Munster 35
Connacht 33
MUNSTER EDGED CONNACHT by two points in a thrilling URC round one interpro derby, with the two provinces sharing 10 tries across a highly entertaining encounter at Thomond Park.
After a slow start this game erupted into life, with Connacht’s scintillating half-backs providing the spark. In an electric first-half display, out-half Josh Ioane and scrum-half Ben Murphy combined for three tries, with Munster responding through scores from Alex Nankivell and Mike Haley.
With Munster trailing by five points at the break, a rip-roaring second half brought five further tries as Graham Rowntree’s men came out on top thanks to Shane Daly’s late score, expertly converted by Tony Butler.
This was a captivating round one fixture in which both teams played some brilliant attacking rugby and were guilty of soft moments in defence. Connacht head back to Galway with two losing bonus points but will wonder how they failed to win after scoring five tries, while Munster’s spirited second-half performance was met with a raucous reception from the Thomond Park faithful at full-time.
Yet the first-half belonged to Connacht’s lively scrum-half, Murphy.
With just under 15 minutes played and little in the way of scoring opportunites, Murphy cut Munster open with a clever bit of opportunistic play, peeling away from the base of a scrum to sear forward and hit winger Shayne Bolton, who in turn found Ioane, with the New Zealander doing well to score in the corner. Ioane stuck the resulting conversion attempt wide but his team were in the driving seat.
From there, Connacht played with a real sense of purpose, showing impressive physicality up front and a cutting edge with ball in hand.
Five minutes after taking the lead, they were over again, Murphy providing the finishing touch to a sharp strike play. Attacking off a lineout, captain Cian Prendergast opened the space with a smart pass out the back to Mack Hansen, who found Ioane. The Connacht out-half was tackled near the line by Munster fullback Mike Haley, but the ball popped out to Murphy, who ran over unchallenged. After a short TMO check the try stood and Ioane’s conversion moved Connacht into a 12-0 lead.
It was a wonderful start from Connacht’s new half-backs, who were both making their competitive debuts for the province. Murphy, 23, joined from Leinster over the summer having made 14 appearances across three seasons with his home province. Ioane was signed from the Super Rugby the Chiefs, with the 29-year-old starting only one game for the Hamilton side last season.
The debutants had their team motoring nicely but then Munster grew into the game, with their rally led by Alex Nankivell. The centre had looked Munster’s most dangerous player in the opening stages and was involved in a few threatening attacks, including one which saw Nankivell and Craig Casey break at speed before Connacht recovered well to kill the move.
Moments later he was in. Munster broke through a fine piece of inventive play by Tom Farrell, who released an offload over his head to send Casey motoring for the line, but the scrum-half was hit hard by Connacht fullback Santiago Cordero, who received a yellow card for his troubles.
From the lineout Casey got the ball out to Nankivell, who bounced Conor Oliver to run through and score. Billy Burns added the conversion and Munster were back in the game.
With Cordero in the bin, Munster continued to find space in the Connacht defence.
A Tom Farrell break resulted in Fineen Wycherley being held up over the line. A goal-line drop-out offered the home side a second bite, and this time a superb offload on the deck from Hodnett kept the ball alive, allowing Haley to race through and score, slicing past Bolton and Hansen on his way to the tryline. Burns added the conversion as Connacht lost Bolton to injury, having hurt himself in the process of tackling Haley.
Connacht had lost their early momentum but kept throwing punches, Hansen darting for the corner and trying to play in David Hawkshaw, with the ball lost forward at the crucial moment.
With half-time approaching Connacht conjured up another moment of magic, Murphy releasing Ioane before taking the return pass to score another fine try. Cathal Forde converted and Connacht led 19-14 at the break.
The second half started in frustrating fashion for Munster, with Burns missing two kicks to touch within three minutes of the restart. His third, successful attempt was met with ironic cheers and saw Munster collect the lineout cleanly to move into their phase play, building pressure before Hodnett went over from close range. Burns converted and Munster were back in the lead.
