Simon Zebo and Andrew Conway both crossed twice as Munster dominated this European Champions Cup dead rubber against a young Sale Sharks outfit at Thomond Park.
VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS: MUNSTER 65 SALE SHARKS 10
Both sides were out of the running in Pool 1, but Anthony Foley’s men salvaged some pride with a runaway 65-10 bonus point victory that included eight second half tries.
Stubborn Sale rallied with a tremendous Tom Arscott score, cancelling out an earlier Simon Zebo effort, and just three points separated the sides at the break – 13-10.
However, after Keith Earls crowned his first start of the season with an excellent individual try and a penalty try was added, the floodgates were well and truly opened as Pat Howard, Zebo, Andrew Conway (2), Tommy O’Donnell and Duncan Williams all touched down between the 65th and 80th minutes.
Zebo, who shifted to full-back, reserves some of his best European performances for round 6, including memorable hat-tricks against Northampton Saints (2012) and Racing Metro 92 (2013). He was on the scoresheet here within 90 seconds, stepping inside Arscott and stretching over to score past two covering defenders.
Ian Keatley was keen to press his international claims, nailing a difficult first conversion from the right and quickly adding a penalty. Nick Macleod duly got Sale off the mark, but obstruction at the restart saw Keatley immediately respond.
The Munster out-half blotted his copybook, though, when allowing Arscott to fend him off near the left touchline as the Sale winger ran in a terrific solo try from outside the Munster 22. Macleod’s conversion made it a three-point game.
The visitors made further inroads thanks to a series of sloppy Munster penalties. Referee Marius Mitrea lost his patience when Conway killed the ball near his try-line and the winger was promptly sin-binned.
The scores dried up during a niggly second quarter as Sale failed to take advantage of their numerical advantage and Keatley pushed a 41-metre penalty wide.
But Earls lit up the second half with a try in the opening minute, taking a great line to gather an Ivan Dineen offload, dashing clear over halfway and finding a way past covering full-back Luke McLean. TMO Eric Gonthier confirmed the grounding and Keatley converted for 20-10.
The Munster pack took over approaching the hour mark, winning a penalty try from a dominant five-metre scrum. Keatley converted but some brilliant breakdown work saw Sale slow the province’s bonus point push.
That was until Keatley’s inviting inside pass released South African replacement Howard for a very well-taken score under the posts. Zebo then completed his brace with an opportunist try, cleverly rolling from the back of a close-in ruck to reach over and make it 39-10.
As replacement Dineen and Ronan O’Mahony increased their influence in attack, Munster showed no mercy to the demoralised Sharks.
Dineen and Zebo combined to send Conway clear for his first, flanker O’Donnell crashed over from close range and prop Stephen Archer provided the initial break and the scoring pass for Williams’ try.
There was still time for man-of-the-match Zebo to break through the tired Sale defence and supply the assist for Conway’s second try in the dying seconds. Replacement JJ Hanrahan’s third successful conversion gave Munster their highest ever score in European rugby, eclipsing their 64-0 win over Viadana from December 2002.
Giving his reaction afterwards, Munster head coach Foley said: “The feeling is very bittersweet. You see Saracens going through to the quarter-finals as one of the best runners-up on 17 points. You are left kicking yourself after what happened in the Clermont here game at Thomond Park.
“You can’t lose at home and hope to qualify with the calibre of teams that are in your group. It is very hard to go and win twice away from home in the group we had this year.
“Getting the win against Sale in round one and having an excellent contest here against Saracens and then to turn up here against Clermont at home and lose ultimately, when you look back at it it’s what cost us.
“This win will give us confidence. We have had a very tough week leading into this Sale game, mentally more than physically within the group in terms of where we are and where we thought we were. When you come out of that you come out of it stronger because we all have stuck together and made sure we gave our answer today and played right to the 80th minute
“Fellas did that for the people that mattered to them. They wanted to show the work, the sacrifices they put in week in and week out that it is not all for nil. It was great to score right at the final whistle (with Conway going over).
“It was a good physical contest out there and we didn’t shy from that in the first half. In the first half we were playing into the elements. At one stage they were camped on our line and the boys kept turning up. I know we suffered a yellow card, but we upped the ante during that period and we held them off. We reaped the rewards of that in the last 20 minutes.”
This website uses cookies.
Read More