Rugby:An injury to BJ Botha on his Munster debut was compounded by 80 scoreless minutes for Tony McGahan's team as they were soundly beaten by Wasps in Musgrave Park. Botha limped from the field with a leg injury after 28 minutes — he has just recovered from an knee injury — as Munster fell to their second defeat of the pre-season campaign.
Late tries from Tom Varndell and Matt Everard sealed the 15-0 victory for Dai Young’s side at the redeveloped Cork venue. McGahan’s side will wind up their pre-season campaign when they entertain London Irish next weekend as they start the defence of their league title minus so many household names on World Cup duty.
It was a different story at Donnybrook where Leinster hit the ground running ahead of the new season as a second-string selection proved there will be plenty of strength in depth for coach Joe Schmidt after a narrow 14-13 win over the Melbourne Rebels.
Schmidt will have viewed the victory at Donnybrook before a crowd of just over 3,000 spectators as a useful exercise albeit that any continuity in the second half was fractured by the turnstile like replacement of players on both sides: one or two were reintroduced on three occasions.
The Irish province gave playing opportunities to a raft of promising young players, some of whom acquitted themselves capably, while others like captain, Rhys Ruddock, Dominic Ryan and Jamie Hagan, Fionn Carr and newboy Mat Berquist all excelled and reinforced that they will challenge strongly for a jersey when the squad is at full strength.
Darren Hudson had a fine game, capping his performance with his side’s opening try while it was appropriate that Ruddock scored the second, a fitting reward for a brilliant performance.
Ulster survived a second-half comeback to secure a hard-fought victory over Neath to put their pre-season back on track. Following the 40-3 hammering at Bayonne a youthful Ulster were looking to make amends at the Gnoll.
John Burns, Craig Gilroy and Robbie Diack all crossed for tries in a dominant first-half. Neath stormed back in the second-half as Ulster’s inexperience and naivety showed but they put the 34-15 result beyond doubt with late Blane McIlroy and Peter Nelson tries.
