Munster Produce Some Monday Night Magic To Beat Blues

Munster knocked Cardiff Blues off the top of Conference B with a thoroughly entertaining 38-27 bonus point win at Thomond Park.

The Guinness PRO14’s first ever Monday night match outside of the festive period quickly caught fire thanks to early tries from Rey Lee-Lo and Gavin Coombes.

Number 8 Coombes completed his brace to help Munster lead 17-13 at the break, with Ben Healy and Jarrod Evans landing three kick each.

There were five tries in 16 swashbuckling minutes either side of the hour mark, as scores from Kevin O’Byrne, Jack O’Donoghue and replacement JJ Hanrahan kept a offload-seeking Munster in front.

Aled Summerhill and Willis Halaholo sandwiched in two high-quality touchdowns for Cardiff, who fell short of claiming their own bonus point.

Lloyd Williams’ late call-up to the Wales squad saw Kristan Dacey captain the Blues. From a first-minute strike play, centre Lee-Lo burst in behind the posts following a slick set-up by Halaholo and Evans, who quickly converted.

Halaholo’s subsequent sin-binning for a foot trip on Dan Goggin invited Munster forward, and Coombes burrowed over to turn forward pressure into a levelling seven-pointer.

James Botham’s defence-splitting break set up a 16th-minute Evans penalty, before Munster turned down a simple three points in response. After John Hodnett was held up twice, Coombes’ 26th-minute grounding was spotted by Italian referee Andrea Piardi.

Healy’s conversion was quickly followed by a second Evans penalty, but Healy was able to punish Botham’s high tackle on O’Byrne for a four-point half-time advantage.

Openside Botham’s breakdown smarts got Cardiff out of early second-half trouble, with Munster unable to capitalise on some evasive running by their backs.

Although the post denied Healy from the tee, Cardiff’s well-organised defence was breached soon after. A penalty was tucked into the corner and excellent hooker O’Byrne plunged over from the lineout drive with Healy converting.

The territory-starved Blues hit back within three minutes, a snappy break by out-half Evans was finished by Summerhill with a deft sidestep around Mike Haley. Evans also converted from the right for 24-20.

However, Lee-Lo’s fumble of the restart allowed Munster to build for O’Donoghue’s bonus point effort, the player-of-the-match proving unstoppable from close range. Healy converted but again Cardiff struck back.

Munster went too high on Halaholo who had the power to crash over off another well-worked move from a lineout. But Munster’s eagerness to put the ball through the hands was rewarded with a superb 67th-minute match winner.

Some sparkling build-up play, including some deft deliveries from Rhys Marshall, Damian de Allende, Darren Sweetnam, Rory Scannell and Hanrahan, had the latter looping around from the right to end the hopes of the tiring Blues.

It was a proud night for west Cork with five players from the area wearing Munster red, including 21-year-old debutant prop Josh Wycherley. He came on during the final quarter, just a few minutes after his brother, lock Fineen, had been replaced.

Speaking after the top of the table clash, Munster head coach Johann van Graan said: “It was a fantastic start to Monday night rugby for the PRO14. Two quality sides, both sides kept going for the full 80 minutes. Credit to Cardiff, they had some pretty good rugby on display there.

“And credit to our team, I thought we did some brilliant things tonight. A lot to work on, but a lot to be happy with in that performance. Some of the tries we scored were pretty special.

“We had to work exceptionally hard in the first 40, didn’t quite convert all of our opportunities. But some lovely moments in the second half and a real 23-man effort.

“JJ’s try, that was a pretty special try – we enjoyed that one. It’s some of the skill work that we are working on. It’s about the evolution of our team, and I think you saw a bit of that tonight.”