Williams earns his stripes

Munster 27 Dragons 3: NICK WILLIAMS was the star of the show last night as Munster secured victory at Musgrave Park. The giant Kiwi scored a second-half hat-trick of tries in a man-of-the-match performance, securing a winning bonus point for Tony McGahan's side.

Munster were slow to get out of the blocks, which was partly down to the disruption caused by the late withdrawal of Keith Earls due to illness, and the early injury to Barry Murphy.

The new-look backline, with Lifemi Mafi and Jean de Villiers at centre inside Doug Howlett on the wing, looked out of sync early on and struggled to make inroads against a well-organised defence.

Munster’s phase-building was good but their ruck ball was often quite slow, and returning Lion Ronan O’Gara was forced to kick away a good deal of possession.

The lineout was also well below par, with three of Denis Fogarty’s first five throws sailing over the top.

Such inaccuracy from touch cost Munster, and despite owning the ball for the opening quarter, they were unable to turn pressure into points.

O’Gara was unlucky not to find Felix Jones with a clever cross-field kick on 20 minutes, the ball sailing just a fraction too high.

The longer the game went on without a score, the more the Dragons seemed to grow in confidence and twice they had Munster in trouble on their line, but their limitations in the scrum prevented them from taking advantage.

Marcus Horan and Tony Buckley were completely dominant against Hugh Gustafson and Nigel Hall, and each attempted drive was repelled with relative ease.

With the game crying out for a score, O’Gara missed a relatively straightforward opportunity, his penalty from 35 metres was poorly struck and drifted wide.

He did make amends moments later, splitting the posts from a central position, but James Arlidge responded with a penalty and the teams went into the break tied at 3-3.

Coach McGahan’s summation of the first half was pretty accurate, and it seems as though he fully expected Munster to cut loose in the second half: “Really, at three-all it was a bit stop-start from both sides, but we knew that if we could remain patient and a little more organised, and be a little more clinical, that we could outwork them in the second half.”

Indeed, McGahan didn’t have to wait long for the opening score. Munster worked a five-metre scrum on the right and, following a strong push by Buckley and co, Williams was on hand to drive over the line.

O’Gara missed the conversion.

The Munster forwards then began to tighten their grip on the game soon after, and Williams got over for a second try on 58 minutes, charging over from another five-metre scrum on the opposite side.

O’Gara was not on hand to take the conversion, having received a yellow card earlier after a bout of fisticuffs with Shaun O’Connor, but Tomás O’Leary duly obliged from wide on the touchline to leave Munster 15-3 ahead.

Howlett then finished the game as a contest with a lightning break from halfway to score his first try of the season, which was once again converted by O’Leary.

A rampant Munster then went in hunt of the bonus point try, and got it on 75 minutes when Williams once more touched down following another five-metre scrum.

The scrum, on this occasion, was deliberately collapsed by the visiting frontrow and Williams simply picked up the ball, tapped to himself and strolled over.

O’Gara could not live up to O’Leary’s high standards and once more missed the conversion.

Speaking after the game, man-of-the-match Williams was quick to credit his tight-five forwards for their part in his three-try haul: “The likes of Tony Buckley,” said Williams, “I mean, just look at him, he’s a man beast. And then you have Marcus as well.

“The whole tight five just played brilliantly. You could really feel the difference every time we hit the scrums.”

MUNSTER: F Jones (J Manning 79); B Murphy (D Howlett 9), L Mafi, J de Villiers, D Hurley; R O'Gara (capt), T O'Leary (T Morland 67); M Horan, D Fogarty (D Varley 60), T Buckley; M O'Driscoll, D O'Callaghan; A Quinlan (D Ryan 33), T O'Donnell (J Coughlan 60), N Williams.

DRAGONS: M Thomas (S Connor 10-20); A Brew, T Riley, A Smith (capt) (S Connor 50), R Fussell; J Arlidge, W Evans (D Lee 60); H Gustafson (A McKenzie), S Jones (D Goodfield 60), N Hall, A Jones, R Sidoli (G Robinson 60), D Lydiate (G Webb 12-25), J Harris, J Bearman.

Referee: Neil Paterson (SRU).