Connacht 35
Munster 14
Murray Kinsella reports from the Sportsground
CONNACHT UNDERLINED THEIR status as title contenders in the Guinness Pro12 with a superb bonus-point 35-14 victory over Munster in Galway.
Once again, Pat Lam’s men played scintillating attacking rugby as Niyi Adeolokun grabbed a brace, the Connacht pack earned a penalty try, and brilliant tighthead prop Finlay Bealham powered over for their fourth.
Munster were impressive in the opening 25 minutes, forcing their way into a 14-6 lead, but had no answer for Connacht’s intelligent, incisive and clinical use of the ball thereafter.
In front of a raucous record crowd of 7,786, Connacht’s prospects of a home semi-final were greatly boosted with just two regular season fixtures now remaining. With Glasgow having had a bonus-point win over the Scarlets earlier in the day, Lam’s men needed victory to return to second place in the table. They earned it convincingly.
Munster, meanwhile, have slipped to seventh in the league this weekend on account of Edinburgh’s losing bonus point in Dublin last night.
The prospect of missing out on the Champions Cup next season is very real now, with Edinburgh’s trip to Cork in a fortnight more akin to a play-off than a regular league fixture.
For Connacht, the good times keep on rolling and they were once again led by the utterly outstanding Bundee Aki. The centre qualifies for Ireland in 2017 and on recent evidence, the IRFU must be preparing a new contract offer for when his current Connacht deal expires next year.
Aki was a line-breaking beast in the middle of the pitch, with the likes of Aly Muldowney, Adeolokun, Bealham and Kieran Marmion all impressive in a superb collective performance.
The Connacht scrum was a thorn in Munster’s side, while the southern province’s indiscipline left them down to 13 men before half time in a costly period where they conceded two tries.
Munster had started superbly, a linebreak from Simon Zebo off Johnny Holland’s sharp inside pass marking out their intent to run at Connacht whenever the opportunity allowed them to do so.
Connacht utilised their detailed and organised shape to stretch Munster too, the returning Muldowney prominent as Lam’s men drew a penalty from CJ Stander at ruck time to allow out-half Shane O’Leary to kick the opening points after nine minutes.
Munster’s first try was one of the highest quality, and arrived just two minutes later. Holland darted at the line just inside the Connacht half, got his right arm free and deftly released the ball to the supporting Jack O’Donoghue.
The Waterford man intelligently drew in a defender, releasing Zebo inside him to slalom past the despairing tackle attempts of Robbie Henshaw, O’Leary and Marmion to dot down. Holland added the conversion from the right of the posts.
James Cronin’s infringement at ruck time saw O’Leary bring Connacht back to within a point near the quarter mark, but then a familiar exiting issue cost the home side.
O’Leary’s poor pass inside the Connacht 22 was knocked on by Aki, providing Munster with a scrum under the posts. Two collapses later, O’Donoghue burst away and several phases later a lovely cross-field kick from Zebo almost allowed Keith Earls to score in the left corner.
He lost control in the air, but referee Ben Whitehouse came back for a no-arms tackle by Ultan Dillane and Munster popped the penalty into the corner. From there, a clever shift maul back towards the touchline saw hooker Mike Sherry touch down, Holland again converting.
Munster were looking confident and accurate, but Connacht’s scrum dominance was a concern. Aki’s brilliant break through Tommy O’Donnell’s tackle was a sharp reminder of his attacking quality too, though his inside pass to the supporting Marmion was far too hard and the scrum-half spilled with the tryline begging.
Whitehouse finally lost patience with Munster’s scrum in the 33rd minute, binning Cronin after a collapse on the halfway line, and Connacht were ruthless with the opportunity afforded by the numerical advantage.
They played out phase after phase in the Munster 22, making little progress until Adeolokun’s loose pass forced Foley’s men to briefly lost their focus. Aki scooped the ball, beat a tackle and offload to Bealham, who repeated the trick to free Adeolokun to score.
That score Connacht back to 14-13 and Munster began to look towards the half-time break, but Lam’s men were not finished just yet.
Aki intercepted a Munster pass and strode 60 metres downfield before finding Peter Robb on his left shoulder. The inside centre was scragged from behind, then Munster opted to kill the ball dead.
