Munster 29
Leinster 17
Murray Kinsella reports from Thomond Park
MUNSTER MOVED FIVE points clear of Leinster at the top of the Guinness Pro12 with a comprehensive 29-17 win over their inter-provincial rivals, racking up four tries for a bonus-point victory.
Simon Zebo, Ronan O’Mahony, Tommy O’Donnell and man of the match CJ Stander all crossed for five pointers as Rassie Erasmus’ men clinically put away a weakened Leinster team in front of a boisterous crowd of 26,200.
With Leo Cullen leaving the likes of Jack McGrath, Jamie Heaslip, Devin Toner and Luke McGrath out of his side and Munster going with their strongest available XV, the home province were better in virtually all aspects.
They kicked well to compete – whereas Leinster were poor in this area – their maul and lineout were largely dominant, and their work rate in attack was once again exemplary.
Leinster are likely to have several of their missing frontliners back in situ for the New Year’s Eve clash with Ulster at the RDS, whereas the likes of Conor Murray and CJ Stander may be due a rest for Munster’s meeting with Connacht in Galway.
The Christmas cobwebs were blown off in a poor opening 15 minutes at Thomond, before Leinster struck superbly for the first score.
Jamison Gibson-Park hit out-half Ross Byrne drifting right on a diagonal line, with Byrne drawing Jaco Taute up out of the Munster defence searching for the big hit. Byrne deftly released to Kirchner as the fullback straightened inside Ronan O’Mahony, beating the covering defenders to the right of the posts.
Nacewa’s conversion made it 7-0 in Leinster’s favour, but Munster responded within four minutes as they battered the visitors’ tryline before Murray skipped to Zebo on the right touchline.
The Ireland international somehow kept his feet in play, spinning through the tackles of Gibson-Park and Barry Daly to stretch out his right hand and dot down, the TMO confirming his try. Bleyendaal’s brilliant conversion from out wide levelled proceedings.
A neck roll penalty against the otherwise excellent Jean Kleyn allowed Leinster to push back in front on the 27-minute mark through a Nacewa penalty, but Munster finished the half on top.
Leinster’s defence was superb for extended periods, particularly with Munster in their 22, but Erasmus’ men are a determined bunch. Having been spurned with their previous visit into Leinster territory, Munster would not relent with the half ticking to a close.
They smashed into the Leinster tackles repeatedly after a Cian Healy penalty concession gave them access, before finally shifting the ball to Bleyendaal.
Left win O’Mahony had looped all the way around to the right touchline, with Bleyendaal then skipping Darren Sweetnam to free O’Mahony to dive over in the right corner.
There was another TMO interaction as Nigel Owens reviewed Kirchner’s off-the-ball hit on Sweetnam – forced off injured as a result – but no sanction followed.
Instead, Bleyendaal again slotted the touchline conversion for a 14-10 lead to Munster at the break.
The early stages of the second half featured plenty of poorly-chased kicking from both teams, but Munster had been buoyed by that O’Mahony try.
The southern province ended one spell of kick tennis with a counter attack launched by the excellent Conor Murray that saw O’Donnell make a powerful surge down the left touchline.
Again, the forwards took over inside the 22 and pummelled their way to within metres, before a classy contribution from a back helped Munster to make up the final inches. It was Murray this time, as he scooped the ball from a ruck under the posts and fired a gorgeous cross-field kick towards the right corner flag.
O’Donnell had Daly in competition with him, but reached higher to gather the ball and muscle over for Munster’s third, once again converted brilliantly by Bleyendaal from the right touchline.
The bonus point was sealed in the 58th minute as Munster’s maul fired up once again, continuing their dominance of this area, and number eight Stander was the beneficiary this time.
Bleyendaal missed his easiest conversion attempt, relatively speaking, but did slot three points with a penalty inside the final quarter.
With both sides emptying their benches, there was a first appearance of the season for All Blacks-capped centre Francis Saili, who replaced new Munster cult hero Taute and understandably looked very hungry.
Leinster did muster a consolation score in the 78th minute, with replacement hooker Richardt Strauss bursting over from a maul, allowing Nacewa to convert, but Munster fans left Thomond Park with a festive skip in their step after another heartening home win.
Munster scorers:
Tries: Simon Zebo, Ronan O’Mahony, Tommy O’Donnell, CJ Stander
Conversions: Tyler Bleyendaal [3 from 4]
Penalties: Tyler Bleyendaal [1 from 1]
Leinster scorers:
Tries: Zane Kirchner, Richardt Strauss
Conversions: Isa Nacewa [2 from 2]
Penalties: Isa Nacewa [1 from 1]
MUNSTER: Simon Zebo; Darren Sweetnam (Andrew Conway ’40), Jaco Taute (Francis Saili ’63), Rory Scannell, Ronan O’Mahony; Tyler Bleyendaal, Conor Murray (Duncan Williams ’70 (blood sub – Murray ’76 to ’78)); James Cronin (HIA Dave Kilcoyne ’15 to ’19, permanent ’62), Niall Scannell (Rhys Marshall ’62), John Ryan (Stephen Archer ’62); Jean Kleyn (Billy Holland ’70), Donnacha Ryan; Peter O’Mahony (captain) (Jack O’Donoghue ’66), Tommy O’Donnell, CJ Stander.
