Celtic League Munster 25 Gwent Dragons 16 Munster outhalf Paul Burke produced one of his best kicking displays of the season on Saturday night against Newport-Gwent Dragons to hand Alan Gaffney's charges their seventh consecutive win as the Irish province push closer to Neath-Swansea Ospreys in the Celtic League.
Although Welsh international Kevin Morgan ran in for a try in the third minute of injury time, Munster's win was built on an impressive defensive display. Afterwards Gaffney said the win was "another step in the right direction for the province".
Munster, like the Dragons, lined out without eight of their international players, and afterwards their coach Chris Anderson bemoaned the loss of his Welsh contingent, most notably the half-back partnership of Gareth Cooper and Ceri Sweeney.
But the former rugby league star took positives from a game that failed to capture the imagination of the 4,000-strong home crowd. He said: "It was a funny sort of a game - it was always going to be decided by the referee a little bit."
Indeed, Scottish referee Mike Hall had a busy night and as a consequence of the defensive patterns woven by both team managements, open rugby was at a premium, with both sides content to resort to playing it tight around the fringes. There, Munster flanker Denis Leamy gave another polished display, and, alongside Jim Williams and Stephen Keogh, had a man-of-the match performance.
Behind the Munster scrum, where Frank Roche and James Blaney worked tirelessly, Burke kicked fluently and accurately and his three penalties had given the home side a deserved 9-6 interval advantage.
Dragons' outhalf Craig Warlow clipped over a sublime drop-goal from inside the Munster half to level matters seven minutes into the second half, but thereafter Munster were in control.
Three successful kicking attempts by Burke pushed Munster 18-9 ahead, and when centre Rob Henderson ran in Munster's only try of the night, the Dragons' fire had by then, burned out completely.
Burke's only blip on an impeccable night was a misplaced pass that led to Morgan running 70 yards to score under the posts.
Also on Saturday Cardiff Blues maintained their impressive home form with a hard-fought win over Glasgow, 24-19. The visitors had built a 10-point lead in the first six minutes through a try by Andrew Wilson and a conversion and penalty from Calvin Howarth.
Blues's Lee Thomas slotted over a penalty though Howarth replied with a second penalty. Cardiff took control with tries from Fereti Tuilagi and then Kort Schubert. But the second half failed to live up to expectations as Howarth knocked over two more penalties for Glasgow while Thomas collected three for Cardiff.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 7 mins: Warlow, pen; 9: Burke, pen; 6: Burke, pen; 36: Warlow pen; 42: Burke, pen; 48: Warlow, drop-goal; 50: Burke, pen; 55: Burke, pen; 68: Burke, pen; 69: Henderson, try, Burke con; 83: Morgan, try, Warlow con.
MUNSTER: C Cullen; M Lawlor, S Payne, R Henderson, A Horgan; P Burke, M Prendergast; F Roche, J Blaney, G McIlwham; T Bowman, T Hogan; S Keogh, D Leamy, J Williams (capt). Replacements: M Mullins for Horgan (78 mins); M Storey for Roche (79 mins).
DRAGONS: K Morgan; G Wyatt, N Brew, S Tuipulotu, B Breeze; C Warlow, G Baber; R Snow, J Richards, C Anthony; I Gough, P Sidoli; J Ringer, J. Forster (capt), R Bryan. Replacements: R Beattie for Bryan (60 mins); A Black for Snow and R Thomas (both 61 mins); K Crawford for J Richards and R Oakley for Sidoli (both 74 mins); S Winn for Baber and J Bryant for Brew (75 mins).
Referee: M Hall (SRU).
