Munster v Gloucester, Champions Cup, as it happened
Munster Rugby's Mike Haley scoring his team's second try during the Investec Champions Cup match at SuperValu Pairc Ui Chaoimh. Pic: Brian Lawless/PA Wire.
Thanks for joining us on this evening's liveblog. I'll be chatting to our rugby correspondent Simon Lewis later on for a special Champions Cup pod.
Watch out, too, for Simon's online match report and post-match reaction on this website this evening, and we'll continue the coverage in Monday's Irish Examiner.
That's it. A comprehensive five-try win for Munster in the end but it was far from straightforward against a weakened Gloucester side that played for 20 minutes with 14 men.
Toulon, Bath, Edinburgh and Castres are all in action in this pool tomorrow but that's all Munster can do for now. They are back out next Saturday when they go to Wales to face the Ospreys in the URC.
Their next Champions Cup date is at Toulon's Stade Felix Mayol on Sunday, January 11th.
Craig Casey has just been named man of the match on Premier Sport.
The attendance this evening is 36,208.
TRY Munster! Tadhg Beirne touches down for Munster's fifth now. Bit of a gift, that one with an overthrow on a Gloucester lineout and the Ireland forward romping over.
It's 31-3 all of a sudden!
TRY Munster! That's the bonus point secured for Munster. A tap penalty and then Alex Nankivell produces a sublime no-look pass to put Tom Farrell over from close range.
An easy conversion with it and Munster are 26-3 in front.
: Caio James was the man who earned the yellow card.
TRY Munster! Ruadhan Quinn. That's the game.
That all came from a silly Gloucester up and under that Craig Casey snaffled brilliantly on the bounce. Mike Haley followed up to carry through to within sight of the try line and it was only stopped then because of a yellow card offence.
Quinn blasted over from the resultant penalty.
That's 19-3 now with Jack Crowley kicking the conversion.
Lot of lateral play from Munster and it doesn't go anywhere. Again. This one ends with another forward pass. Frustrating.
Munster concede another scrum penalty and that gives Gloucester a chance to relieve more pressure.
Four more replacements on for Munster as they go in search of the win and, you would think, a try-scoring bonus point.
Major Munster pressure inside the 22 ends with Tom Farrell spilling the ball forward a couple of metres from the posts. Kudos to Gloucester's defence but...
Ben O'Connor goes over but the referee calls it back for a forward pass from Craig Casey. A bit too ambitious from the scrum-half after a great break from Jack Crowley into the 22.
TRY Munster! Mike Haley goes over in the right corner on the back of that Gloucester knock-on. It's made by a brilliant offload from Alex Nankivell.
Jack Crowley can't add the two extra. It's 12-3 to Munster.
Great chase by Ben O'Connor to scrag George Barton and it produces a knock-on. Huge cheers from the Pairc crowd. Could that be the moment that spurs Munster on?
Veeeeery subdued start to the second-half here.
Gloucester are back to 15 men, by the way. Munster failed to score while their tighthead was in the bin. Here's why he was sent there...
It's beginning to look a lot like...
The second-half is underway...
Here's that Dan Kelly try that has Munster in front...
Dan Kelly goes over! 👏
— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) December 13, 2025
The @Munsterrugby man bags the opening try at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh 🔴#InvestecChampionsCup pic.twitter.com/ye9HsfW3VX
There’s shades of Leinster’s game against Leicester Tigers last night about this: weaker English side frustrates an Irish province that has only itself to blame for some of its problems.
Munster will be hoping the similarities continue after the break given Leinster’s second-half in Welford Road.
That was a right scrappy 40 minutes of rugby. Munster had most of the ball - 66% - but never did enough with it. Some bad handling and Gloucester's scrappiness frustrated them and the fact they were held scoreless for the last seven minutes, with the visitors down to 14 men, is really a chance lost.
Then again, Munster will have that wind behind them on the restart and you'd imagine the brains trust will target a few key areas in the sheds.
Oh, that's a very disappointing ending to the half for Munster who are held up over the line after a huge thrust and multiple phases. A try really looked inevitable as they made metres with every carry but there were men out wide that went unused.
Jean Kleyn was the man held up.
