It’s that time of the season where you would be hopeful of packing away the thermals and rain gear but in Ireland there are no guarantees. However on Saturday the forecast for the 5.15 kick-off confirmed it was tee-shirt weather. Those on the east basked in the sunshine, glad of their shades or caps. There was a strong breeze though which was influential at times throughout the game.
The Kids themed round provided some additional fun, included pitch-side interviews of Jean Kleyn by young supporters on a step ladder to look him in the eye. Another young fella was warming up with the match officials and he officiated the coin toss also. The sinbin was policed by another cool dude in his shades.
Young John on the west terrace was starring in some promotional video that was being recorded and he was very calm despite the big camera right in his face at times! Sinead and I backed away whenever the cameraman made his appearance but John was a real pro! After the game the Connacht players came over to the west terrace with mini rugby balls to hand out to the youngsters nearby who were delighted.
It took a while for Munster to make their pressure, possession and territory count as they dominated for the first quarter of the game but eventually they got their reward on the scoreboard. That pressure led to penalties and eventually a yellow card for Shamus Hurley-Langton. A tap penalty was touched down by RG Snyman. The TMO review was thorough as Jack lined up the conversion and I had to smile when he had the conversion over the bar with 85s remaining on the shot clock, a big change from his more usual 5s remaining!
A superb arcing run by Calvin Nash doubled the lead as Munster attacked off a scrum. Connacht had protested the grounding after watching the replay but the referee was not impressed with their behaviour and allowed Jack to retake the conversion which was successful, 14-0, after 26 minutes.
There was a lot of debate from some on the west terrace about the scrummaging technique when a Connacht player appeared to have his knee on the ground in the defensive scrum to stop Munster driving them backwards. The officials did not penalise that if they saw it. Approaching half time Connacht had a purple patch and tested the Munster defence. From a scrum deep in Munster’s 22 Jack Carty floated a long pass out to Ralston on the wing who scored in the corner to make it 14-7 at half-time.
Connacht started the second half brightly, coming close to scoring twice before Munster cut loose. The third try came from a key intervention by Gavin Coombes, fresh off the bench whose tackle on Bundee Aki knocked the ball loose for Alex Nankivell to claim and run in unopposed to score from the other half – 21-7. That turnover was a key momentum shift in the 45th minute. Some of the handling and offloading was breath-taking. It is also wonderful to have enough fit players to have such impact off the bench with Gavin and Oli bringing energy and power to the pack, Frisch made a key try assist for Murray, with Carbery and Ahern also on the scoresheet. Also worth mentioning the progress made by Eoghan Clarke since he arrived earlier this season.
While it was kids night off the pitch, on it the golden oldies shone with Zebo showing brilliantly at times including his assist for fellow veteran Conor Murray’s bonus point try when Simon broke from inside his own half. Several of his contributions were rewarded with chants of “Ze-bo, Ze-bo” which he acknowledged and enjoyed. One more year? We will have to wait and see…. Kudos also to Stephen Archer who continues to break the most appearances record (now 284) while Peter O’Mahony put in another superb 80 minute shift. At the other end of the experience spectrum young prop Mark Donnelly acquitted himself well.
Shortly afterwards another long cut-out pass by Carty connected with Ralston again to score their second try of the night. There was a suspicion that the pass went forward but it stood. The conversion miss left it at 28-12. Zebo was called on to defend shortly afterwards to make a key tackle when Connacht made a break. Nankivell and Frisch combined to put Carbery away. Joey’s conversion made it 35-12 approaching the final ten minutes. A mistake on the Connacht throw in to the lineout saw Tom Ahern react quickest and race down the wing, bumping off the attempted tackle of Tom Farrell to score. Joey’s conversion was wide to leave it 40-12 with 6 minutes remaining. Munster had the last word, scoring through Shane Daly, converted by Joey at the death – 47-12.
On the downside were the injuries to Jack Crowley and Tom Ahern. Hopefully neither are long term as we look to secure home comforts for the playoffs. It would have been even better if Glasgow had not earned 2 bonus points in South Africa but we are on track to earn a home quarter-final and if other results go our way we could squeeze into the top 2 for a home semi-final also… it would be a nice change from doing it the hard way on the road and good for the club’s coffers also.
MUNSTER: Simon Zebo; Calvin Nash, Alex Nankivell, Seán O’Brien (Antoine Frisch, 47), Shane Daly; Jack Crowley (Joey Carbery, 60), Craig Casey (Conor Murray, 59); Jeremy Loughman (Mark Donnelly, 69), Niall Scannell (Eoghan Clarke, 64), Stephen Archer (Oli Jager, 51); RG Snyman (Tom Ahern, 57), Tadhg Beirne (capt); Peter O’Mahony, Alex Kendellen (Gavin Coombes, 46), Jack O’Donoghue.
CONNACHT: Tiernan O’Halloran (Cathal Forde, HT); Shane Jennings, Tom Farrell, Bundee Aki, Byron Ralston; Jack Carty (capt), Matthew Devine (Caolin Blade, 24); Peter Dooley (Jordan Duggan, 52), Dave Heffernan (Dylan Tierney-Martin,, 67), Finlay Bealham (Jack Aungier, 53); Joe Joyce, Oisín Dowling (Niall Murray, 61); Shamus Hurley-Langton, Conor Oliver (Sean Jansen, 52), Paul Boyle.
Match report from RTE.ie Congratulations to Alex on his player of the match recognition – not just for his try and his assists but also for his superb defensive shift.
WTView: Observations of a Munster Rugby Supporter 
Dankjewel Gayl voor het mooi verslag
blij dat je genoten hebt van mijn schrijven
Thanks Gayl yet again for the great summary. I was on duty with 3 grandchildren, so I missed the match but was able to watch it when we arrived home on Sunday evening. Looking forward to the Ulster match,
Paul McC