Unbeaten Munster Make Short Work Of Zebre

Damian de Allende, Sean French and Thomas Ahern scored their first Munster tries in a 52-3 Guinness PRO14 pummelling of Zebre at Thomond Park.

In addition to a penalty try, Dan Goggin (7 minutes), de Allende (26) and Darren Sweetnam (40) all swept over for converted scores as Munster pocketed their bonus point to lead 28-3 at the break.

They added four more tries by the finish, as JJ Hanrahan and young guns French, Craig Casey and Ahern each made it over. Paolo Pescetto kicked a lone penalty for the depleted Italians.

Quick lineout ball allowed player-of-the-match Hanrahan to dink a kick over the top, setting up centre Goggin to gather it on the bounce and touch down beside the posts.

Hanrahan’s conversion was cancelled out by a Pescetto penalty on the quarter hour mark, before another deft Hanrahan kick almost played in Matt Gallagher for Munster’s second try.

It was a double setback for Gallagher with the TMO review going against him and an arm/shoulder injury forcing him off.

However, Munster’s strong scrum soon forced the issue and de Allende powered in underneath the posts from a smart offload by Gavin Coombes. Hanrahan quickly converted.

With their forwards now under intense pressure, Zebre leaked a penalty try from a maul with number 8 Lorenzo Masselli also seeing yellow for a cynical side-entry.

Right on the stroke of half-time, Goggin ghosted in between two defenders on halfway and passed for Sweetnam to finish off to the left of the posts.

Munster had been sloppy at times, but they went up a gear on the restart with the impressive Hanrahan, who finished with 15 points, used a slick three-man passing move to go over from close range.

Zebre used a series of penalties to threaten through their maul, yet Munster held them out and some lovely hands from Coombes and Hanrahan had Academy youngster French diving over in the 56th minute.

Hanrahan nailed the difficult conversion as fellow Kerry native Jack Daly was sent on for his debut. It is the first time two Kerry men have played a senior game for Munster in three years.

With first-time starter Ahern joining Jack O’Donoghue in the Munster pack, it was also the first time two players from Waterford have started for Munster at this level.

Zebre ended the game with lock Gabriele Venditti in the sin bin, and as Munster moved 16 points clear at the top of Conference B, Casey and towering young lock Ahern made it an eight-try rout late on.

Replacement scrum half Casey accelerated off the back of a ruck to slide over from a few metres out. With the clock in the red, good hands from Casey, Hanrahan and Goggin released a lurking Ahern for the right corner.

Giving his reaction afterwards, Hanrahan said: “I suppose the big takeaway from tonight is the amount of young lads that got game-time, Sean French on debut, Thomas Ahern’s first start.

“Jack Daly, another Currow man coming off the bench as well – it’s a proud day for us back home. There were a lot of positives out there, but a lot to work on at the same time, which is the main thing. A lot more to improve on.

“I’m sure the coaches and ourselves will review this game now, and we’ve the international lads coming back in a week’s time. We’ve a week off to reset and put this block of games to bed. Shift the focus to Europe.

“I suppose individually you always want to put your best foot forward. A bit of stop-start season for myself so far. Happy to get out there and just get amongst it with the lads.”