4 Gloucester's turn to have some of the ball now but they can't put the screw on Munster as the first-half ebbs away with the hosts dealing comfortably with the brief inroads into their 22.
Big goalline stand there from Gloucester as Munster cough the ball up off the back of a scrappy lineout from just five metres out. Opportunity lost for Munster. Both sides have had their issues out of touch so far.
Unfortunately, Jack Crowley misses with the penalty into a strong wind and it stays 7-3 to Munster.
The referee and other officials are looking at a ruck clearout on Jack Crowley by Gloucester tighthead Jamal Ford-Robinson and awards a penalty to Munster and a yellow card for the front row.
Looks about right. Ford-Robinson seemed to catch Crowley on the side of the head and the shoulder.
Almost a moment of sheer genius from Josh Hathaway as the Gloucester wing pirouettes and almost whips a dropping ball to a teammate in one fluid movement. Hard to describe with words, to be fair! Luckily for Munster, it doesn't come off because they were ripped open if it did.
Good response to the try from Gloucester, actually.
TRY Munster! Dan Kelly goes over.
Stroke of luck to that one with Mike Haley's attempted chip kick wide on the right rebounding off an opponent and into his path. But Haley's pop pass to Kelly from off the turf was excellent and Kelly finished well.
Jack Crowley lands the conversion too.
Munster 7-3 Gloucester.
Munster dive off the lineout with Niall Scannell getting to within a few metres of the lineout but the ball spills forward after an attempted poach by Harry Taylor and Gloucester are let off. Disappointing.
Quick tap penalty by Jack Crowley makes yards which he then loses with a wayward pass around the back. Munster finally get some territory after losing the ball and Niall Scannell forces a Gloucester man to hold on too long at the ruck.
Crowley's kick has them on the 22m line.
Sometimes you really are better off without the ball.
Gloucester have started very, very well for a side that is effectively their B-team. Their chasing and harrying is first-class and Munster have played far too much of the first 15 minutes in their own half, despite all their possession.
Some great work from Craig Casey the last few minutes, one sumptuous looping long pass to Ben O'Connor on the wing and a brilliant relieving kick soon after it.
Ach, we jinxed it! A scrum peno AGAINST Munster now!
A scrum penalty for Munster. Very welcome and some might say a rare enough sight for Irish sides lately.
Michael Alalaatoa, recently signed on a short-term contract, getting a lot of the credit.
first concerted period of attack comes to naught and actually ends with them back-pedalling and coughing up a knock-on on the cusp of their own 22, Jean Kleyn the guilty man.
The Pairc looks well tonight...
Charlie Atkinson opens the scoring with a penalty from distance after Michael Milne is pinged for holding on in the ruck. Correction, that was the full-back George Barton who landed the three-pointer.
Munster 0-3 Gloucester.
First impressions? Munster's pinkish kit versus Gloucester's red and white isn't ideal. It may actually look a bit clearer on TV.
Referee Ben Breakspear gives the signal and Jack Crowley gets us underway, Munster with the Blackrock End at their backs and the wind in their faces.
It's hard to overstate how big this game is for Munster. Clayton McMillan bordered aspects of their loss to Bath as "bordering on embarrassing" so a performance and a result are both boxes that need to be ticked this time around.
Then again, of any province relishes a 'backs to the wall' game then it's Munster! Cue 'Stand Up and Fight' blaring around the ground...
The forecast suggests we'll have some rain before the end of tonight's game, and there is a strong wind blowing down the field from the City End, but the Pairc looks magnificent again under the December lights with the terraces on either end mostly full ahead of the 5.30pm kickoff.
Gloucester have switched their entire team after starting off with a 20-point win at home to Castres in round one. That's 15 changes! So, no Ross Byrne, the former Leinster player who spoke before the tournament about how games against Munster were so central to his development as a rugby player.
Here is the Munster team and bench for today's game. Clayton McMillan has made nine personnel changes and three positional switches from the team that lost at The Rec.
Hi and a big welcome to the Irish Examiner's live coverage of this evening's Investec Champions Cup pool game between Munster and their English visitors from Gloucester.
This is the first 'European' game in the city of Cork in almost quarter of a century and just the third time Munster have played in this repurposed stadium.
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