REDS DELIGHT BUT IT WASN’T WITHOUT SOME CARDIFFICULTY

42 Cardiff 21

MUNSTER captain Peter O’mahony admitted it was far from flawless but the most important thing was to nail the five points against a gutsy Cardiff side at Musgrave Park.

In the end Munster dug deep and two tries apiece from Mike Haley and Craig Casey helped them on their way to a bonus point win which all but wraps up a home quarter-final in the URC.

“We were chasing our tails for quite a long time in that game so we will need to have a look at our defence,” said O’mahony.

“But overall it meant a lot to our URC campaign to win tonight, so we’re delighted with the five points.” Munster led by 27-14 at the break but behind that scoreline was a Cardiff side who hit them for two converted tries in the opening 17 minutes from lock Seb Davies and superb centre Ray Lee-lo.

In between, Haley struck for his opening try after a 17-phase move in an exciting contest and he added a second after 26 minutes when he cut a superb line to finish a move he started from deep where Chris Farrell and Diarmuid Barron also made telling contributions.

Ben Healy extended the lead with his second penalty and then Munster pulled away when Calvin Nash, Haley and Healy were all heavily involved before the impressive Thomas Ahern scored for another converted try.

That should have killed the Cardiff challenge but they hit back after 56 minutes when experienced scrum-half Lloyd Williams stepped inside Ryan from a ruck to score under the posts, with Evans converting to cut the margin to 27-21.

Healy eased the home nerves with a penalty before he made way for Joey Carbery as Munster changed their half-backs.

Wth an advantage being played for a high tackle, the Reds went through the phases and Jack O’donoghue popped up a pass in the tackle for Casey to score and secure the bonus point.

Carbery’s conversion made it 37-21 and they finished in style when Casey (above) tapped a penalty and scored in the left corner.