Young Munster still alive in Division One

Buccaneers 0 Young Munster 18

Young Munster still have a chance of staying up in Division One and performing a final-day Houdini act following this deserved win over Buccaneers at Dubarry Park today.

Second-from-bottom Munsters drew Buccs back into the relegation mire as tries in either half from Clem Casey and Mark McHugh saw the visitors take the spoils.

All of this means that Young Munster now have 19 points and UCD and Buccs above them have 22 each.

Incredibly, Munsters’ final game of their first season back in the top flight is away to UCD next Saturday, so effectively it is a relegation play-off.

Even still, Buccs will need to get something from their final game at home to Old Belvedere to maintain their Division One status.

After a dull opening quarter, during which both sides struggled to put together an attacking platform, Young Munster hit the front on 27 minutes when lively centre Casey slipped past two defenders after Buccs had been caught in possession.

Munsters' full-back Mark Connolly, who had earlier been sin-binned, added a penalty on 38 minutes.

The home side needed to seriously up the tempo, but they had a frustrating end to the first half. Back rower Kieran O’Gorman was sin-binned for deliberately going offside at a ruck and Connolly kicked the resulting penalty to make it 11-0 at half-time.

As the game wore on, scrum half Mike Prendergast and number 8 McHugh really stood out for Munsters as game-breakers.

McHugh scored a cracking try and picked up the man-of-the-match award for an abrasive display. Connolly converted and although he missed a late penalty, there was no sign of any comeback from the midlanders.

Scorers:

Young Munster: Tries: Clem Casey, Mark McHugh; Con: Mark Connolly; Pens: Mark Connolly 2.