s lead before Llanelli squandered a golden opportunity to grab the game’s first try. Right wing Mark Jones was the guilty man, dropping an inch-perfect box kick from Guy Easterby 20 metres out with no one ahead of him. And just as O’Gara had punished the Scarlets for failing to take an earlier try chance that fell to Wayne Proctor, so he did with Jones’s opportunity by landing his fifth goal, this time from 35 metres.Llanelli threw on their Wales scrum-half Dwayne Peel as they looked for inspiration and he soon injected some life. Replacements: J Davies, M Thomas, B Griffiths, D Jones, G Bowen, B Davies.Munster: D Crotty (J Staunton); J Kelly, M Mullins, R Henderson, M Lawlor; R O’Gara, P Stringer; M Horan, J Blaney, J Hayes, D O’Callaghan, M O’Driscoll, E Halvey (C McMahon, 72), A Foley (capt), A Quinlan. Replacements: J Fogarty, S Kerr, M Galwey, C McMahon, D Malone, J Holland, J Staunton.Referee: R Dixon (Scotland)..

For an athlete whose sporting activity in the spring extended to nothing more arduous than dominoes, Gustavo Kuerten has certainly turned things round. Following his straight-sets thrashing of the 2000 champion, Marat Safin, in the second round at the US Open, the 25-year-old Brazilian is being hailed in New York this weekend as an unseeded dark horse who could gallop off with the title. The 6-4 6-4 7-5 dismissal of the second-seeded Safin was only Kuerten’s 14th win (against 10 defeats) in a year severely abbreviated by the hip operation he underwent in February, but it demonstrated that “Guga”, three times a winner of the French Open, is back.”This is my happiest day of the year,” said Kuerten, smiling of course “This has given me my confidence back. I was expecting tough situations this year, I knew it would be like this, so I tried to prepare myself better for bigger tournaments like the French and this one.” But, he revealed, it was his first-round match which had worried him more. Julien Boutter outlasted Guga over five sets in the first round of the Australian Open in January and, until he saw off the Frenchman in four sets at Flushing Meadows last Tuesday, Kuerten had never beaten him.That loss in Australia, rapidly followed by another first-round exit in Buenos Aires, persuaded Kuerten that a persistent hip problem needed addressing. “I was in the best stage of my career and suddenly this injury started to bother me.