The game hurdled along at a ferocious pace. After Ioane struck the post with a long-range penalty, Hansen was alert to sweep up the rebound and offer his team another opportunity to test the Munster defence. After a patient advance in the Munster 22, Oisin Dowling was held up over the line by Gavin Coombes, with Burns forced off injured after picking up a bang in the process.
The visitors were clinical from the restart, Ioane linking up nicely with Cathal Forde and Dave Heffernan before Hawkshaw punched through to score, with Ioane converting.
The momentum continued to swing as Gavin Coombes crossed for Munster at the other end, the backrow powering over after a smart step from Shane Daly and excellent hands from Jack O’Donoghue, with replacement out-half Butler adding a superb conversion from the sideline.
With both teams emptying their benches, the contest grew increasingly open.
Connacht centre Piers O’Conor found himself in a footrace with Nankivell after chipping over the top, with Nankivell almost losing the bouncing ball before recovering. It led to a Connacht scrum, and from the setpiece Cathal Forde battered through a barrier of red jerseys to score Connacht’s fifth try of the evening, owing thanks to a big support shove from O’Conor. Ioane’s conversion pushed Connacht to 33 points.
Over to Munster. With numbers up, Casey moved the ball to Nankviell, who threw a fine bridge pass to Haley, the Munster fullback then spinning it wide to Daly, who had the pace to finish and score Munster’s fifth try. Butler’s second conversion was as good as his first, and entering the final 10 minutes Munster led by two.
Somehow, that’s where the scoring ended, with the home crowd on their feet as Casey killed the game by booting the ball off the field. After a breathless evening in Limerick, Munster are off to a winning start in the URC.
Munster scorers:
Tries – Nankivell, Haley, Hodnett, Coombes, Daly.
Conversions – Burns [3/3], Butler [2/2]
Connacht scorers:
Tries – Ioane, Murphy [2], Hawkshaw, Forde.
Conversions – Ioane [3/4], Forde [1/1]
Penalty – Ioane [0/1]
MUNSTER: Mike Haley; Thaakir Abrahams, Tom Farrell (Seán O’Brien, 76), Alex Nankivell, Shane Daly (Seán O’Brien, 37-HT HIA); Billy Burns (Tony Butler, 54), Craig Casey; Jeremy Loughman (Josh Wycherley, 51), Diarmuid Barron (capt), (Niall Scannell, 64), John Ryan (Oli Jager, 51); Jean Kleyn (Jack O’Donoghue, 56), Fineen Wycherley; Ruadhán Quinn (Alex Kendellen, 51), John Hodnett, Gavin Coombes.
CONNACHT: Santiago Cordero; Mack Hansen, Piers O’Conor, Cathal Forde, Shayne Bolton (David Hawkshaw, 34); Josh Ioane, Ben Murphy (, Caolin Blade,, 63); Denis Buckley (Peter Dooley, 52), Dave Heffernan (Dylan Tierney-Martin, 67), Jack Aungier (Sam Illo, 52); Joe Joyce (Oisín Dowling, 51), Darragh Murray (Sean Jansen, 52); Josh Murphy, Conor Oliver (Shamus Hurley-Langton, 52), Cian Prendergast (capt).
Referee: Chris Busby [IRFU].
Attendance: 15,705.
A great advert for the league. As Munster fan, some of our defending was deeply concerning. Unlucky, Connacht. That backline looks to have serious potential. Also, Craig Casey has gone up another notch. He was at the heart of everything good that Munster did.
@Sam Bingham: he’d a great 2nd half in particular. Ioane looks a tasty signing for connacht, a baller
@Sam Bingham: yeah Casey was excellent today
@Sam Bingham: How are you mentioning Craig Casey when Ben Murphy was the best scrum half in the pitch
@Sam Bingham: he had a good game but he panicked a bit with one or 2 opportunities close to the line when composure would have probably led to a score.
@Dave Moran: I despise agreeing with u. But I also cannot see what fellow munster fans saw in that casey performance. I thought it was mixed at best. Murphy was superb. Best player on the pitch for me.
