'Rusty' Munster shake off dreadful first half with bonus-point URC win
Munster's Tom Ahern with Ioan Lloyd and Vaea Fifita of the Scarlets. Pic: Laszlo Geczo, Inpho
Munster atoned for an awful first-half to claim a bonus-point URC win against a poor Scarlets side in Limerick on Saturday evening. It is the first time the province has put back-to-back league wins together this season.
The opening 40 minutes was atrocious with both teams, clearly rusty after time off, contributing to the lack of spectacle, but the hosts raised their game massively on the restart and scored three of their five tries in the 24 minutes that followed.
That was the game won.
There were a few injury worries to arise from the night with captain Jack O’Donoghue and win Diarmuid Kilgallen departing early and Tom Ahern making way for good with a head injury assessment in the third quarter.
That’s not great timing with Munster attack coach Mike Prendergast picking an Ireland ‘A’ squad for next Sunday's game against an England equivalent in Bristol, but two-try Gavin Coombes did his hopes there no harm at all.
The mistakes started early and came often from then on. Both sides were culpable but Munster had far more to regret given the fact that they enjoyed 69% possession and 81% territory in a half which they ended with only a 7-3 lead.
The hosts found themselves pushing into the Scarlets ‘22’ time and again but continually found different ways to come away without reward. Any multi-phase possessions further out routinely ended with ground lost and effort all but wasted.
There were rare shards of light.
Munster thought they had the first score when Ahern, their sole returnee from Ireland camp, got over off the back of a lineout maul after 12 minutes. That was ruled out after a Billy Burns conversion for a barely perceptible knock-on.
Already playing without a number of injured players and their Ireland front liners, Munster were hit again when Kilgallen was the first to pull up, in his case in the act of an illegal tackle in the air, but the indirect consequence was interesting.
Ioan Lloyd had just made it 3-0 to Scarlets when Munster opened their account with a first-phase try off a lineout in the Scarlets 22. Kilgallen’s replacement Shay McCarthy went over thanks in no small part to some insipid defending from scrum-half Gareth Davies.
Burns nailed a difficult kick to deliver the two extra.
Munster’s scrum was going well but it was a rare source of consistency. Something needed to change in the sheds at half-time and change it did. They came out a different animal and had two more tries inside the third quarter.
Their passing was crisper, their execution much better and they were punching more holes in a Scarlets rearguard that was now under serious pressure. It paid off quickly with Coombes drilling over from low and near after 44 minutes.
Better was to come, Munster making 50 metres via 27 phases before Scarlets stopped them illegally. It was the briefest of reprieves with Alex Kendellen going over soon after and Burns converting his second from three to make it 19-3.
Scarlets had offered next to nothing with ball in hand. That changed when replacement full-back Macs Page took a pass out wide, fended off Ben O’Connor, chipped ahead and just about touched down before Paddy Patterson.
It was a superb score that just about stood a grounding check by the TMO and deserved more than the botched conversion that followed. Ultimately, though, it wasn’t going to count for much in the greater scheme of things.
Any hint of a revived contest ended within minutes with another Munster try from close quarters as Coombes repeated his trick from earlier to burrow deep and claim the province a try bonus point on the night.
The game fizzled out from there only for Shane Daly to earn a late yellow for a high hit and end with a fifth Munster try courtesy of Tom Farrell in the corner. A happy ending to a night that started in the horrors.
Munster interim head coach Ian Costello admitted his side had shown signs of rust.
“We had 14 turnovers in the first half and there’s two way of looking at that. We were rusty – we hadn’t played in three weeks, you could probably see that, even though we trained really well.
"But we tool a moment as coaches – we sort our messages before we go and speak to the players. Staying calm and staying positive was important, because we’d dominated possession and territory.
"It was one of those games you’d regret if you didn’t get the third quarter right, so we reinforced the positives – said we need to look after the ball, probably move a little quicker, just be a bit smarter close to the line, rather than forcing the pass when we didn’t need to.
"The third quarter was outstanding. It was a mix of everything we tried to do – set-piece, kick-chase, tap-backs. I thought we were relentless in that period and that’s where we won the game. Sometimes the first half drains the tank as well. I looked at their body language 10, 12 minutes into the second half and even though we hadn’t scored at that point, you could see that the first half had taken a toll on them.”
B O’Connor; S Daly, T Farrell, R Scannell, D Kilgallen; B Burns, E Coughlan; J Wycherley, D Barron, O Jager; T Ahern, F Wycherley; J O’Donoghue, A Kendellen, G Coombes.
S McCarthy for Kilgallen (17); B Gleeson for O’Donoghue (44); J Hodnett for Ahern (HIA, 52); K Ryan for Wycherley, P Patterson for Coughlan and J Ryan for Jager (all 55); N Scannell for Barron and T Butler for Burns (both 65).
I Nicholas; E Mee, J Roberts, J Williams, S Evans; I Lloyd, G Davies; K Mathias, M van der Merwe, A Holz; M Douglas, S Lousi; T Plumtree, D Davis, V Fifita.
S Wainwright for Holz (14); A Hepburn for Mathias (47); A Craig for Plumtree (53); R Elias for van der Merwe and M Page for Nicholas (both 56); J Taylor for Davis (62); A Hughes for Davies (67); C Titcombe for Evans (73).
: S Roscini (FIR).
ENDS -- Brendan O'Brien Assistant Sports Editor and Sports Writer Irish Examiner (Dublin Office) Mob: 00353-86-606-1386 Twitter: @byBrendanOBrien
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