Murray takes Lions lead by taming Tigers

THE battle for the British & Irish Lions scrum-half jersey has begun and Conor Murray went 1-0 up over Ben Youngs in emphatic style in Limerick yesterday.

The Irish No 9 was superb as Munster mauled Leicester Tigers. He dictated the game, while Youngs looked tired after a stunning autumn with England.

It was Leicester’s worst defeat in Europe and they deserved it.

Manu Tuilagi’s only notable involvement on his return to the starting XV was to get himself sin-binned. It was a reckless stiff-arm attempting to clear a ruck when 31-0 down and capped a dreadful afternoon for Leicester.

Their director of rugby Richard Cockerill said: ‘We got our backsides smacked. We never had a foothold in the game.’

Munster director of rugby Rassie Erasmus was delighted to be the first team to stop Leicester scoring in Europe in 12 years.

‘To play against Ben Youngs, Manu Tuilagi and not to concede a point is great,’ he said.

Munster had a clear plan. They had not beaten Leicester since 2006, losing four of the last six, so it was time to balance the card.

And they went about it the best way they know how. Kick high, chase hard, win the penalties and boot them over.

Murray was launching box-kicks at almost every phase, each one perfectly placed. Darren Sweetnam tirelessly chased them all.

When Leicester eventually conceded penalties, Tyler Bleyendaal slotted them over.

The New Zealander hit four in a row to build the lead, while Murray’s near-perfect first half was crowned by his glorious sleight of hand.

Ed Slater had been sent to the sin-bin for slowing things down at the ruck and Munster saw their chance. With crashing phases setting the platform 15 metres from the Leicester line, the half-back picked and moved right. He looked right, too, as did the defence. But the ball went left. Simon Zebo took the no-look offload on the gainline and jinked over to score.

Bleyendaal converted for 19-0 at the break.

Jaco Taute then smashed over the line following a rolling maul and crossed again after catching a lovely offload from Sweetnam.

The South African centre should have had a hat-trick but when George Worth took him out on the goal-line after he had chipped through, it was a penalty try.