Munster’s Lively Pre-Season Game Against Bath Finishes All Square

It finished four tries apiece in Friday’s pre-season friendly between Munster and Bath in Cork, as Clayton McMillan’s first home game in charge of the province ended in an entertaining 28-all draw.

In an extended encounter which was broken into three 30-minute periods, Munster struck first with a diving finish from Andrew Smith, who also scored in Gloucester last week, and built a 28-7 lead over the English champions.

The Munster scrum forced a penalty and recent Ireland debutant Michael Milne also crashed over, either side of a Miles Reid try. Mike Haley showed his eye for a gap and some clever footwork to score with 15 minutes remaining.

However, Henry Arundell’s swift response set Bath up for a strong finish, and two more converted scores from Francois van Wyk and Bernard van der Linde brought them level four minutes from the end.

It was another good night’s work for Munster, who got 37 players out on the pitch at different stages and had Ireland’s summer tour captain Craig Casey and fellow internationals Tom Ahern, Gavin Coombes, Milne, and Alex Kendellen all back in action.

With their opening BKT United Rugby Championship clash with the Scarlets to come in a fortnight’s time, McMillan said: “Pretty happy. Again a lot of really positive stuff, and some good learnings, particularly how to shut out a game, close down a game when we’re in a pretty commanding position.

“But to put some context around that, we had a lot of young guys out on the field in the last 20 minutes, and they, in particular, would have learnt some good lessons, and it’s important that they do because we’ve had a deliberate strategy around trying to give everybody game-time to build depth.

“There’s no better way of developing that than putting them out on the field, and feeling the different sorts of pressures that come with the game at this level. Hell of a lot of positive stuff, and time still, two weeks, to keep growing our game and just get better.”