Munster 24 9 Connacht

Trys from Tomás O’Leary and Sean Scanlon, along with four penalties and a conversion from Ian Keatley gave Munster the win in this St Stephens Day Inter-Provincial clash. Keatley got the hosts underway with a penalty after 15 minutes, having missed 2 previous chances, but only after Connacht’s Niall O’Connor had missed a long range shot at goal following a powerful Connacht scrum which saw Ronan Loughney win a penalty for the visitors. Wave after wave of Connacht attack was absorbed by the Minster defence and when a stray pass was hacked down field it took a superb chase back from Mike McCarthy and John Muldoon to force Ian Keatley to knock on with the line beckoning.

Referee Dudley Phillips stamped his authority on the match early on with both sides feeling the wrath of the whistle. Niall O’Connor traded early penalties with Keatley but O’Leary and Scanlon’s trys gave Munster an 18 3 lead at halftime. 2 more O’Connor penalties were cancelled out by the boot of Ian Keatley and despite the majority of possession and a numerical advantage after Donncha O’Callaghan was sin-binned Connacht were unable to convert pressure to points and on John Hayes’ last game Munster ran out 24 9 victors.

Next up for Connacht is a home Inter-Provincial match against Leinster this New Years Day (The Sportsground, kick-off 17.00) and there are a limited number of tickets available from www.ticketmaster.ie  

Connacht:

Gavin Duffy, Fetu’u Vainikolo, Eoin Griffin, Dave McSharry, Tiernan O’Halloran, Niall O’Connor, Frank Murphy, Brett Wilkinson, Ethienne Reynecke, Ronan Loughney, George Naoupu, Mike McCarthy, Dave Gannon, Johnny O’Connor, John Muldoon

Replacements:

Adrian Flavin, Dylan Rogers, Rodney Ah You, Mick Kearney, Eoin McKeon, Paul O’Donohoe, Matthew Jarvis, Kyle Tonetti

Munster:

Sean Scanlon, Luke O’Dea, Keith Earls, Danny Barnes, Simon Zebo, Ian Keatley, Tomas O’Leary, Marcus Horan, Denis Fogarty, John Hayes, Donncha O’Callaghan, Mick O’Driscoll (C), Billy Holland, Niall Ronan, Paddy butler

Replacements:

Sean Henry, Dave Kilcoyne, BJ Botha, Ian Nagle, James Coughlan, Duncan Williams, Scott Deasy, Tom Gleeson

Referee: Dudley Phillips (IRFU)

Pictures (c) www. inpho.ie