URC: Dragons 19 Munster 38
Munster moved up to seventh in the United Rugby Championship table after recording a bonus point victory over Dragons at Rodney Parade on Saturday night.
Even though their spirited opponents finished the game with an unanswered haul of 14 points, the visiting Irish province ran in six tries over the course of the proceedings to give themselves a much-needed play-off boost.
It was a dream start to the action for Munster in Newport as Diarmuid Kilgallen – fresh on from scoring a brace against Northampton Saints in the pool stages of the European Champions Cup seven days earlier – got through for a third-minute try following excellent approach work from Tom Ahern.
While Gavin Coombes had a potential five-pointer ruled out by the TMO off a subsequent attack, the bustling backrow released flanker Alex Kendellen for a second Munster try on 16 minutes.
Making his first start for the province, Ben O’Connor marked the occasion with his maiden Munster try just two minutes after Kendellen had crossed the whitewash. The visitors were in a rampant mood and before the opening quarter had even elapsed, a penalty try ensured they were guaranteed to return with a bonus point to their name.
Although Dragons did their best to contain Munster for the remainder of the half, loosehead prop Dian Bleuler capped the final appearance of his short-team deal with Ian Costello’s men by claiming their fifth try on 32 minutes.
This helped Munster to establish a seemingly insurmountable 31-0 lead at the interval, but Dragons finally opened their account when frontrow Chris Coleman touched down shortly after the restart.
The province remained very much in control of their own destiny, however, and – moments after taking over from Kendellen on the openside – John Hodnett claimed their sixth try of the night on 53 minutes. Supplementing the brace of conversions that Billy Burns registered in the opening half, Tony Butler supplied the bonuses to this score to leave Munster all of 31 points in front.
Yet despite being rooted to the bottom of the URC table, Dragons deserve credit for continuing to battle until the bitter end in this contest. They received a let-off when Munster replacement Paddy Patterson had a try ruled out for a knock-on, but the Welsh club reduced their final deficit to 19 points courtesy of converted tries from Harry Wilson and Dane Blacker.
SCORING SEQUENCE – 2 mins: Kilgallen try 0-5; 16: Kendellen try, Burns con 0-12; 18: O’Connor try, Burns con 0-19; 19: Penalty try 0-26 32: Bleuler try 0-31; 41: Coleman try 5-31; 53: Hodnett try, Butler con 5-38; 67: Wilson try, Evans con 12-38; 73: Blacker try, Reed con 19-38.
DRAGONS: H Anderson; R Dyer, A Owen, H Ackerman, J Rosser; L Evans, M Lloyd; R Martinez, B Coghlan, C Coleman; J Davies, R Woodman; S Lewis-Hughes, D Lydiate, T Basham. Replacements: G Young for Basham (4 mins); D Kelleher-Griffiths for Martinez (9); H Wilson for Ackerman (36); D Blacker for Lloyd (41); J Benjamin for Coghlan, B Langton-Cryer for Woodman (both 50); P Latu for Coleman (60); W Reed for Evans (67).
MUNSTER: B O’Connor; S Daly, T Farrell, R Scannell, D Kilgallen; B Burns, E Coughlan; D Bleuler, D Barron, O Jager; F Wycherley, T Ahern; J O’Donoghue, A Kendellen, G Coombes. Replacements: T Butler for Farrell (24 mins); J Ryan for Jager (41); P Patterson for Daly, J Hodnett for Kendellen (both 50); B Gleeson for Burns (56); E O’Connell for Wycherley (60); D Sheahan for Barron (64); K Ryan for Bleuler (67).
Referee: G Gnecchi (FIR).
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