A yellow card could have easily followed, but Connacht went to their scrum with a kickable penalty. Aki shifted to number eight, Muldoon carried and then Lam’s men somehow spurned a glaring overlap in the right-hand corner.
Bealham’s wonderful handling did mean they at least retained possession and with Munster struggling, Billy Holland killed the ball and was sent to join Cronin in the sin bin.
Connacht were not going to let up with Munster down to 13 men and their scrum powered right over the southern province’s pack to earn a penalty try that O’Leary converted for a 20-14 half-time lead.
Presumably chastened by Foley’s words, Munster emerged for the second half in determined fashion and, even reduced in numbers, enjoyed some good territory. A strong maul turnover and Henshaw turnover penalty frustrated them, however, and Connacht were in a clinical mood. Ultimately, that was the end of the Munster challenge.
A lineout near halfway saw Connacht run exactly the same starter play they had used for Adeolokun’s second try against Grenoble last weekend, with Marmion looping around the midfield to feed the fullback, Henshaw on this occasion.
The Ireland international grubbered deep behind Munster, the ball bobbling past the wrong-footed Darren Sweetnam. Zebo covered back in from the touchline but rather than fall on the ball, he attempted to hack at it with his foot, merely ensuring it rebounded off the chasing Adeolokun, who gathered on the move and dived over.
Whitehouse had his TMO confirm the score, before O’Leary’s conversion sailed wide.
The first rendition of ‘The Fields’ burst out of the Clan Terrace in impressive fashion with Connacht 25-14 to the good, but Munster had one last spurt of a fight with that familiar song ringing in their ears.
Saili had a possible try correctly ruled out by the TMO at the end of a period of muscular carries from Munster, the Kiwi centre hitting a lovely line off Conor Murray, but losing the ball forward in his dive over the tryline.
From the resulting scrum, Aki – who had looked in major trouble with a knee injury only minutes before – made yet another linebreak out of the Connacht 22, though his pass to Marmion was spilled. Undeterred, Connacht won another scrum penalty.
Dillane’s searing break created the next scoring chance, Zebo dragging him down just metres short after he burst through Munster’s defensive line. Connacht composed themselves with Munster scrambling, Marmion sending Bealham in under the posts.
The Clan Terrace was quite literally bouncing with that score, converted by O’Leary, and barely let up as O’Leary added a late penalty to ensure Connacht saw out their 14th win of the season.
Connacht scorers:
Tries: Niyi Adeolokun [2], Penalty try, Finlay Bealham
Conversions: Shane O’Leary [3 from 4]
Penalties: Shane O’Leary [3 from 4]
Munster scorers:
Tries: Simon Zebo, Mike Sherry
Conversions: Johnny Holland [2 from 2]
CONNACHT: Robbie Henshaw; Niyi Adeolokun, Bundee Aki (Fionn Carr ’68), Peter Robb (Jack Carty ’74), Matt Healy; Shane O’Leary, Kieran Marmion (John Cooney ’67); Denis Buckley (Ronan Loughney ’74), Tom McCartney (Jason Harris-Wright ’74), Finlay Bealham (JP Cooney ’68); Ultan Dillane, Aly Muldowney (Andrew Browne ’64); Sean O’Brien (James Connolly ’72), Eoin McKeon, John Muldoon (captain)
MUNSTER: Simon Zebo; Darren Sweetnam (Andrew Conway ’55), Francis Saili, Rory Scannell, Keith Earls; Johnny Holland (Ian Keatley ’65), Conor Murray; James Cronin (YC ’33 to ’43) (Dave Kilcoyne ’55), Mike Sherry (Niall Scannell ’55), Stephen Archer (John Ryan ’69); Donnacha Ryan (Jordan Coghlan ’69), Billy Holland (YC ’40 to ’50); CJ Stander (captain), Tommy O’Donnell, Jack O’Donoghue (Dave Kilcoyne ’39 to ’43) (Robin Copeland ’56).
Replacements not used: Tomás O’Leary.
Referee: Ben Whitehouse [WRU].
Attendance: 7,786.
- This article was updated at 12.44 on 17 April to amend two incorrect scorelines.
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