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Conor Murray in action against Zebre. Billy Stickland/INPHO
By the numbers

Munster and Connacht players rack up impressive stats in Pro12 wins

Conor Murray, CJ Stander and Ultan Dillane feature prominently in the Guinness Pro12 data.

IT WAS A successful round of the Guinness Pro12 for the Irish sides last weekend with all four provinces bagging victories.

And some of their most prominent players led the way in the league’s statistics for the latest round of matches.

Conor Murray impressed for Munster, the scrum-half scoring a try in their 49-5 bonus-point win against Zebre.

The Ireland stalwart made more clean breaks than anyone else in the league over the weekend with three and the 27-year-old was third for the week in metres gained with an impressive 97.

Connacht fullback Tiernan O’Halloran sat comfortably at the top of those standings, provided by Opta, gaining 148m from his 15 carries in the reigning champions’ first win of the season, a 28-15 home win against Edinburgh.

Leinster centre Rory O’Loughlin backed up his promising pre-season form with an impressive first start for the province in a 16-13 win at Cardiff.

His excellent 50m break in the second half eventually led to Leo Cullen’s side’s only try of the game, which was scored by back-rower Rhys Ruddock. And that was part of a tally of 86m gained by O’Loughlin, which was good enough for fourth overall at the weekend.

Connacht and Ireland lock Ultan Dillane showed a serious appetite for work at the Sportsground, his 18 carries leading the way in the league.

That total was just one better than his Ireland colleague, the powerful CJ Stander of Munster who scored a brace of tries against Zebre and leads the league overall with 60 carries across the first five rounds.

Connacht’s carrying was a particular feature of their first win of the season with O’Halloran’s 15 attempts being matched by Peter Robb and just one clear of Bundee Aki‘s 14.

Stander also tied for second best in terms of offloads in Round 5 with three, just one shy of Finn Russell of Glasgow.

Ospreys and Wales flanker Justin Tipuric led the way in turnovers (4) and tackles made (17) but Munster’s Billy Holland also impressed with three turnovers against Zebre.

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