YOU MIGHT HAVE forgotten about Munster due to Ireland’s second Six Nations win of the year but the southern province were in action tonight too and saw off Cardiff 33-16 after two impressive second half tries.
Despite missing some internationals Anthony Foley was still able to name quality players in his side like Keith Earls and JJ Hanrahan but Ian Keatley and Andrew Conway were forced to withdraw before kick off with the flu.
Munster started brightly and were camped on the Cardiff line within the first couple of minutes but were unable to breach the their defence. Minutes later JJ Hanrahan opened the scoring with a penalty.
Cardiff’s work at the breakdown began to pay dividend as the half went on as they twice won turnover penalties in Munster territory which were converted by Rhys Patchell.
Patchell added his third penalty after a half an hour but Munster closed the opening 40 strongly as Hanrahan kicked two further scores to see the sides go into the break looked at 9-9.
Jack O’Donoghue was making his first start for Munster at number eight and he was directly involved in two of Munster’s key second half scores.
After the back row initially made a break, wing Ronan O’Mahony and JJ Hanrahan took the ball to within inches of the Cardiff line before Denis Hurley was able to muscle his way over for the game’s opening try.
A few minutes later Munster were over again after Billy Holland fooled the Cardiff defence with a gorgeous short pass to O’Donoghue, who showed great pace to finish off the move.
Josh Navidi burrowed over in reply for the visitors but Munster sealed the four points with another Hanrahan penalty and an injury-time try from Ronan O’Mahony.
