No rustiness as Conor Murray makes winning return against Zebre

[team1]Zebre[/team1][score1]7[/score1][team2]Munster[/team2][score2]32[/score2][/score]

Conor Murray hit the ground running in his first game since June as Munster cruised to a bonus point win over Zebre at Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi.

The British & Irish Lions scrum-half last featured for Munster against Leinster in the PRO14 semi-final in May. The subsequent neck injury he picked up on Ireland’s summer tour to Australia meant he wouldn’t play until the 51st minute in Parma.

Murray and Chris Farrell were introduced after tries from Fineen Wycherley and Kevin O’Byrne helped the vistors to a 17-0 half-time, but when Renato Giammarioli scored it looked like Munster could have been in trouble. However, Murray was inspirational late on and he played a part in Ronan O’Mahony and Rory Scannell’s tries.

Munster need to win to go back ahead of Connacht in the standings, and their sixth PRO14 win of the season means they stay in the hunt, eight points behind Glasgow Warriors.

Alex Wootton almost scored in the 14th minute but he knocked on and the play was brought back for a penalty which Bill Johnston, a late replacement for JJ Hanrahan, kicked to the corner.

O’Byrne found Botha, the Munster hooker was involved twice and came up short of the line, before Wycherley scored under the posts. Johnston tapped over the extras and Munster were 7-0 up after 17 minutes.

Munster came again on the half-hour and Botha showed his power to burst through, Jeremy Loughman took the ball on further, Cronin passed to Mike Haley and his quick hands left O’Byrne with a chance, he drove to line to score. Johnston added the difficult conversion.

That score gave Munster a 14-0 lead and Johnston scored a huge kick from near the halfway line for a 17-0 half-time lead.

Murray and Farrell came on to add an extra zip to Munster’s play after half-time but it was Zebre who had more territory and their hard work was rewarded when Giammarioli dived over to score. Zebre then trailed by 10 (17-7) but Munster forced a penalty for offside. Scannell stepped up to score and that pushed them out of sight with ten minutes remaining. Murray was influential again when O’Mahony scored his try in the 73rd minute. And with just one minute left Murray’s pass put Scannell through for the bonus point try.

Scorers for Zebre: Try: R Giammarioli; Conversion: F Brummer.

Scorers for Munster: Tries: F Wycherley, K O’Byrne, R O’Mahony, R Scannell; Conversions: B Johnston (2), Scannell; Penalty: B Johnston, Scannell.

ZEBRE: G Di Giulio; P Balekana, G Bisegni, T Boni, J Elliott; F Brummer, R Raffaele; C Ah-Nau, M Ceciliani, D Chistolini; L Krumov, D Sisi; J Tuivaiti, M Mbandà, G Licata.

Replacements: E Bello for Chistolini (15), Chistolini for Bello (25), R Giammarioli for Tuivaiti (25), J Renton for Raffaele (32, blood), C Canna for Di Giulio (32), G Biagi for Mbandà (40), Mbandà for Biagi (49), O Fabiani for Ceciliani (54), D Rimpelli for Ah-Nau (54), Bello for Chistolini (54), Ceciliani for Fabiani (57), Fabiani for Ceciliani (65), Biagi for Giammarioli (73).

MUNSTER: M Haley; R O’Mahony; R Scannell, T Bleyendaal A Wootton; B Johnston, N Cronin; J Loughman, K O’Byrne, S Archer; F Wycherley, D O’Shea; G Coombes, C Cloete, A Botha.

Replacements: C Murray for Cronin (51), C Farrell for Johnston (51), C Parker for Archer (55), C Oliver for Cloete (59), Archer for Parker (65), S O’Connor for O’Shea (65), B Scott for Loughman (70), M Sherry for O’Byrne (70), J Taute for Wootton (73).

Referee: Sam Grove-White (Scotland).