Wins for Munster and Dragons, Zebre shock Ulster

Editor

Munster eased past Cardiff Blues and Zebre beat Ulster in Saturday's PRO14 action, with the Dragons beating the Kings in the late game.

Munster 39-16 Cardiff Blues

Cardiff Blues had the early dominance with Jarrod Evans giving them a 3-0 five minute lead with a penalty.

Soon after, however, Munster hit back when Conor Murray marked his return to the starting line-up with a good piece of instinctive play when he darted over after a quick-tap penalty to touch down at the base of the posts. Keatley converted to make it 7-3 to the hosts.

Evans' second penalty reduced the deficit to one with a quarter of the game gone. And soon afterwards, the Blues had the lead when they scored a good team try switching the ball from left to right and stretching the Munster defence laterally before Josh Turnbull went over in the right-hand corner. Evans added the extras,

The sides exchanged penalties as the difference remained six at 16-10. Keatley's penalty before the half-time whistle ensured the visitors only trailed by three at the break.

Cardiff Blues veteran prop Taufa'ao Filise was yellow-carded for illegal scrummaging after the break and Munster capitalised on their numerical advantage with John Ryan crashing over from close range.

JJ Hanrahan extended the home side's lead after a wonderful break from Rory Scannell to put the substitute in the clear. Keatley's converted as Munster held a healthy 27-16 lead after 56 minutes.

Robin Copeland then got in on the act after good interplay between Chris Farrell and Darren Sweetnam set him up for the bonus point try. Keatley made it 34-16 from the tee after 69 minutes.

Hanrahan added salt to the wounds by grabbing his brace in the final moments as Munster ran out resounding 39-16 winners

The scorers:

For Munster:
Tries: Murray, Ryan, Hanrahan 2, Copeland
Cons: Keatley 4
Pens: Keatley 2

For Cardiff Blues:
Try: Turnbull
Con: Evans 
Pens: Evans 2
Yellow Card: Filise

Munster: 15 Andrew Conway, 14 Darren Sweetnam, 13 Jaco Taute, 12 Rory Scannell, 11 Alex Wootton 10 Ian Keatley, 9 Conor Murray, 8 CJ Stander, 7 Tommy O’Donnell, 6 Peter O’Mahony (c), 5 Billy Holland, 4 Robin Copeland, 3 John Ryan, 2 Niall Scannell, 1 Dave Kilcoyne
Replacements: 16 Rhys Marshall, 17 Liam O’Connor, 18 Stephen Archer, 19 Mark Flanagan, 20 Sean McCarthy, 21 Duncan Williams, 22 JJ Hanrahan, 23 Chris Farrell

Cardiff Blues: 15 Rhun Williams, 14 Blaine Scully (c), 13 Jack Roberts, 12 Willis Halaholo, 11 Tom James, 10 Jarrod Evans, 9 Tomos Williams, 8 Nick Williams, 7 Olly Robinson, 6 Josh Turnbull, 5 James Down, 4 George Earle, 3 Taufa'ao Filise, 2 Matthew Rees, 1 Brad Thyer
Replacements: 16 Ethan Lewis, 17 Corey Domachowski, 18 Keiron Assiratti, 19 Seb Davies, 20 Macauley Cook, 21 Lloyd Williams, 22 Steven Shingler, 23 Matthew Morgan

Referee: Quinton Immelman (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Seán Gallagher (Ireland), Gary Conway (Ireland)
TMO: Brian MacNeice (Ireland)

Zebre 27-23 Ulster

The home side took a 10th minute lead courtesy of a Carlo Canna penalty.

Ulster scored the first try of the game after brilliant individual work from Charles Piutau put Andrew Trimble over the whitewash with John Cooney converting in the 17th minute.

Canna and Cooney exchanged penalties before the latter's penalty on the stroke of half-time ensured the visitors took a 13-6 lead into the break.

Giovanni Licata hit back 10 minutes after the interval with a try convertd by Licata to level matters at 13 apiece.

And four minutes later, Zebre took the lead much to the delight of the home support with a Mattia Bellini try converted by Marcelo Violi.

Zebre extend their leaded to 27-16 after a converted intercept try scored by number eight Renato Giammarioli in the 73rd minute.

A Darren Cave try moments from the end gave Ulster a losing bonus point but they will be mightily disappointed to have lost 27-23.