@Sam Bingham: you’re dreaming , 2nd best in that game IMO . Interesting to see Casey now looking over his shoulder the way Murray has been for last few seasons – good dilemma for Team Ireland but wonder if the Connaught scrum half curse will continue to apply
@Sam Bingham: At this stage of the season you would not expect defences to be perfect, just like Leinster last night. But all of the Irish provinces have reasons to be happy when it comes to their new players and some of their attack plays.
@Dave Moran: to be fair, Dave, you have a dartboard with a picture of Casey on it. In whatever cellar you live in. Obsessed.
@Sean O’Maolain: we saw plenty. And I didn’t say he was the best player on the pitch, but the level of control he exerted in that second half was really noticeable.
10/10 for entertainment
What a game of rugby!
I am still raging about the deliberate knock on when Connacht were on the line . Penalty try all day long
Still if we attack like that and shore up our defence I see a good season ahead
@Reggordon: the ball was knocked backwards
@Nathan Fulham: but he definitely wasn’t on his feet.
@Reggordon: Totally agree and should have been yellow as well
@JoeVlogs: doesn’t matter… no ruck… it was an offload
@Reggordon: the ref missed a few things, Connacht no23 late in the match on the Connacht line takes Casey out it on the Munster side
@Liam23: Billy Burns no-arms on Ioane on the build up to the try on halftime should also have been looked at.
@Reggordon: Do u or the two fools on commentary realise that the ball was slapped backwards? Do u even know the rules?
@Liam23: casey milks penalties playing on his height. Goes down like a soccer player.
Connacht halfbacks very good, new fly half is very confident had a great game until that disaster of a penalty kick into the corner at the end . Hansen was superb as were the rest of the backs in the wide channel. Munster just seem to find a way to go into another gear after absorbing so much pressure. great game and already shows this is going to be a brilliant season
@Stuart: Cordero not a 15 for me, I want some heft on my last line of defence. He’s plenty brave, just wee…
@Stuart: usually the first games are bs and while there was loads of rust all around, what a game! could have gone either way, interpro is a great way to start.
@Stuart: Connacht v Sharks could be the game of round two. I’m not a Connacht fan but I was very impressed with them and was cheering for them at the end. Their handling and general play was the best we’ve seen from any Irish side in the first round and pre-season friendlies.
Irish rugby the winner today couldent care less who won
Poxxed to get that result. Both attacks v good, both defences very hairy
@munsterman: I’m not sure Connacht’s defense is the best barometer to judge how good your attack is. Their defensive stats last year were diabolical
@Eoin H: I’d be inclined to credit the attacks today rather than blame the defenses. Sure any try scored usually involves sub optimal defending but some of the attack by both teams was exceptional. Both teams kept the ball alive as much as possible and went to width when it was on. I was extremely impressed by Connacht – they had a lot of improvement to make versus last season. They look like a totally different team tbh
@munsterman: Need Crowley and Beirne back, be grand
As an irish fan what a game ben murphy was outstanding guess munster leinster let him go because they have GP foley and casey murray fantastic match
@Shawn: he’s already better than Craig Casey
@Shawn: he was only on loan at Munster
@Liam23: Thanks for that
Great advert for the URC and big congrats to both sides. I predicted it would be very tight and so it turned out. The level of back play was very incouraging from an Irish rugby point of view.
@Tom Reilly: Great advert for how not to defend and how not to tackle and how not to find touch from a penalty. As I said if both sides play like this for the rest of the season, there won’t be many below them in the table.
@Ray Ridge: It was a great game they both will inprove defence just be happy with the entertainment
@Dan: There’s more to Rugby than falling off tackles and missing kicks to touch. Sure it was entertaining. I’m looking at it from an indept analytical point of view rather just an entertainment point of view.
@Ray Ridge: absolute rubbish, stick to the soccer kid.
@Ray Ridge: Ray, you really are a force of nature. As trolls go you are my favourite.
@Ray Ridge:”indept analytical point of view” is a classic lad
@Ray Ridge: maybe just Ulster and Leinster.. at least if we’re to go by your upbeat commentary
Fantastic game. Connacht were brilliant in attack and defence and should have won. Mack, C Forde and 9 and 10 magic. Looks good for the season..
