Murray pulls strings as Reds end festive fare on a high note
MUNSTER wrapped up their festive programme by finally winning a derby encounter when they put an understrength Connacht side to the sword at Thomond Park.
It was a game Munster needed to win after losses to Leinster and Ulster and while it took them some time to stamp their superiority, they ran out deserving winners with an accomplished display.
Connacht played most of the smart rugby in the opening half but still found themselves 10-6 behind at the interval having played with the breeze.
The ill-discipline which has dogged Munster in recent games continued to afflict them and a penalty count of 8-4 at the break told its own story, with Johann van Graan’s men conceding six of those in the opening 25 minutes.
Connacht, though, were unable to punish that ill-discipline, although Jack Carty gave them a perfect start in their quest for only a second ever win at Thomond Park in the professional era with a penalty from 30 metres after less than three minutes.
The Connacht defence was excellent and their superiority in the scrum gave them plenty of possession but they, too, were unable find holes in the opposition defence.
Munster struck a telling blow after 20 minutes when they were rewarded for their patience in attack, going from wing to wing until a good pass from Ian Keatley gave them the go-forward ball which lock Darren O’Shea exploited to escape through the clutches of Cillian Gallagher to touch down his second ever Munster try.
Keatley added the conversion to make it 7-3 but the response from Connacht was top class and Carty slotted another penalty after Chris Farrell was pinged for going off his feet after 25 minutes.
Munster’s discipline improved after that and Keatley extended their lead nine minutes from the break when he made no mistake with a penalty from 25 metres.
The former Connacht out-half pushed Munster into a 13-6 lead after 50 minutes with another penalty after the opportunity was created by a brilliant break from Keith Earls.
It got better for Munster four minutes later when a grubber from Keatley bounced horribly for Connacht full-back Tiernan O’Halloran and Conway pounced to score.
Keatley added the extras from the right to lead by 20-6 and leave Connacht with an uphill battle to salvage something from the game.
That task became just about impossible on the hour when Munster struck for a superb try, with Keatley making the opening on a diagonal run before feeding Conway and he in turn put Earls over in the left corner for a quality score. Connacht lock Quinn Roux escaped with a yellow card for a tip tackle on Earls but it didn’t take Munster long to secure the bonus point with Murray sniping over from close range and Keatley’s conversion making it 32-6 with 15 minutes left. He repeated the dose with 10 minutes remaining after several surges were repelled to again score from close range after Jack O’Donoghue was stopped and Keatley’s sixth successful kick of the night made it 39-6.
There was some consolation for Connacht when hooker Tom McCartney got in for a late try after a good break from James Mitchell and Darragh Leader, with Craig Ronaldson adding a superb conversion from the left wing on a night when Kieran Keane’s men fell to their second loss in the festive derbies.