Emirates Lions 13-33 Munster

THE KEY REASON for Munster’s excellent victory here at Ellis Park on Saturday night in a United Rugby Championship clash, had as much to do with their ruthlessness, as it did the Lions’ frustrating inaccuracy.

Until the final quarter, Munster were arguably in cruise control. They had hardly touched the ball in the second 40, as the Lions desperately chucked every attacking play at them in an effort to overturn a hefty 28-13 lead.

But some truly poor play from the hosts – strewn with errors of every persuasion – ensured the defending champions left South Africa with two excellent victories and in a handy position as the compeition wraps up.

It started all innocuously enough with three excellent penalties by Jack Crowley in the first 20 minutes. Munster had done very little in the way of attacking play but they were much more clinical, while their hosts flailed about.

The Lions inability to convert their possession into any substantial threat made the visitors’ first half all that much easier, as they played the percentages, biding their time to land a one-two punch in the 34th minute. It was then, from a scrum penalty, line-out, maul, that Jack O’Dononghue crashed over the whitewash to open their account in their try scoring column.

Some fortuitous play followed as Munster pounced on the pill in broken play, Simon Zebo hacking the ball forward. Lions skipper Marius Louw attempted to close down the danger, but was adjudged as impeding the No 15 five meters from the tryline, Munster taking a well-disciplined 23-6 lead at half-time.

Aided by some bizarre decision-making, Munster would go on to survive an early second half onslaught. Mistake after mistake also continued to hamper the Lions, as some good attacking impetus was marched back continuously from Munster’s redzone into the opposition’s 22.

Shane Daly capitilised on that sloppiness, scoring in the corner off first-phase ball from the set-piece to extend their lead by five more points. Try as they might, the Lions just could not overcome their own faultiness, Gavin Coombes securing Munster’s bonus-point victory with the final pay of the match.

Scorers for Emirates Lions:

Tries: PJ Botha, Ruan Venter
Conversion: Jordan Hendrikse
Penalties: Jordan Hendrikse (2) 

Scorers for Munster:

Tries: Jack O’Donoghue, Penalty Try, Shane Daly, Gavin Coombes
Conversion: Jack Crowley
Penalties: Crowley (3)

Emirates Lions: Jordan Hendrickse; Richard Kriel, Erich Kronje, Marius Louw, Edwill van der Merwe; Sanele Nohamba, Morne van den Berg; Morgan Naude, Jaco Visagie, Ruan Dreyer; Willem Alberts, Ruan Delport; JC Pretorius, Emmanuel Tshituka, Francke Horn.

Replacements: Asenathi Ntlabakanye for Dreyer (47), PJ Botha for Visagie (47), Reinhard Nothnagel for Alberts (51), Ruan Venter for Tshituka (53), JP Smith for Naude (64), Gianni Lombard for Hendrickse (64), Nico Steyn for Van den Berg (67).

Munster: Simon Zebo; Calvin Nash, Antoine Frisch, Sean O’Brien, Shane Daly; Jack Crowley, Conor Murray; Jeremy Loughman, Niall Scannell, Stephen Archer; RG Snyman, Tadhg Beirne; Peter O’Mahony, Alex Kendellen, Jack O’Donoghue.

Replacements: Craig Casey for Murray (44), Gavin Coombes for O’Donoghue (47), Tom Ahern for O’Mahony (51), Josh Wycherley for Loughman (51), Oli Jager for Archer (59), Mike Haley for Zebo (65), Eoghan Clarke for Scannell (67), Joey Carbery for Frisch (68), Loughman for Wycherley (74).

Referee: Craig Evans

– Updated 6.40pm: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Jack Daly scored a try for Munster; Shane Daly was the tryscorer.