@Liam Joyce: Ye will surprised a lot this season i fancyied we to win today
@Shawn: ye
@Liam Joyce: Connacht missing Bealham and Aki while Munster were without Beirne, POM, Crowley, Murray and Nash from the international squad. Hopefully both defences will improve because they will need to based on today.
Hansen really is good to watch, just a baller. Got away with a really poor opening 20 there. Connacht looked so much more alert and hungry then Munster did and that halfback pairing looks like it will really work for them.
Very entertaining game regardless of errors from both teams.could have went either way but Munster got over the line,Connaught would have deserved the win had they won it.
Two evenly matched teams really. Same old story for Connacht, concede 5 tries in any game and there’s a 99 per chance you don’t win. Top 8 will be a good target for both these teams this season, although Connacht have a decent chance at the Challenge cup.
@Eoin H: ha ha leinster fan who believes his team lorded it last night!
@munsterman: Last night was a superb win. Heavily rotated team vs a team stacked full of Scottish internationals. What people don’t realise is Leinsters depth has gone nowhere, it’s just having no attack or defense coach for a full pre season means you lack clarity for the season.
@Eoin H: pretty much every team is heavily rotated for the 1st game of the season. Seeing as you are putting so much meas in last yrs form, then leinster conceded a tbp to the side that couldn’t buy one last year
@munsterman: Edinburgh were clearly at full strength if you have the ability to identify their main players? Only for Snyman a full strength Munster would’ve lost there last season, but Tbf it wasn’t the only game in the run near the end of last year Munster relied on Snyman to do something. He’s going to be a huge loss sadly as much as it hurts Munster fans to admit
@Eoin H: Jesus will ye Leinster pukes ever jog on and stop making everything about ye. Absolute sickeners
@5sZl1dX2: the Munster fan was the one who brought Leinster into it…
@Eoin H: top 8 the target for all teams no?
Ref was excellent tonight and it was a very entertaining game. Great for the URC!
The correct spelling is Connacht. Great game.
The collars on Munsters shirt remind me of the boots being sold by Trump
@Anton phelan: You should buy a pair
In a word : Relieved ……
Brilliant game . Well done Munster
You see two worse defenses for the rest of the season. Shambolic stuff from both sides. Some of the trys conceded were absolutely unforgivable. Missed kicks too touch. Connacht are even worse defensively than last season, which is scarely believable. I can see Connacht conceding a record number of trys and points in the URC this season. Cordero is completely spoofer. There won’t be many teams below Munster or Connacht in the table this season if they play like this for the rest of the campaign.
@Ray Ridge: Off the wall wrong with your predictions Ray, as usual
@Patrick Kennedy: But Ray predicted Munster win. Right or wrong?
@Ray Ridge: Great game and you moan about the defence go do one
@Ray Ridge: one right one wrong so far who did u pick ulster game
@Ray Ridge: Connacht will definitely make the top8 this season based on that. Unless they have a huge injury crisis that blows them off course, that’s some back line they have there – seriously dangerous if the pack provide decent ball
@Michael Corkery: Stop, Munster were dreadful and still scored 33 points. Connacht need to get defense sorted or they will ship record number of points in the URC this season.
@Shawn: Glasgow obviously. Ulster are a dreadful rugby team. Expect them to be in the bottom half along with Connacht come end of season.
@Ray Ridge: Now this is reaching
@Ray Ridge: ouch
@Ray Ridge: Ray predicted Munster by a minimum of 15 and has a habit of saying he had money on bets that would’ve been a minimum of 50/1 had he placed them before kick off. But he’s full of it, probably never stepped foot on a rugby pitch in his life but is an armchair expert – you know the type, propping up the bar talking nonsense and blaming an “injury” on why he never played for Ireland. Muck.
@Patrick Kennedy: No he didn’t, just scroll back and see. It’s all there. I said I’d be amazed if Munster don’t win this, and that’s exactly what they did. However, I expected Munster to play much better.
