Bok bonus boosts Munster

JEAN de VILLIERS silenced his critics for the second time in six days when crashing over in the last minute to score Munster’s bonus- point try in their 35-3 Magners League victory over Connacht at Thomond Park on Saturday night, a win that puts them within touching distance of the leaders going into the new year.

The big Springbok centre had earlier punched the holes for the third try by Paul Warwick and generally performed with a style and vigour that indicated he has settled into the Munster way.

Despite Ronan O’Gara and Denis Hurley being the only starting members of the side that demolished Perpignan the previous weekend, Munster quickly clicked into their pattern with several youngsters like Felix Jones, Tom Gleeson, Damien Varley and Billy Holland among those keen to make a statement to coach Tony McGahan.

Jones had the misfortune to clash heads with an opponent on the quarter hour and had to be stretchered off. This prompted the arrival of Warwick who went on to display his wide array of talents. Initially he slotted in at full-back and for the entire second half at out-half, Ronan O’Gara having departed after again demonstrating his goal-kicking is back to its best.

This Munster team was a nice blend of youth and experience with Denis Hurley, Ian Dowling, Peter Stringer and Mick O’Driscoll all in tremendous form and always there to support the younger members of the side.

They were helped by the fact that Connacht coach Michael Bradley chose to rest many of his key players after their Amlin Challenge Cup heroics. He just doesn’t have the strength -in-depth to get away with that against a team like Munster and a sweeping home victory was always inevitable, even if the visitors gained credit marks for their earnest endeavour.

O’Gara showed the way with a cracking penalty from 45 metres on nine minutes and then a powerful forward drive, in which Nick Williams played a key role, ended with a now familiar and brilliant skip pass by Warwick that sent Ian Dowling over in the corner. O’Gara converted brilliantly before landing another beauty, this time from 50 metres.

Varley then got the touchdown after a powerful Munster maul, O’Gara tapped over the conversion and a very impressive 40 minutes ended with the scoreline 20-3 in Munster’s favour.

The bonus points looked a formality, but a combination of complacency, poor finishing and Connacht resistance frustrated the home side until the final ten minutes when Warwick and de Villiers struck.

“I was pleased with our effort and control in the first half but the first 30 minutes of the second half left a little to be desired, especially at the breakdown,” accepted Tony McGahan.

“Then we got some shape back to hold on to the ball and get a few well worked tries. You can’t play the same pool of players every week when there’s such a big group. You need to provide opportunities for the squad to shine. I thought we did that well last year and certainly have plenty of faith in what they are doing. But it is difficult to gel straightaway.”

Munster’s next outing is on Saturday against Ulster at Ravenhill.

McGahan’s squad won’t be changed to any appreciable extent whereas Ulster are understood to be targeting this as a must-win game. However, as Paul Warwick pointed out, Munster haven’t given up on a favourable result.

“It was important to get the bonus point once we had a good first-half against Connacht,” he pointed out. “We haven’t played well in the league but we’re only two or three points off the top of the league and I think that’s a pretty good place to be.

“We’ve been guilty of going into our shell and making a lot of errors and probably being intimidated up in Ravenhill and, hopefully, now we have the ball rolling again, we can end that and really give it to Ulster next week.”

MUNSTER: F Jones; D Hurley, T Gleeson, J de Villiers, I Dowling; R O’Gara (capt), P Stringer;J Brugnaut, D Varley, T Buckley; M O’Driscoll,D Ryan; B Holland, N Ronan, N Williams.

Replacements: P Warwick for Jones, 15; S Deasy for O’Gara, ht; J Coughlan & T O’Donnell for Williams & Holland, 63; D Williams for Stringer, 72; M Sherry for Varley, 76.

CONNACHT: G Duffy (capt); T Nathan, N Ta’auso, K Matthews, L Bibo; M Nikora, C O’Loughlin; B Wilkinson, A Flavin, J Hagan; M Swift, B Upton; M McComish, J O’Connor, G Naoupu.

Replacements: I Keatley for Niakora, 37; R Loughney for Wilkinson; A Browne for Upton, both ht; D Murphy for Flavin, 49; K Campbell for O’Loughlin, 65.

Referee: A Rolland (IRFU).