Electric Earls slays Dragons

MUNSTER surged to third spot in the Magners League with a facile victory over hapless Newport Gwent Dragons at Musgrave Park last night.

The European champions ran in seven tries when the sides met in Cork last November and they repeated that feat last night.

But as the satisfied home fans made their way home after watching Munster secure a bonus point and force their way into third place with a game in hand over joint leaders Llanelli and Ospreys, the talk was mainly about the brightest new kid on the block — Keith Earls.

Leinster’s Luke Fitzgerald helped crush Edinburgh on Friday with a hat trick one day short of his 21st birthday and Earls did likewise last night with a couple of weeks to spare before he comes of age.

Impressed former skipper Anthony Foley declared: “This could be just the start of the Keith Earls story.”

Earls’ try tally last night brought his total to seven for the season in four games. He has scored in every game so far — against USA , London Irish, Edinburgh and now Dragons.

Foley elaborated. “He’s a guy who has waited a while to get a decent run of games; he has got his chance now and has certainly taken it; he has answered a lot of questions and hopefully he can kick on from here and go on to greater things.”

Foley was happy with the Munster performance: “The conditions were greasy and some of the handling was exceptional, the boys took their scores very well and the defence was well organised.”

Yet, there were areas where Munster can improve, and captain Mick O’Driscoll conceded that the line out is one: “Our line-out was always an area where we liked to think we could dominate opponents. It didn’t go particularly well for us this evening and I would concede that we haven’t been as strong there as we used to be. Certainly, we will have to do a lot of hard work to get an improvement there,” he said.

The standard varied between brilliant, good and poor, but Munster , when they got going, were a class apart and Dragons coach Paul Turner admitted as much.

“It was always a struggle to keep up with them but I thought we did so fairly well for long spells. Still, when they get into their stride, they’re a very hard team to cope with; they play it fast, furious and with a lot of skill as well as with that traditional Munster passion. Some of their tries were spectacular to be honest,” he said.

For 20 minutes, this was a poor game. With little possession, Munster had to rely on defence although they comfortably absorbed the best an average Gwent Dragons side could muster.

Leading 7-3, and fortunate enough to be in that position, Munster cut loose with two tries of high quality to push the advantage out to 19-3.

James Arlidge kicked an early penalty for the visitors before they conceded a sixth minute try to Earls. The score came after good work from David Wallace, Lifeimi Mafi and Ian Dowling, but even as Paul Warwick lined up for a successful conversion, it was clear from television replays that the last pass to Earls had been forward.

But there was no doubt about the legitimacy of the next two scores, nor of the quality.

Warwick floated a high ball out of defence for Dowling midway through the half and seconds later, after Barry Murphy, Mafi and Mick O’Driscoll handled, the out half scampered over at the posts for a try he converted himself.

Munster went over for the third try two minutes later, with Doug Howlett and Mafi creating the space for Earls to carry out an audacious raid that yielded him a remarkable try.

Arlidge settled for a 46th minute penalty after it became clear that Munster had no intentions of conceding a try, but it was small consolation to the visitors.

Ten minutes later, Mafi shaped up to make a break in midfield but instead let Earls take charge. The youngster took one look, shifted left and then right before speeding away for his third try, converted by Warwick, to secure the bonus point for Munster .

Warwick stretched the Munster lead to 29-6 with a penalty and then exploded into action when he was up to support John O’Sullivan who paved the way for the score to which he also added the points.

Munster hadn’t enough at that and Howlett went in twice in the last couple of minutes for more beautifully created and executed tries that Warwick converted to bring Munster into the half century zone.

Munster Scorers: Tries, Earls (3), Howlett (2), Warwick (2), Conversions, Warwick (6). Penalty, Warwick (1)

MUNSTER: K. Earls, D. Howlett, B. Murphy, L. Mafi, I. Dowling, P. Warwick, T. O’Leary, M. Horan, F. Sheahan, F. Pucciariello, D. O’Callaghan, M. O’Driscoll (captain), D. Ryan, D. Wallace, J. O’Sullivan.

Replacements: J. Melck for Wallace (55), P. Stringer for O’Leary (58), D. Hurley for Dowling (63), J. Flannery for J. O’Sullivan (70), D. Hurley for Horan (70)

Scorers for Dragons: Penalties. J. Arlidge (2)

DRAGONS: J. Arlidge, R. Sidey, R. Gomer-Davis, R Fussell, T. Selley, S. Connor, W. Evans, H. Gustafson, T. Willis (captain), R. Thomas, A. Jones, L. Charteris, D. Lydiate, G. Webb, J. Ringer.

Replacements: G. Wyatt for Selley (58), G. Robinson for Thomas, R. Lewis for Evans, S. Jones for Williams (all 60), J. Bearman for Webb, A. Brown for Lydiate, R. Parks for Jones.

Referee: N. Owens (Wales).