One-handed Snyman gets drop on his fellow Saffers

MUNSTER came from 15-0 down inside half an hour to secure a second bonus point win in the United Rugby Championship at Thomond Park.

A yellow card to Stormers skipper Salmaan Moerat three minutes after the restart was decisive as Munster came back and drove over for a brace of tries with the extra man.

“We knew we had a lot of fitness in our bank so we went out there in the second-half and managed to get some ball and scored some good tries,” said Munster captain Peter O’Mahony.

The Stormers, similar to their opening game against Zebre, were outstanding in the opening half and should have been further than 15-7 ahead against a shellshocked home side at the interval.

The Stormers’ 14 offloads to Munster’s two in the opening half told its own story as the Cape Town side took the game to Johann van Graan’s men.

They deservedly hit the front with their strong running when out-half Manie Libbok cut through the home defence and offloaded to his full-back Warrick Gelant who did well to make the line.

Munster were unable to deal with the pace and strength of the Stormers’ attack and it was no surprise when they increased the lead through Leolin Zas, while it took the intervention of O’Mahony to deny Libbok grounding the ball under the posts, but he added a penalty to an earlier conversion to lead 15-0 after 29 minutes.

Munster got a lifeline before the break when Jack O’Donoghue scored following several drives after a penalty to the corner and then the sinbinning of Stormers skipper Moerat for taking out a man in the lineout proved costly for the South Africans.

Lock Jean Kleyn and hooker Niall Scannell, who had earlier claimed he was bitten in a ruck, got over for tries and O’Dononghue secured the bonus point after 56 minutes after another superb maul.

The biggest cheer was reserved for Springbok RG Synman when he peeled away from a lineout, drove through the cover and touched down with one hand for his first Munster try to complete the comeback as the Stormers collapsed in the second-half for the second game in a row. They finished on the front foot with Ben Healy landing a long distance penalty in the final play.