Impressive Munster boost chances of home advantage

With half an hour gone in this inter-pro derby at a sun-drenched Thomond Park, you feared that it could end up being a long evening for Connacht.

Trailing 14-0 on the back of a costly sin-bin period, Munster were dominating territory, possession and most importantly, the scoreboard, but Connacht hit back against the run of play on the stroke of half time.

Byron Ralston’s well-worked try breathed life back into a contest that up to that point had been completely one-sided, but like all good champions, Munster never panicked, as they collected their third bonus point win on the bounce.

With Jack Crowley coolly steering the ship, and the pack, led by the outstanding RG Snyman, Munster’s quality ensured that they got all five points to further boost their hopes of securing an all-important spot in the top two on the table.

For Connacht, this was a damaging defeat in terms of their URC play-off hopes, as well as their aspirations of playing in the Champions Cup next season.

Munster had the best player on the pitch in Snyman, as the brilliant Springbok lock marked his first Thomond Park start in front of a crowd of 20,183 with a fourth try in his last five games. How Graham Rowntree’s men will miss Snyman when he joins Leinster next season.

In the end, the quality of Munster’s bench again told, as the hosts had seven different try-scorers to make light work of Connacht’s two efforts.

Despite dominating the early exchanges, Munster had to wait until midway through the opening half to break Connacht’s resistance.

A flurry of penalty concessions had Connacht on a warning, and when Shamus Hurley-Langton was pinged for offside, the referee had no option but to show the Connacht back-row a yellow card.

It proved to be a damaging 10 minutes, as Munster immediately made their numerical advantage count by scoring through Snyman, who just about managed to get the ball down following a last-ditch tackle from Finlay Bealham.

Crowley added the extras for a 7-0 lead and things quickly went from bad to worse for Connacht, who lost their young livewire scrum-half Matthew Devine before they were carved open.

Connacht’s defence has been an issue this season and Munster brilliantly exposed it with a first phase try off a perfectly-executed training ground move.

Calvin Nash turned on the afterburners to scorch through the Connacht midfield. Crowley made no mistake with his retaken touchline conversion.

Just as it looked like Munster would pull clear, Connacht dug deep and on a rare first-half visit to the Munster 22, the Westerners struck off a lovely pre-rehearsed scrum play of their own, as Jack Carty floated a beautiful pass to Ralston, who finished in the corner.

Carty made no mistake with the tricky conversion, as Connacht, second best for much of the opening 40 minutes, went into the break trailing by just seven points.

Then came the big swing.

A slaloming break from the Munster-bound Tom Farrell just after the restart brought Connacht to within a metre of the Munster line, but as the ball was moved wide, Tadhg Beirne came up with a big tackle on Carty, who knocked on.

Gavin Coombes had just been sprung from the bench, when the No 8 followed Beirne’s lead by forcing Bundee Aki to spill the ball. Alex Nankivell was quickest to react, as the Kiwi centre ran clear from his own half to land the sucker-punch.

Crowley’s conversion pushed Munster back into another 14-point lead that wouldn’t let slip for a second time.

They had Nan kivell to thank, however, as he managed to deny Hurley-Langton scoring in the corner with a superb cover tackle, before Conor Murray secured the bonus point following a delightful Simon Zebo assist.

Joey Carbery converted but Connacht hit back again with Ralston’s second score that was cancelled out by three late tries through Carbery, Shane Daly and a stunning solo effort from Tom Ahern.

Scorers – Munster: RG Snyman, C Nash, A Nankivell, C Murray, J Carbery, TA he rn, S Daly try each; J Crowley 3 cons; J Carbery 3 cons. Connacht: Ralston 2 tries, Carty con.

Munster:SZebo;CN ash, AN ank ive ll, SO’ Brien (A Fri sch 48), S Daly; J Crowley( J Carbery

59), C Casey( C Murray 58); J Loughman (M Donnelly 68), N Scan nell( E Clarke 64), S Archer (O Jager 50); RG Snyman (T Ahern 57), T Beirne; PO’ Ma hony,A Ken dell en( G Coombes 45), J O’Donoghue.

Connacht: TO’ Hall oran( C Ford eh-t ); S Jennings, T Farrell, BA ki, B Ralston; J Carty, M De vine( C Blade 24); P Dooley( J Dug gan 53), D Heffernan (D Tierney-Martin 64), F Bealham (J Aungier

53); J Joyce, OD owling( N Murray 60); S Hurley Lang ton, CO liver( S Jansen 53), P Boy le( J Butler 59).

Referee: A Jones (Wales).