Carbery stars as Munster off to a flyer
MUNSTER got their United Rugby Championship title defence off to a flying start with a Joey Carbery-inspired 34-21 victory against the Sharks at Thomond Park.
The defending champions secured a bonus-point win against the South African visitors, with Carbery putting in a composed display at out-half.
The Munster out-half endured a difficult campaign last season when he fell out of favour with Ireland before falling down the pecking order at his province, with Jack Crowley and Ben Healy surging ahead in the provincial order.
Suffice to say, Carbery has a point to prove this season and this impressive display was a good start for the previously out-offavour No10.
With World Cup stars such as Conor Murray, Peter O’Mahony and Tadhg Beirne resting up after a gruelling tour of duty in France, Munster head coach Graham Rowntree named an experimental line-up featuring a mix of youth and experience.
Edwin Edogbo, Diarmuid Barron, Antoine Frisch, Andrew Conway and rookie scrum-half Ethan Coughlan, making his first senior start, all crossed for tries.
The sight of Conway, making his first appearance on a rugby pitch since June of last year, was a further boost for Rowntree, while new signing Alex Nankivell made his debut from the bench.
The Sharks replied with tries from Werner Kok, Rohan Janse van Rensburg and Aphelele Fassi but Munster were always in control, with Carbery to the fore.
‘I think it was really good that we just stuck in there,’ said the Munster playmaker after his side’s 13-point victory in Limerick.
‘The forwards gave us a good platform, so it was really pleasing to get the five tries.’
Meanwhile, Pete Wilkins’ reign as Connacht head coach got off to a thunderous start at the Sportsground as the Westerners blitzed the Ospreys off the park in an emphatic bonus-point win.
Caolin Blade, deputising as captain, caught the eye with an impressive hat-trick during an utterly dominant first-half, the hosts cruising into a 27-5 lead.
The Welsh visitors managed to claw back some respectability on the scoreboard in the second-half but for Wilkins, who stepped up to replace Andy Friend in the summer, this was n impressive start to the new league campaign.
Connacht will be without World Cup stars Bundee Aki and Mack Hansen for the next while as the pair recover from their exploits in France but the hosts, who had six debutants in their squad,
came firing out of the blocks.
And two of those new recruits — JJ Hanrahan and Joe Joyce — immediately made their presence felt, while Tom Farrell and Cathal Forde put on an impressive show in midfield.
A brace of Hanrahan penalties had Connacht up and running before a scything break from Farrell teed up Blade, running a nice support line, for his first try of the afternoon.
Forde was the next Connacht centre to carve up the Ospreys and Blade, once again, was on hand to collect the try-scoring pass.
And the scrum-half soon had a third as he raced on to Joyce’s offload for another score.
It was getting ominous for the visitors before flying wing Keelan Giles pulled a try back to make it 27-5 before the break. There followed a resurgence after the break as scrum-half Reuben Morgan-Williams and flanker James Ratti both crossed the Connacht whitewash.
Any notions of an Ospreys revival were quashed when Forde ran a fine line to secure the bonuspoint try and the win.
Elsewhere, Nathan Doak’s accuracy from the tee proved decisive as Ulster staged a second-half fightback to beat Zebre Parma 40-36 and get their URC campaign off to a winning start at Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi.
The Italians showed they are a far more serious proposition this season, sharing 12 tries in a dramatic contest and picking up two bonus points.
Dan McFarland’s side edged a helter-skelter contest with Tom Stewart and Jacob Stockdale both scoring braces in a pulsating encounter in Italy.
Jake Flannery and Michael Lowry also bagged tries, while the trusty boot of Doak ultimately made the difference.