Ospreys’ ghost team suffer a fright night
The Ospreys’ ghost team failed to spook Munster as they fell to a heavy Guinness PRO14 defeat at Irish Independent Park.
Coach Allen Clarke had made 12 changes from the side that defeated the Cheetahs in Swansea, resting a number of key individuals.
And Munster made the visitors pay as they swept to a win whose margin should hurt all at the Liberty region.
The Irish province had too much power in the front five, a classy flyhalf in Joey Carbery and a rampant back row in Peter O’Mahony, Arno Botha and Chris Cloete.
For the Ospreys, skipper Olly Cracknell showed courage and Luke Morgan scored a nice try. But it was not a night for Welsh positives. Far from it.
There were seven home tries, with Rhys Marshall claiming two and James Cronin, Arno Botha, Darren Sweetnam and Carbery also crossing, with the referee also awarding a penalty try.
Munster is no place for a shadow team. Those who dare to send one usually get what they deserve, and so it proved for the Ospreys.
They endured a torrid opening half during which Munster banked four of their touchdowns.
If James Hook, Morgan Morris, Cracknell and Sam Cross occasionally caught the eye, there was not much else for the visitors to be encouraged by.
Munster punished their indiscipline and were clinical with man-of- the-match Cloete and Tadhg Beirne everywhere and Carbery having time and class to spare.
The opening try came on 11 minutes after the Ospreys collapsed a maul and the referee awarded a penalty try. Rubbing rub salt in, he also sent Giorgi Nemsadze to the bin.
Davies kicked a penalty but it wasn’t long before the visitors were lining up beneath their posts again.
This time, Carbery did the damage, taking advantage of an overly adventurous chip out of defence by Davies and gliding through the defence. It was the kind of try an oldstyle Welsh No. 10 would have been pleased to put his name to, a score that had ‘class’ scrawled all over it.
The Ospreys couldn’t slow down Munster ball and they found it hard to retain possession themselves with No. 7 Clote and O’Mahony outstanding. The Welsh side gave away too many penalties and simply had no answer to the Munster openside at the breakdown.
The fourth try came after prop Cronin ploughed over from short range, then hooker Marshall crossed after a further bout of forward pressure that had seen Adam Beard yellow-carded after an offence near the line.
The Ospreys struggled to match the Irish province physically and didn’t help themselves with needless errors. Marshall scored his second try from close range before O’Mahony snaffled a Davies pass and triggered a move that saw Munster sweep forward at pace, with Tom Williams missing a tackle before Arno Botha crossed.
The long-haired and powerful Botha looks like Conan the Barbarian and the Ospreys struggled to handle him with his strength and ability to carry. But then the Welsh side found it hard to handle Munster, full stop.
At 42-6 they were staring down both barrels.
But they at least dug in and would not have been displeased to see Carbery, O’Mahony and Beirne leaving the field.
They scored their lone try when Morgan gathered a nice box-kick from Matthew Aubrey, worked out his bearings and took off at pace for a fine debut score.
Normal service was resumed when further errors allowed Darren Sweetnam to cross.
The Welsh side kept going, with Nicky Smith achieving a late turnover, but the final whistle could not come soon enough.