Munster grab bonus-point win in scrappy Cork clash with Gloucester

Murray Kinsella Reports from Páirc Uí Chaoimh

Munster 31

Gloucester 3

WITH THE BIG wind surging down to the Blackrock end of Páirc Uí Chaoimh behind them heading into the second half, and already 7-3 up against a second-string Gloucester side, there was a sense of inevitability about this one for Munster.

The 36,208 crowd for Munster’s first-ever competitive game at the Cork GAA grounds had endured a dour opening half, so they deserved to watch Clayton McMillan’s men finally find a little more rhythm in the closing stages of this Champions Cup pool clash. Three tries in the closing 13 minutes did the job.

Munster had spent the vast majority of the first half – Dan Kelly’s try aside – trying to get out of their 22 into that gusting wind, while their error count was high in the second half as they turned the ball over several times in Gloucester territory.

But they kept huffing and puffing until the visitors’ resistance broke in the 73rd minute as replacement centre Tom Farrell crossed under the posts for Munster’s fourth try.

It wasn’t quite the occasion or the performance that Munster would have hoped for in front of their biggest-ever home crowd for a Champions Cup game, nor the fully convincing response they wanted after Bath battered them last weekend.

Gloucester left their big guns at home in the latest disappointment for this competition but George Skinvington’s side still frustrated Munster by keeping them pinned back in the opening 40 and then scraping for everything as the pressure mounted after half time.

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McMillan will be pleased that his bench added punch late on, including power in the scrum from Champions Cup debutant Conor Bartley and the pack, as Farrell’s try sealed the deal late on before skipper Tadhg Beirne added a popular fifth soon after.

Kelly had crossed in the first half after some good work by out-half Jack Crowley helped to send fullback Mike Haley surging up the right before his kick rather fortuitously bounced back up to him and he offloaded for Kelly to score.

But even with Gloucester prop Jamal Ford-Robinson sin-binned late in the half for a dangerous clearout on Crowley, Munster’s only other points of that half were three off the tee from their number 10. To be fair, the wind was very strong and the rain had come in after half an hour to make the ball slippery.

Jean Kleyn being held up over the tryline after the best passage of attack of the game right on the stroke of half time summed up the feeling of frustration.

The atmosphere remained flat early in the second half, but Munster notched their second score when they put together a classy, clinical play as player of the match Craig Casey’s slick pass sent centre Alex Nankivell into space and he offloaded for Haley to score.

Further errors followed in the Gloucester half and it took some time for Munster to get rolling again. Casey’s lightning break seemingly sent Haley clear with 15 minutes left but he was caught from behind.

Still, Munster won a penalty close to the Gloucester line and sub back row Ruadhán Quinn powered over for the third try after Caio James was binned.

Time appeared to be getting away from Munster but finally, Farrell put the five-pointer to bed as he darted over from close range, before Beirne added the fifth after a Gloucester lineout botch near their own line.

Munster scorers:

Tries: Dan Kelly, Mike Haley, Ruadhan Quinn, Tom Farrell, Tadhg Beirne

Conversions: Jack Crowley [3 from 5]

Penalties: Jack Crowley [0 from 1]

Gloucester scorers:

Penalties: George Barton [1 from 1]

MUNSTER: Mike Haley (JJ Hanrahan ’71); Shane Daly, Dan Kelly (Tom Farrell ’54), Alex Nankivell, Ben O’Connor; Jack Crowley, Craig Casey (Paddy Patterson ’71); Michael Milne (Josh Wycherley ’61), Niall Scannell (Diarmuid Barron ’61), Michael Ala’alatoa (Conor Bartley ’69); Jean Kleyn (Edwin Edogbo ’61), Tadhg Beirne (captain); Tom Ahern, Jack O’Donoghue (Ruadhan Quinn ’61), Gavin Coombes.

GLOUCESTER: George Barton; Josh Hathaway, Will Knight, Max Knight, Rob Russell (Jack Cotgreave ’79); Charlie Atkinson, Mike Austin (Rhys Price ’64); Dian Bleuler (Ciaran Knight ’51), Jack Innard (Kealan Freeman Price ’69), Jamal Ford-Robinson (yellow card ’33) (Afolabi Fasogbon ’51); Cam Jordan  (Hugh Bokenham ’69), Arthur Clark (captain) (Danny Eite ’64); Josh Basham (Afolabi Fasogbon ’40 to ‘HT), Harry Taylor, Jack Clement (Caio James ’64 (yellow card ’66)).

Referee: Ben Breakspear [WRU].

- This article was updated at 0.10am on 14 December to correct ‘Charlie Atkinson’ to ‘George Barton’ in the Gloucester scorers section.