The scorers:

For Zebre:
Tries: Licata, Bellini, Giammarioli
Cons: Canna, Violi
Pens: Canna 2

For Ulster:
Tries: Trimble, Cave
Cons: Cooney, Cave
Pens: Cooney 3

Zebre: 15 Matteo Minozzi, 14 Giulio Bisegni, 13 Tommaso Boni, 12 Tommaso Castello (c), 11 Mattia Bellini, 10 Carlo Canna, 9 Marcello Violi, 8 Renato Giammarioli, 7 Johan Meyer, 6 Giovanni Licata, 5 George Biagi, 4 David Sisi, 3 Dario Chistolini, 2 Oliviero Fabiani, 1 Andrea Lovotti
Replacements: 16 Luhandre Luus, 17 Sami Panico, 18 Eduardo Bello, 19 Leonard Krumow, 20 Jacopo Sarto, 21 Guglielmo Palazzani, 22 Serafin Bordoli, 23 Giovanbattista Venditti

Ulster: 15 Charles Piutau, 14 Andrew Trimble (c), 13 Darren Cave, 12 Luke Marshall, 11 Louis Ludik, 10 Christian Lealiifano, 9 John Cooney, 8 Jean Deysel, 7 Sean Reidy, 6 Matthew Rea, 5 Iain Henderson, 4 Peter Browne, 3 Rodney Ah You, 2 John Andrew, 1 Callum Black
Replacements: 16 Adam McBurney, 17 Andrew Warwick, 18 Wiehahn Herbst, 19 Kieran Treadwell, 20 Nick Timoney, 21 Dave Shanahan, 22 Peter Nelson, 23 Rob Lyttle

Referee: Mike Adamson (Scotland)
Assistant referees: Andrea Piardi (Italy), Manuel Bottino (Italy)
TMO: Neil Paterson (Scotland)

Dragons 29-13 Kings

The Dragons claimed only their second win of the PRO14 season on Saturday as they comfortably beat the Kings with a bonus-point.

Bernard Jackman's side had the game sewn up by half-time thanks to two tries from Hallam Amos and one from Elliot Dee giving them a 22-6 advantage. Only two Pieter-Steyn de Wet penalties got the Kings on the scoreboard.

The rain didn't help from an entertainment side but the Dragons did not care about that as another Dee pushover arrived on 42 minutes.

Credit the Kings though who hit back with a crossing from Andisa Ntsila but they could not then capitalise on Leon Brown's sin-binning and left Rodney Parade with no points from the contest in what is their fifth straight loss.

The scorers:

For Dragons:
Tries: Amos 2, Dee 2
Cons: Henson 3
Pen: Henson
Yellow card: Brown

For Kings:
Try: Ntsila
Con: De Wet
Pens: De Wet 2

Dragons: 15 Carl Meyer, 14 Ashton Hewitt, 13 Tyler Morgan, 12 Jack Dixon, 11 Hallam Amos, 10 Gavin Henson, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 8 James Benjamin, 7 Ollie Griffiths, 6 James Thomas, 5 Cory Hill (c), 4 Matthew Screech, 3 Leon Brown, 2 Elliot Dee, 1 Brok Harris
Replacements: 16 Ellis Shipp, 17 Thomas Davies, 18 Lloyd Fairbrother, 19 Joe Davies, 20 Aaron Wainwright, 21 Dane Blacker, 22 Angus O’Brien, 23 Thretton Palamo

Kings: 15 Masixole Banda, 14 Yaw Penxe, 13 Jacques Nel, 12 Berton Klaasen, 11 Alshaun Bock, 10 Pieter-Steyn de Wet, 9 Godlen Masimla, 8 Dries van Schalkwyk, 7 Jurie van Vuuren, 6 Andisa Ntsila, 5 Bobby de Wee, 4 Stephan Greeff, 3 Martin Dreyer, 2 Michael Willemse (c), 1 Schalk Ferreira
Replacements: 16 Stephan Coetzee, 17 Rossouw de Klerk, 18 Entienne Swanepoel, 19 Lubabalo Mtyanda, 20 Khaya Majola, 21 Rowan Gouws, 22 Oliver Zono, 23 Luzuko Vulindlu

Referee: Andy Brace (Ireland)
Assistant referees: David Wilkinson (Ireland), Gareth John (Wales)
TMO: Kevin Beggs (Ireland)