Munster Recover From Poor Start To Put Five Tries Past Zebre

Zebre’s first win in 14 meetings with Munster slipped out of their grasp as a big impact off the bench set up a 31-12 GUINNESS PRO14 bonus point victory for Johann van Graan’s men at Thomond Park tonight.

The Michael Bradley-coached Italians deservedly led 12-0 after just 18 minutes, tighthead Roberto Tenga taking advantage of a Mike Haley error to touch down and add to Jamie Elliott’s unconverted eighth-minute try. Their lineout maul lifted a lacklustre Munster with a try on the stroke of half-time by prop Jeremy Loughman, reducing the arrears to seven points.

Rhys Marshall’s maul score brought the province level, and despite losing Chris Cloete to the sin-bin, further tries from Darren Sweetnam, replacement Niall Scannell and Haley completed the comeback. While a number of Munster players failed to grasp their opportunity, Tyler Bleyendaal impressed off the bench and could feature at out-half in next week’s Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final against Edinburgh if Joey Carbery (hamstring) loses his fitness battle.

Munster head coach van Graan commented afterwards: “I treat every single game the same. Some things we weren’t great at tonight, some things we were, five points on offer. We took the five points and now move on. Next week’s game (away to Edinburgh in Europe) has nothing to do with this game.

“We’re into European knockout rugby. Last season we got through by one point so one point will be good enough next week. It will be a totally different team, a totally different vibe and a different competition in Edinburgh in Scotland. It’s great to look forward to next week and speaking about next week, that’s why you coach, that’s why you play, you want to be selected and part of these games coming up.”

Munster’s enviable home record – they are unbeaten at home in any tournament since December 2017 – came under immediate pressure from Zebre who were gunning for their first PRO14 victory since the end of October. Slick distribution from Guglielmo Palazzani and Carlo Canna saw the ball worked wide for English winger Elliott to dive over past Rory Scannell in the left corner.

Zebre ended the opening quarter with a 12-point buffer, again showing their ability to take Munster through the phases. Canna used a penalty advantage to dink a kick through and the covering Haley fumbled just a few metres out from the try-line, allowing the inrushing Tenga to claim the loose ball for a simple finish to the left of the posts.

Bradley’s side, who sit bottom of Conference A, were playing all the rugby with Munster, whose seven-match winning run was ended by the Scarlets last time, surprisingly flat and struggling to land a blow. The hosts were leaking some costly turnovers, falling foul of referee Dan Jones’ whistle too but Italian international Canna crucially missed two penalty attempts approaching the interval.

A chink of light for the home fans came with loosehead Loughman’s first try in Munster colours, a late lineout drive towards the left corner getting the province off the mark. JJ Hanrahan’s conversion attempt from out wide came back off the post, but Munster were at least on the board and had time to regroup after a shockingly poor first half performance.

With van Graan sending on five replacements in the third quarter, the tide began to turn with Bleyendaal, Chris Farrell, John Ryan and Jean Kleyn all making their mark. Bleyendaal tagged a superb conversion onto Marshall’s try in the left corner from a well-set maul, yet referee Jones’ harsh decision to sin bin flanker Cloete for an aggressive clear-out left Munster down to 14 men.

Canna’s injury-enforced departure robbed Zebre of a key man and they suffered another setback with Palazzani hitting the upright from the Cloete penalty. Quick and accurate passes across the back-line from Bleyendaal, Goggin and Haley sent winger Sweetnam over in the right corner in the 64th minute, the try breaking Zebre’s resolve as Munster soon became dominant.

The bonus point was secured five minutes later, the maul propelling hooker Scannell over the line with Bleyendaal’s right boot making it 24-12. Into the final three minutes, Haley burst onto a pass from the increasingly-influential Rory Scannell to score from the edge of the Zebre 22. The hard-earned win keeps Munster second in the Conference A table, three points behind Glasgow Warriors.

Van Graan added: “There were various reasons (why we were poor in the first half). A lot of lads coming back into the fray. One or two injuries, we were making some mistakes. The funny thing about rugby, it’s not how you start it, it’s how you finish it. I think it was a really good second half.

“We’ll learn from that first half. Obviously, they put in all of their internationals and we’ve got quite a few lads away. I’m really glad that a lot of the guys stepped up, specifically in the second half, that first 10 minutes. Guys like Darren O’Shea running the lineouts, he hasn’t started for a quite a while. I thought Jack O’Donoghue was excellent. So, a few guys got their opportunities and really used it.”