Connacht get first win of season as Munster's stuttering start continues

JUBILANT: Connacht players Niall Murray and Jack Aungier, centre, celebrate their side's third try, scored by Paul Boyle, not pictured, during the United Rugby Championship match between Connacht and Munster at The Sportsground in Galway. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

CONNACHT 20 MUNSTER 11 

A Paul Boyle try two minutes from time handed Connacht their first victory of the season and consigned derby rivals Munster to a third defeat in four games of this BKT United Rugby Championship campaign on a torrid evening for the visitors at The Sportsground.

The westerners had returned home from a difficult opening schedule that had seen them lose at Ulster and then in South Africa to last season’s URC finalists, champions Stormers and then the Bulls but they christened their new 4G artificial pitch with a much-needed win to pile the pressure back onto Munster’s Graham Rowntree and his new coaching team.

Head coach Rowntree had celebrated his first win as boss six days earlier with a home win over Zebre Parma in Cork but the problems which had led to their opening defeats at Cardiff and Dragons had not disappeared and another faltering performance with ball in hand and at the breakdown continue to haunt these early days of the new regime.

Tries from Mack Hansen and Finlay Bealham laid the foundations for Connacht’s win either side of a Patrick Campbell try for the visitors before Boyle came off the bench to help deliver a hard-fought but deserved victory against a side that once again struggled to score after half-time.

That Munster went in to the half-time break with an 8-5 will have mystified Connacht’s passionate supporters after they had dominated the set-piece throughout the opening 40 minutes and taken an early 5-0 lead thanks to a Hansen try eight minutes in.

Two scrum penalties for the home side in the opening four minutes created the platform for the try, the resulting lineout on the right wing had Munster defending their line before Connacht captain Jack Carty, in his first appearance of the season following wrist surgery, sent a long pass wide to left wing Hansen to open the scoring.

The skipper struck an upright with his conversion attempt and a subsequent penalty in front of the sticks on 17 minutes hit the same post while Munster wasted a couple of opportunities having created openings, first Ben Healy mis-kicking what should have been a touch-finding penalty to send the ball dead and then right wing Conor Philips spilling a pass from a charging Gavin Coombes with open space in front of him.

Yet the visitors, though clearly not as cohesive as their hosts to continue their early-season handling woes, proved to be the more clinical of the derby rivals, scoring in their only two visits to the Connacht 22.

It all came together for Rowntree’s side in the 23rd minute as his pack got some previously unseen joy at scrum-time, with Healy this time finding touch on the right in the 19th minute. Munster launched their driving maul from the lineout and marched Connacht back 15 metres to their line from where, after a series of one-out carries, they went wide, sending a long pass out to the left wing where academy wing Campbell gathered above his head and flew over the try line.

Healy missed the conversion from out wide on the left but his team presented the fly-half with a more straightforward opportunity after their most fluent attack of the opening period, striking off a lineout that stemmed from a Tadhg Beirne jackal penalty turnover inside his own 22. 

This time the passes stuck through a series of hands to reach captain Peter O’Mahony on the left wing, whose deft chip inside was gathered by back-row partner Jack O’Donoghue. Munster were into the 22 thanks to a strong carry and offload off the deck from Dave Kilcoyne and when Carty was caught offside, Healy kicked his side into a three-point half-time lead a minute before the break.

A Healy penalty on 54 minutes broke the second-half deadlock and gave the visitors their first three points after half-time since the opening day of the season, yet they struggled to add further points, a lengthy spell of multi-phase possession ending after 19 phases when Jack O’Donoghue carried into contact inside the Connacht 22 and his breakdown support immediately going off their feet to waste another try-scoring opportunity.

That error was compounded when full-back Conor Fitzgerald sent a long kick from deep inside his half that tested the bounce of the new artificial surface and the juggling skills of defending wing Philips, who failed to keep the ball in play and handed the home side an excellent platform with a close-range lineout. It was not to be wasted, green shirts rampaging through red defenders at the tail of the lineout with the excellent Finlay Bealham grabbing the try that made it a one-point game.

Carty’s missed conversion, his fourth off-target kick in as many attempts denied Connacht the lead as Munster clung onto an 11-10 lead and the captain wisely handed over place-kicking duties to Fitzgerald, who made no mistake with a 62nd-minute penalty that did finally edge the home side back in front.

It made for an edgy final quarter and quite the introduction for Munster debutant, academy centre Fionn Gibbons as Connacht pushed for the victory their performance deserved. A goal line penalty for a home player off their feet got Munster off the hook with 10 minutes to go but they lost skipper Peter O’Mahony to injury and Connacht continued to lay siege to their tryline. Munster’s defences finally cracked with two minutes remaining as replacement back-rower Paul Boyle struck from close-range, Fitzgerald adding the conversion to deny Munster a losing bonus point.

CONNACHT: C Fitzgerald; J Porch, B Ralston, D Hawkshaw, M Hansen; J Carty – captain, K Marmion (C Reilly, 59); D Buckley (P Dooley, 50), D Heffernan, F Bealham (J Aungier, 59); G Thornbury, O Dowling (N Murray, 62); S Hurley-Langton (J Murphy, 50), C Oliver, J Butler (P Boyle, 54).

Replacements not used: G Stewart, T Daly.

MUNSTER: J Carbery; C Phillips, M Fekitoa, D Goggin, (R Scannell, 72), P Campbell; B Healy (F Gibbons, 66), C Murray (C Casey, 59); D Kilcoyne (J Loughman, h-t), N Scannell (S Buckley, 75), K Knox (S Archer, 50); J Kleyn (E Edogbo, 50), T Beirne; J O’Donoghue, P O’Mahony – captain (J O’Sullivan, 73), G Coombes.

Referee: Chris Busby (IRFU).