Munster 22 Connacht 6:FULL REDEMPTION may take a while longer, but Munster at least took the first steps towards partial atonement last night as they outgunned Connacht at Thomond Park.
Six days on from the embarrassing home defeat against Harlequins and while the expected backlash never really materialised, Tony McGahan’s men still ran out comfortable winners to make it 11 wins out of 11 at home in the league this season.
First-half tries by Simon Zebo and Alan Quinlan set Munster on their way, while Doug Howlett added a third late on to put some daylight between the sides.
The result had little bearing on the complexion of the final table, with Connacht finishing where they began before kick-off, in ninth position.
Munster had already achieved more wins than any other side in the history of Celtic rugby, and will now go on to play the Ospreys at the semi-final stage.
A drab first half was punctuated by two tries, with Zebo getting over in the sixth minute after he out-jumped Gavin Duffy to take a clever chip by Johne Murphy en route to the try line.
The second arrived two minutes before the break when Quinlan took a clean lineout ball from five metres out and eventually worked his way over the line after a well-worked maul. Ronan O’Gara missed the first conversion, but landed the second from a more difficult angle.
In between, Ian Keatley knocked over two penalties for Connacht but there wasn’t a whole lot else for the paltry home crowd to get excited about.
Both sides looked to be going through the motions and the play was often listless and unimaginative, with Munster persisting in passing the ball back and forth across the pitch without ever looking overly threatening.
Connacht looked comfortable in defence, but offered little in attack. The scrums were well contested, as was the breakdown, but in terms of entertainment, it was a pretty poor affair.
The second half was marginally better than the first, with both sides showing great urgency in attack.
O’Gara kicked another penalty for Munster but really it was Connacht who forced the play during the early stages, albeit without much success on the scoreboard.
Seán Cronin almost crossed the whitewash but was denied by a superb last-ditch tackle from Danny Barnes.
Keatley missed a relatively straightforward penalty, while Gavin Duffy touched down for what appeared to be a perfectly legitimate try, only for play to be brought back for a marginal knock-on decision in the lead-up.
Fionn Carr also caused some problems with his evasive running that will be on show with Leinster next season and John Muldoon made plenty of yardage in the tight.
But while they threatened repeatedly to unlock the home defence, they never quite achieved it.
Munster, it seemed, were happy to wind down the clock until the moment came for Quinlan to say farewell, which he did to rapturous applause with eight minutes to go.
The crowd’s response energised the home side, who immediately registered another try by Howlett.
Substitute Paul Warwick was the instigator, chipping delicately over the cover defence to set up the former All Black, though the try owed as much to the bounce and the sandy surface as it did to any amount of skill, which probably summed up the match.
MUNSTER: F Jones; D Howlett, J Murphy, D Barnes, S Zebo; R O’Gara, T O’Leary; M Horan, M Sherry, J Hayes, D Ryan, P O’Connell (capt), A Quinlan (I Nagle 72), N Ronan, D Leamy (T O’Donnell 67). Replacements: P Warwick for Jones (45-54 mins, 73 mins), P Stringer for O’Leary (50 mins), W du Preez for Horan (54 mins), D Hurley for Zebo ( 57 mins), S Archer for Hayes (61 mins), I Nagle for Quinlan (72 mins).
CONNACHT: G Duffy; B Tuohy, E Griffin, M Nikora, F Carr; I Keatley, F Murphy; B Wilkinson, S Cronin, J Hagan, M McCarthy, B Upton, A Browne, J O’Connor (capt), J Muldoon. Replacments: T Nathan for Tuohy (44 mins), C Willis for Murphy, D Rogers for Hagan (both 67 mins)
Referee: Dudley Phillips
