Munster handed Leicester Tigers their heaviest ever Champions Cup defeat with a fantastic four-try performance in a 38-0 win at Thomond Park this afternoon.
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS: MUNSTER 38 LEICESTER TIGERS 0
Building on their unforgettable round 2 victory over Glasgow Warriors, Rassie Erasmus’ in-form side bagged the maximum again with man-of-the-match CJ Stander leading by example.
Simon Zebo struck for the first half’s only try while Leicester lock Ed Slater was in the sin-bin, adding to Tyler Bleyendaal’s quartet of penalties for a 19-0 half-time lead.
A brace of tries from short-term signing Jaco Taute after 49 and 56 minutes effectively sealed Tigers’ fate. They suffered two more sin-binnings, the second of them coming as George Worth coughed up a 71st minute penalty try which clinched Munster’s bonus point.
Leicester did the double on Munster last year and also famously won in Limerick back in 2007, but Richard Cockerill’s current squad failed to land a blow in the opening 40 minutes and were ultimately outplayed throughout.
Munster probed with the boot early on, the capacity home crowd loving winger Darren Sweetnam’s seventh-minute catch before a knock-on and scrum penalty allowed Tigers to clear.
A Peter O’Mahony lineout steal preceded Bleyendaal’s first successful penalty in the 10th minute, the New Zealander then keeping Munster on the front foot with a delightful touchfinder in behind Adam Thompstone.
Bleyendaal punished an offside with a crisp strike from the 10-metre line for 6-0, before Freddie Burns was short with a long range first shot at the posts, 20 minutes in.
Bleyendaal nailed his toughest kick from 45 metres out, rewarding a leg-pumping run from Zebo, and the margin was out to 12 points after Slater infringed at a lineout and the Munster out-half did the rest.
The penalties were mounting against Leicester, Slater paying the price with a 32nd-minute yellow card. After Munster pounded away at the visitors’ defence, Conor Murray’s brilliant pop pass off a close-in ruck saw the onrushing Zebo break a tackle and glide in behind the posts.
Bleyendaal converted for 19-0 and with Keith Earls fizzing with intent, the province held territory up to the break. Despite better play from Leicester on the resumption, the immense physicality of the Munster pack held them at bay.
The home forwards were clinical in attack too, a monster maul setting up dominant carries from John Ryan and Stander. Shortly afterwards, South African centre Taute was fed to crash over from close range, with Bleyendaal converting.
Tigers had to readjust after the injury-enforced departure of Burns, the Aviva Premiership Player of the Month for November, and his equally ineffective half-back partner Ben Youngs, who was replaced by Sam Harrison.
Approaching the hour mark, Sweetnam ran hard into the 22 and his excellently-timed offload out of a tackle released Taute for his second try which went unconverted.
Just a couple of minutes later, Manu Tuilagi was binned for what referee Romain Poite deemed a dangerous charge at a ruck. Rips in contact by talismanic back rowers Stander and O’Mahony prevented Leicester from claiming a consolation try – this was the first time since a 33-0 hammering at Ulster in January 2004 that they failed to score in a European game.
The visitors’ bench did have a decent impact, particularly young forward Luke Hamilton, but they were unable to take anything tangible into next week’s rematch at Welford Road. A Sweetnam-inspired attack yielded Munster’s bonus point, his chip ahead being dribbled on by Taute who was tackled late by the covering Worth for the double whammy of a yellow card and penalty try.
Speaking afterwards, Munster director of rugby Erasmus said: “With the quality players in the Leicester side and them beating us last season home and away, we were a bit nervous about the whole game and we never thought about getting five points out of it, our aim was always to win the game, so it is an absolute bonus to get the fourth try at the end.
“They are a team we respect so much. They have brilliant individuals, (are) really well coached, so we are really happy with the performance, but I’m sure when we wake up tomorrow morning we know we have to go over there in a week’s time. We won’t get carried away.
“It will be a tough challenge (next Saturday). We are under no illusions. Interesting things happen if you look at Glasgow going away to Racing 92 today and winning there. We will enjoy tonight and look realistically at how we played. I think we will be fairly happy with the intensity and the commitment, those kind of things. There were some tactical and some little technical errors. We needed a lot of intensity and commitment to win the game.”
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