Battling Munster beat Bulls, Leinster fall flat
MUNSTER posted a statement victory in their quest for back-toback URC titles as they beat the Bulls 27-22 at Loftus Versfeld.
Scrum-half Conor Murray’s try six minutes from time secured a bonus-point victory in Pretoria and took Munster above the Bulls into third place.
The home team had fly-half Johan Goosen sent off after 54 minutes for a dangerous challenge and Munster kept their composure to claim an outstanding win.
Wing Shane Daly, lock RG Snyman and replacement backrow forward John Hodnett also claimed touchdowns, with flyhalf Jack Crowley kicking two conversions and a penalty.
The Bulls, despite fielding many of their international stars, had to be content with a losing bonus point following tries by Elrigh Louw, Kurt-Lee Arendse and Johan Grobbelaar while Goosen added a penalty and two conversions.
The teams were separated by just one place and two points before kick-off and while
Bulls dominated much of the possession, especially early on, they could make little headway against a well-organised Munster defence.
Meanwhile, Leinster missed the chance to extend their lead at the top of the table after suffering a 44-12 defeat to the Lions at Ellis Park.
The Blues had won 11 of their last 12 matches in the competition. But, having made 13 changes from the side that beat La Rochelle last week, Leo Cullen’s side were blown away inside the opening 15 minutes as three Lions tries put them on their way.
Leinster are now just one point clear of Glasgow with four rounds remaining.
The Lions made a stunning start and grabbed the opening try inside 40 seconds as Richard Kriel and JC Pretorius combined to send Morne van den Berg in under the posts, with Sanele Nohamba converting.
A fantastic team try saw the Lions score again in the 10th minute and it went from bad to worse for Leinster three minutes later as Nohamba pounced on a loose ball before putting Quan Horn through.
Leinster had two tries disallowed before they finally got on the board in the 53rd minute when Ciaran Frawley scored the first of his two tries but the Lions again finished the stronger.
In Galway, Connacht romped to a 54-16 victory over Zebre Parma, with tries on the board for Matthew Devine (two),
Niall Murray, Tom Farrell, Sean O’Brien, Bundee Aki and JJ Hanrahan.