Ulster cruise by hapless Munster in frosty URC clash

UNTOUCHABLE: Ulster's Werner Kok is tackled by Munster's Dan Kelly. Picture: ©INPHO/Tom O’Hanlon

URC: Ulster 28 Munster 3

Munster succumbed to a second URC derby defeat inside a week as they failed to contain an in-form Ulster side on a snowy night at Affidea Stadium on Friday.

Head coach Clayton McMillan had sent an understrength Munster side north following the Christmas defeat at home to Leinster six days earlier and paid the price as the Ulstermen outplayed them to outscore their interprovincial rivals by three tries to none.

Little went right for the visitors, who also lost back-rowers John Hodnett and Alex Kendellen, and centre Alex Nankivell to injuries as Ulster overtook them in the URC table at the halfway stage of the regular season having played a game less.

A nightmare third quarter did the damage for Munster as Ulster grew a 6-3 half-time lead to 21-3 through tries from hooker Tom Stewart and their former academy player Jake Flannery, scrum-half Nathan Doak adding a penalty and one conversion in the 20 minutes following the interval. A third try eight minutes from time from No.8 Bryn Ward sealed the win for head coach Richie Murphy.

With IRFU player welfare protocols to meet over the festive period, Munster had chosen this trip to Belfast to provide mandatory rest for their Irish internationals with McMillan hoping his squad rotation strategy across the early rounds of URC action pre-Christmas would be rewarded with a wider squad better equipped to cope with the challenges of an interprovincial derby away from home.

It was not to be with a partisan sell-out crowd, plummeting temperatures and snow flurries adding to the challenge against an Ulster team in flying form and scoring with clinical efficiency under new attack coach Mark Sexton.

Even with an artificial playing surface, the conditions did not allow for much running rugby though, the first half generating just three kicks at goal, Nathan Doak slotting the first penalty for Ulster after five minutes.

When the snow returned on 10 minutes Munster had to make further changes, flanker John Hodnett’s night ended by what looked like an arm or wrist injury. That led to an early introduction off the bench for Brian Gleeson, the 21-year-old making his comeback from a fractured elbow he sustained on October 18.

Both sides were guilty of spiling ball in the wet conditions, every Munster drop greeted by cheers, though it was a ruck penalty from which the home side profited next, Ulster scrum-half Doak making it 6-0 from the kicking tee on 25 minutes with neither province able to generate any fluency with ball in hand.

Ulster looked the more dangerous of the two teams yet when their fly-half Jack Murphy spilled the restart from JJ Hanrahan following Doak’s three-pointer, Munster had their entry into the home 22. Gleeson, playing at No.8 with Alex Kendellen slotting into Hodnett’s openside flanker role, launched off the back of the scrum and a penalty soon accrued. Hanrahan kicked from close range to make it 6-3 in the 28th minute and that was the way it stayed heading into the interval.

Mercifully the snow and rain had stopped for the start of the second half but it did nothing for Munster’s fortunes in a torrid third quarter for the away side that saw them unable to contain a rampant Ulster.

They had handed their hosts an early settler two minutes after the break as Doak sent over his third penalty of the night and it only got worse from there.

Ulster had their tails up from the restart. South African wing Werner Kok had broken tackles aplenty in the opening 40 minutes and he was soon at it again with break down the right. Munster dealt with that threat but were soon on the back foot once more as Ulster poured into the visitors’ 22, moving the ball from right to left from where Kok, having roamed off his right wing, fed the final pass to his full-back Jacob Stockdale. Munster escaped again, the Ireland international failing to ground the ball in the corner but it was a temporary reprieve, Ulster hooker Tom Stewart powering over from close range soon after with Doak converting to put his side into a 16-3 lead approaching the 50th minute.

Munster were dealt another blow when they lost their second back-rower of the game to injury, Kendellen helped from the field soon after the opening try and it got worse for McMillan’s side when they conceded a second try on 55 minutes, to former Munster academy product Jake Flannery, who had replaced an injured Stockdale five minutes earlier.

Doak missed the conversion from wide out on the right but the damage had been done and Ulster had a commanding 21-3 lead heading into the final quarter. There was another injury to add to Munster’s insult when centre Nankivell was forced off on 65 minutes as the snow returned to Ravenhill and Ulster delivered the knockout blow on 72 minutes through man of the match Bryn Ward.

ULSTER: J Stockdale (J Flannery, 49); W Kok, J Hume, S McCloskey (J Postlethwaite, 60), Z Ward; J Murphy, N Doak (C McKee, 80); A Bell (E O’Sullivan, 53), T Stewart (R Herring, 57), T O’Toole (S Wilson, 57); I Henderson – captain (H Sheridan, 55), J Hopes; C Izuchukwu (D McCann, 61), N Timoney, B Ward.

MUNSTER: M Haley (T Butler, 56); C Nash, D Kelly, A Nankivell (S O’Brien, 65), T Abrahams; JJ Hanrahan, P Patterson (E Coughlan, 49); J Wycherley (J Loughman, 49), D Barron - captain, M Ala’alatoa (C Bartley, 49); J Kleyn, F Wycherley; T Ahern, J Hodnett (B Gleeson, 11), A Kendellen (J O’Donoghue, 50).

Replacement not used: L Barron.

Referee: Mike Adamson (Scotland)