Munster Hit Ulster For Six In Thomond Triumph

Conor Murray celebrated his British & Irish Lions selection with a try in Munster’s 38-10 Guinness PRO14 Rainbow Cup thumping of Ulster at Thomond Park.

Rory Scannell and Mike Haley, the player-of-the-match, also touched down to make it 19-3 at half-time, the latter score coming after Ulster’s Will Addison was sent off for a high tackle.

Ulster captain Iain Henderson snapped back with an early second-half score, but a dominant Munster secured back-to-back victories as Scannell, JJ Hanrahan and Andrew Conway made it a six-try success.

Tadhg Beirne, the second of Munster’s 2021 Lions, was slow to roll away, allowing Michael Lowry to kick the visitors ahead from a second-minute penalty.

Ulster showed early dynamism in midfield with Addison and Stuart McCloskey both making encouraging yards, but Munster conjured up the game’s opening try.

After getting involved with Addison to spark a short-lived brawl, Rory Scannell then popped up with a clever dummy to score in the 10th minute. A monster carry by Gavin Coombes had set up the seven-pointer.

A swift outside break had the returning Dan Goggin inches away before Murray flopped over from a 26th-minute ruck. Hanrahan missed the difficult conversion from the left.

Ulster openside Marcus Rea’s relieving penalty denied Coombes at close range, and although Hanrahan missed a subsequent penalty, Munster’s pace and penetration earned them further opportunities.

Approaching the interval, a TMO review ended with Addison seeing red for a late and high hit which made contact with Shane Daly’s head.

Poor Ulster tackling then allowed full-back Haley to speed over from replacement Damian de Allende’s deft short pass.

Five Ulster replacements at the break saw them build immediate pressure, with 2021 Lion Henderson muscling over following a series of pick-and-goes. Lowry’s converted cut the gap to 19-10.

However, that was as close as Dan McFarland’s men could get to their in-form rivals. Centre Scannell intercepted a Lowry pass for a 45-metre run-in for the bonus point with 54 minutes on the clock.

Scannell turned provider five minutes later, sending Hanrahan scampering over for a slick try from the edge of the Ulster 22. The out-half also converted to complete his 13-point haul.

Munster’s smothering defence thwarted Ulster from a series of opportunities, including mauls, as they remained in full control of the scoreboard.

Even when skipper Peter O’Mahony was sin-binned for repeated penalties, a smart counter attack was topped off by a Scannell kick which put Conway over for a closing 78th-minute try.

Giving his reaction afterwards, Munster head coach Johann van Graan said: “We weren’t perfect, but we’ll take six tries to one. They are one of the better teams in Europe and I thought we did really well.

“Some lovely tries, the manner we played tonight – I’m happy with that. The all-round pressure game, I thought our kicking game was pretty good, our breakdown was really good and we put a lot of effort into that.

“Some of our plays came into that, some of our phase play was excellent. The way we’ve defended our line, the last 10 minutes. It really mattered to us. This was an important game for us.”

His Ulster counterpart McFarland admitted: “Obviously (I’m) very disappointed. We didn’t play very well and we lacked intensity in certain parts of the game.

“When you combine that with the real intensity that Munster showed, it meant we were on the back foot for chunks of the match and it’s very difficult to come back from that.

“Teams are up and down with their intensity. Some weeks it’s huge and other weeks it’s not so good. Potentially coming off the game (in Leicester) last week, we.ve done a lot of travelling this year, it’s tiring and fatiguing.

“I think we’ll be up to 20 away games this season and that’s been tough. The lads prepared well, we had a tough beginning to the week, obviously reviewing the Leicester game, (but) there was a lot of intent coming into the game.

“Munster came off a good win over Leinster and didn’t have a semi-final to play in Europe, and as a consequence, all their chips are in this basket and I think that probably knocked us back a little bit.”