Munster 23 Dragons 9: Munster coach Rob Penney is satisfied that his side have put their Italian nightmare behind them after getting back to winning ways against Dragons on Saturday.
Munster face into a huge three weeks with Leinster’s arrival at Thomond Park next weekend their final warm up ahead of their opening Heineken Cup action against Edinburgh the following weekend.
On Saturday the Musgrave Park faithful were not blown away by pretty back moves, but the Dragons were well beaten by a staunch stand from the Munster pack. After defeat to Treviso the win was all important.
“It was important to bounce back. I don’t think that confidence was dented last week . . . the boys responded really well,” said Penney. “We put ourselves in a position to probably push on but . . . we had to bounce back with a victory tonight on the back of last week. We’ve done that and hopefully we can build on that from here.”
To say that Penney’s expansive game plan was shelved for the night would be incorrect, as he has insisted that his side have licence to play the game as they see it. But for sure, with big games on the horizon, there was a concerted effort by the pack to make the hard yards for their team-mates.
Whether the return of Paul O’Connell to the match day squad had any impact on this is unclear, but Munster mauled like they did in the days of Mick Galwey, scrummaged with tenacity and ground the Dragons’ lineout into submission.
Yet despite all of Munster's set-piece superiority, the Welsh side could have stolen a bonus point if their late attacking intent had not been stalled by a few sloppy handling errors.
Sturdy Dragons
And the Munster coach conceded that his side will need a major step up in their performance when Matt O'Connor's in-form side come to Limerick next Saturday night.
“Look, the Dragons are a good side, they’re a much better side than last year. They were robust in defence and they challenged us around the fringes on attack. They probably should have scored there near the end so who knows.
“I don’t know if we’ve been tested enough or not, but we’ll find out next week because Leinster are beginning to build momentum and they’re a quality side as we know,” he said.
And if Munster are to threaten Leinster they will have to get points on the board to reflect territorial advantage. By the 20th minute Kris Burton had kicked Dragons level with a pair of penalties in reply to JJ Hanrahan’s two, but the Welsh side had barely tiptoed into the Munster half at that stage.
Crucially, five minutes before the break James Cronin finished off Munster’s best move of the night to give them a 13-6 lead at half-time. And two sin-binning’s for Dragons in the 48th and 49th minutes allowed Peter O’Mahony make the most of a thinned out defence to bag the vital second try.
Conor Murray seems to be the only fitness worry that Munster have ahead of next weekend’s derby, but should the Lions scrumhalf fail to shake off a foot injury Penney will not be concerned about throwing Cathal Sheridan into the action. Once again the young scrumhalf shone on Saturday, frustrating the Dragons’ fringe defence while peppering snappy deliveries to his backs.
And up front there was plenty of positives too as Cronin – who once more showed a nose for crossing the try line – and John Ryan easily dominated their direct opponents.
MUNSTER: J Murphy; A Conway, K Earls, I Dineen, S Zebo; JJ Hanrahan, C Sheridan; J Cronin, D Varley, J Ryan; D O'Callaghan, D Foley; P O'Mahony, S Dougall, P Butler. Replacements: P O'Connell for Foley (51 mins), D Kilcoyne for Cronin (58 mins), S Archer for Ryan (58 mins), F Jones for Murphy (61 mins), I Keatley for Hanrahan (62 mins), M Sherry for Varley (66 mins), CJ Stander for Butler (68 mins), D Williams for Sheridan (70 mins).
DRAGONS: D Evans; M Pewtner, R Wardle, J Dixon, T Prydie; K Burton, J Evans; P Price, H Gustafson, F Chaparro; A Coombs, M Screech; J Groves, L Evans, N Talei. Replacements: O Evans for Price (50 mins), D Way for Chaparro (50 mins), R Rees for Evans (57 mins), S Parry for Gustafson (58 mins), A Hughes for Pridie (64 mins), R Sidoli for Screech (64 mins), J Tovey for Buton (69 mins).
Referee: Neil Paterson (SRU).