@Ray Ridge: obviously wrong again
@Ray Ridge: You said Munster by a minimum of 15 and predicted Glasgow to beat Ulster out the gate. Tell me this – does your arse ever get jealous about the amount of s h one t that comes out of your mouth?
@Ray Ridge: even a broken clock is right twice a day. You and Dave Moran are the biggest fools on this page.
Thoroughly enjoyed watching that, as a neutral. Good stuff from both teams, exciting youngsters doing brilliant things but also making mistakes. The game had a bit of everything.
I’ve never been as disgusted with a bonus point win. Conceding 33 to a team as bad as Connaught at home is unforgivable.
@5sZl1dX2: Now now give connaught credit they have some smashing players im a munster leinster ulster connaught fan i dont really care who wins its all good for ireland
@5sZl1dX2: a little unfair and arrogant. Not sure where the basis for this is coming from ? Munster haven’t done much in 10 years plus.
@Shawn: nah they’re absolutely terrible. Like Munster of 6 years ago, box kick, lineout and try to mail. Nothing else to their game. Hansen and Cordero were anonymous.
@JJB: if Munster haven’t done anything in 10 years Connacht must never have done anything so
@5sZl1dX2: clueless
@5sZl1dX2: Where are you getting your despicable arrogance from you? Connacht and Munster shared a URC apiece over the past 10 years you total boll@x ….
@JJB: you’re the one saying Munster haven’t done a thing in 10 years plus. If you say that and exclude Munsters URC, Connachts Pro 12 should go too. And to be fair the standard of a post World Cup Pro 12 and a URC are miles apart
@5sZl1dX2: if that pro12 was so easy, how come Munster didn’t win it? Connacht beat a full strength Leinster in a final…when did Munster do that?
@JoeVlogs: oh great, another whinger
@5sZl1dX2: Step away from the mirror and you’ll find the whinger has disappeared.
@JoeVlogs: you’re the one replying to me you flute
@5sZl1dX2: considering you are the one saying it would be an easy 20/30 point win for Munster, I wouldn’t be calling anyone named
@JoeVlogs: and I’m honestly disappointed it wasn’t. Then again, Connacht seem to only emotionally get up for Interpros. If they could do that every week, they might be a smidgen more likeable
@5sZl1dX2: I said haven’t done much. Learn to read you patronising pr@ck. It is asses like you that gives supporters a bad name. Treating Connacht like muck – who the hell do you think you are.
@JJB: I’m only treating them like muck because they are muck. The IRFU should have done everyone a favour and pressed on with disbanding them in 2003. An absolute drain on resources
@5sZl1dX2: as I thought. An opinionated, overbearing, privelaged pr@ck. The type of guy who gives all rugby supporters a bad name. If Munster didn’t get Beirne indirectjy from Leinster you would be mid table. You definitely are in no position to be looking down your nose on Connacht who unlike Munster have no private money subsidising the payroll you moron.
@JJB: and if Connacht didn’t recruit half your squad from Leinster and the other half from overseas, you’d be stuck with a bunch of duds like Carty and Denis Buckley. Every half decent squad has private money behind them. Just because Connacht haven’t found anyone willing to pony up, doesn’t mean it should be used as a stick to beat another team with. It would be more in their line to try sell out next Saturday. First game at home this season, a reduced capacity of 3500-4000 and still hasn’t sold out. That’s absolutely pathetic
@5sZl1dX2: I am not from Connacht in fact . What I see in you is a patronising guy full of crap with an outsized opinion on Munster’s standing and a contemptuous approach towards Connacht. Neither is justified. A Leinster fan might have some merit in making your argument being so superior to everyone else in Ireland over recent years. Munster has no such status in 2024. My concludion is a you are stuck up, odious pr@ck with no redeeming qualties.
@JJB: no matter what you think or say, my opinion of Connacht remains the same
@5sZl1dX2: i really couldnt care what you think to be honest. Connacht deserve to be where they are – period. Lets leave it there assho/e
@JJB: for someone that doesn’t are what I think, you’re doing an awful lot of whinging. Are you sure you’re not a Connacht fan? You’re behaving like one anyway