Munster win with far from vintage display

Munster 33 Zebre 5: Munster coach Johann van Graan accurately summed up the view of the majority of Saturday night’s sparse Thomond Park attendance when he commented that “this won’t go down as the greatest game in the history of Munster”.

But then he added: “We came out firstly with the win and we are happy with the five points, most importantly had no serious injuries and two guys got their first caps with Munster.”

One of the duo van Graan referred to was fellow South African Gerbrandt Grobler, who served a two-year ban following a positive test for performance-enhancing drugs earlier in his career.