Connacht 12

Munster 6

Connacht brought the curtain down on2008 with a deserved win over Magners League leaders Munster at a packedSportground on Sunday night.

Michael Bradley’s men put together asuperb display of disciplined rugby to secure the victory in front of acapacity crowd of 5,000.

Neither side was at full strength withConnacht again forced to line out without the likes of Johnny O’Connor, MikeRoberts and John Hearty, but this did not stop them putting a winningperformance together.

Both sets of defences were on topthroughout with few try-scoring chances.

Ian Keatley kicked four penalties fromfour attempts as Connacht notched their first win over Munster in theprofessional era.

Connacht led 6-3 at half-time as Keatleykicked two penalties in response to an earlier effort from Paul Warwick.

Warwick levelled the game shortly afterthe restart but Connacht took over from there with Keatley edging them back infront going into the final quarter.

And he extended Connacht’s lead with hisfourth penalty to seal the win, much to the delight of the large vocal homefollowing.

SCORERS:

Connacht:

Pens: Keatley (4)

Munster:

Pens: Warwick (2)

Connacht: G Duffy; T Nathan, N Ta’auso,K Matthews, L Bibo; I Keatley, F Murphy; B Wilkinson, S Cronin, R Morris; M McCarthy,A Farley; J Muldoon, R Ofisa, C Rigney.
 
Replacements: A Flavin for Cronin, 60 mins; A Browne for Ofisa, 73 mins; RLoughney for Wilkinson, 77 mins;

Munster: K Earls; D Howlett, B Murphy, LMafi, I Dowling; P Warwick, P Stringer; F Pucciariello, F Sheahan, T Buckley; MO'Driscoll, D Ryan; A Quinlan, N Ronan, D Wallace.

Replacements: M Essex for Sheahan, 33mins; T Ryan for Buckley, 51 mins; D Hurley for Murphy, 59 mins; N Williams forQuinlan, 59 mins; J Manning for Warwick, 68 mins; J Coughlan for Ronan, 72mins; M Prendergast for Stringer, 77 mins.

Referee: A Rolland (IRFU).