LEINSTER: Zane Kirchner; Isa Nacewa (captain), Rory O’Loughlin, Robbie Henshaw, Barry Daly (Noel Reid ’55); Ross Byrne (Tom Daly ’70), Jamison Gibson-Park; Cian Healy (Peter Dooley ’63), James Tracy (Richardt Strauss ’63), Tadhg Furlong (Michael Bent ’63); Ross Molony, Mike McCarthy (Ian Nagle ’52 (HIA Rhys Ruddock ’70)); Rhys Ruddock (Dominic Ryan ’66), Dan Leavy, Jack Conan.
Replacements not used: Charlie Rock.
Referee: Nigel Owens [WRU].
Wow this is shocking. :( He played wonderful football at Celtic…just heard the club’s statement expressing shock and support to him and his family. Hope he makes a full recovery.
As a Villa man i am totally numbed. I am a. huge fan of Stan, just hope he can overcome this.
Who gives a crap about football when the likes of this happens. I hope He gets well soon.
I’m properly gutted to hear this news. We’ve had a few very rocky seasons at Villa recently and Stan has been the heart and soul of the squad through them. Really hope he beats this.
best wishes to himself and his family.. shocking news.. get well soon .
What can one say 32 and then to hear this.I wish him all the best with his treatment.
Get well soon Stan!! Really hope we see him back in a Villa shirt!!
Aston Villa will miss him, get well soon Petrov.
Poor fella , good luck to him
Poor guy, tough going for someone so young.
Gerson therapy has no clinical benefit and had shown to be harmful to patients. U really think a diet will cure cancer…. Get real. They wont even conduct research on this diet because it would be unethical. I have no problem with patients trying alternative therapy in conjunction with the best medical therapy available.
What would be unethical about investigating a cure for cancer? Look up Gerson Therapy: Results of 50 Cases you can download it for free. The X-rays/ct scans were taken from patients who were sent home to die after chemo/radiation and you can see the tumour shrinking. The reason they can say it has no proven benefit is because the scientific method only tests for one variable at a time but the Gerson therapy uses hundreds of variables. I’m guessing you didn’t follow my link or haven’t actually looked up the Gerson therapy, you just saw alternative therapy and dismissed it immediately. That’s what conventional ‘scientists’ do, they dismiss it because they can’t see why it works. It’s complicated biochemistry (cancer and the cure) so because they don’t understand it they throw all the chemo and radiation that they can at the tumour but they ignore the fact that cancer is a disorder not a virus. But it doesn’t matter how it works because the evidence speaks for itself. There’s a huge surge now in the US of medical doctors switching over to nutrition. Prescribing drugs is more profitable than prescribing juices so which do you think is going to be supported? Doctors have no interest in making you better because they make their money off of sick people. They say more people live off cancer than die from it.
great footballer…giant of a player for Celtic in his day. God’s speed and be well….
No I work in cancer care, administer treatments and watch people recover. I don’t look for guidance on evidenced based care from YouTube or google by the way. I agree that the medical profession needs to embrace patient choice but refusing medical care is non sensical. Maybe muamba should have received these such therapies rather than receiving world class care from the chest hospital!!?? I think petrov has a great chance of making a full recovery! Best of luck to him
Frightening. Get well soon.
Good luck, Stiliyan. As has been shown with Muamba,when it comes to the really important things, team colours don’t matter a damn. It’s been fantastic to see footie fans all over the world show support for Fabrice’s recovery. I hope Stiliyan gets that same support and gets back on the pitch soon.
If he was a member of my family i would tell him to skip the ‘treatment’ and go straight on the Gerson therapy. Hopefully he finds out about it in time before he goes for chemo/radiation which’ll only hasten his departure. What a screwed up world we live in when a proven cure is kept from the public sphere by greedy ‘medical. associations who dismiss them as quakery.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoUl7F7dWdE&feature=watch-now-button&wide=1
You could also ask Santa to bring you a cure for Christmas. It’s about as realistic as eating fruit, liver and having coffee enemas.
I prefer to drink my coffee, rather than take it up the bum, thanks all the same.
The treatment has to fit the ailment- the therapy is for chronic disease not cardic arrest. Its hard to believe you work in the healthcare profession with a statement like that. And I research peer reviewed journals (obviously not the British Medical Asoc. and the likes). Medical journals are made available online whats the problem with reading them there? but if you refuse to to even consider the evidence there’s nothing more I can say. I’ll continue to expose the truth whenever I can. I don’t see conspracy in everything and I don’t watch Ancient Aliens, but it’s just plain naive to think we’re being told the truth where there’s profit to be made. I hope too that he will make a full recovery and wish him the best of luck whatever route he chooses.