Fitzgerald And Murray Stand Out In Famous Connacht Victory

Conor Fitzgerald came back to haunt his home province as his 14-point haul helped Connacht to beat Munster 24-20 and claim only their second win at Thomond Park since 1986.

They outscored the Guinness PRO14 Rainbow Cup leaders by three tries to two in this bruising derby, as a hat-trick of interprovincial victories in the competition eluded Munster.

Former Munster prospect Fitzgerald piled up a dozen points, including a crisply-taken 26th-minute try, to steer Connacht into a 17-14 half-time lead.

Munster had replied with forwards-inspired tries from James Cronin and Rhys Marshall, although a restart blunder allowed Sam Arnold over for the visitors’ second score.

Still, the table toppers made sure Shane Daly’s sin-binning was not too significant, and they negated Kieran Marmion’s try with penalties from Ben Healy and replacement Joey Carbery.

Andy Friend’s men, who leaked 50 points to Leinster last Saturday, stood firm, though, with an inspiring defensive performance to match their last success in Limerick in 2015.

Out-half Fitzgerald kicked Connacht ahead from a fourth-minute penalty, just reward for a nice chunk of early territory.

Munster did what Leinster had achieved last week, hurting the westerners through the forwards to put prop Cronin over for Healy to convert.

However, the hosts failed to gather the restart and Arnold, another ex-Munster player, swooped to score in the right corner. Fitzgerald’s well-struck conversion made it 10-7.

The night got even better for the 23-year-old when he glided inside Dan Goggin in a dangerous backs move to score at the posts in the 26th minute.

Fitzgerald converted his try as Munster were made to pay for winger Daly’s yellow for a deliberate knock-on.

Yet, when the Cork native returned, the Munster maul drove hooker Marshall over to close the gap back to three points, six minutes before the break.

Just over a minute had elapsed in the second half when Munster, guilty of overplaying, allowed Connacht to counter with the boot and Marmion gobbled up the loose ball to go in behind the posts.

The niggle was never far away – referee Dan Jones and his assistants had their work cut out for them – and things bubbled over again after Munster had gone over through captain Peter O’Mahony, only for the score to be disallowed for obstruction.

Healy knocked over a booming penalty from his own half to leave seven between them, before some superb Connacht defence ended with replacement Denis Buckley winning a crucial turnover penalty.

Although they continued to fall foul of Jones’ whistle, Munster appeared to have the trump cards in bringing on British & Irish Lions duo Tadhg Beirne and Conor Murray.

The freshly-introduced Carbery cut the gap to four in the 64th minute, and his cross-field kick then set up a try for Andrew Conway – only for TMO Joy Neville to spot a prior knock-on.

Neville was involved again with a last-gasp captain’s challenge, as Jones confirmed a knock-on by Stephen Archer to complete a frustrating night for Munster.

Giving his reaction afterwards, Connacht boss Friend said: “It’s a proud day because there has been a lot going on this season and this last week. The way we capitulated last Saturday, we weren’t proud of that.

“And then to come to Thomond Park against a pretty good Munster side, you know what lies ahead of you. I thought jersey one to 23 stood up there tonight. I thought they were immense.

“We talked about it in the sheds afterwards and said that’s the best I’ve seen us play for 80 minutes.

“Listen, there were a few rockets placed up people’s backsides during the week, but that’s the response you want. We have to make sure we can be proud of that.”

Munster’s Johann van Graan commented: “Giving them that try straight away from the second half kick-off was a big moment in the game and look, in terms of discipline, we just couldn’t get into the game, so we will have to go and review that.

“I would like to say well done to Andy Friend because since the two of us have coached against one another, it is the first time that he has got that win. So well done to him.

“We conceded that yellow card and conceded that second try (during Daly’s sin-binning). That is within our control and in these tight matches it is a factor.

“We ended up short and the frustrating thing is we were over that try-line twice and those tries could have made a big difference.”