Italian job proves a soft touch for Munster

A half empty stadium didn’t help create the perfect atmosphere for this Magners League clash with weakened Benetton Treviso last night, but Munster made the best of it and the Thomond Park faithful responded positively to an effort that could best be described as solid and workmanlike.

Although this was never quite perfection, Munster produced some moments of magic, not least when creating and scoring the fourth try that gave them a bonus point to help enhance their lead at the top of the table. The fifth, at the death, wasn’t half bad either.

With a powerful scrum and a mostly dominant lineout – although they did cough up two of their own throws early on – Munster proved too strong for the feisty Italians and the visitors paid the price for scrum time deficiencies when loose head prop Franco Sbaraglini (yellow card) fell foul of referee David Jones midway through the first-half.