Battling Munster bag vital bonus point

FIVE tries, four of them deliciously created, produced the all-important bonus point for Munster in the somewhat surreal surroundings of Thomond Park yesterday.

There is still a long, hard road to travel in Pool 5 of the Heineken Cup and coach Declan Kidney readily accepts that there are several areas of the side where considerable improvement is essential.

Clermont Auvergne picked a strange team yesterday, but they were never going to do a Bourgoin on it. They competed for everything and it was only in the final ten minutes that the fourth try was conceded. They were even thinking there might be something in the game for themselves, until that late surge brought tries for Alan Quinlan and Marcus Horan.