Scarlets shock Munster in Limerick

Editor

Munster's ten-game winning streak came to an end as Scarlets came from behind to win 30-21 at Thomond Park on Friday.

The hosts had opened up a comfortable lead at half time with three tries from Jaco Taute, Darren Sweetnam and Conor Oliver. But a resurgent Scarlets side scored three of their own after the break courtesy of Hadleigh Parkes, Johnny McNicholl and Tom Williams. 

An impressive kicking display from Dan Jones proved the difference. Scarlets' Jones slotted two first half penalties, although they were either side of Munster's opening try which came courtesy of Taute. 

Back-row Oliver set the full-back clear with a clever delayed pass for him to carry over unchallenged, before Tyler Bleyendaal added the extras. 

The hosts' second came shortly after, when wing Sweetnam juggled Dan Goggin's pass to go over in the corner. Bleyendaal once again slotted from the touchline. 

The young inside centre was involved once again when he found number eight Oliver with a clever offload, setting up Munster's third try of the night, which their fly-half converted with ease. 

The introduction of scrum-half Aled Davies proved instrumental after the break, setting up two tries in quick succession to take the visitors in to the lead. The first came on 55 minutes when Davies' inventive chip was collected by centre Parkes to slide over for a converted score. 

Two minutes later, Scarlets had a second. This time Davies opted to open up and run it from the back of a scrum, before setting up McNicholl to score from 40 metres out. Jones added the conversion. 

After taking the lead for the first time since the 13-minute mark, the Welsh side soon extended their lead with a third try in five minutes when Williams went over in the corner having collected a cross-field kick. Jones added the extras from the tee. 

Munster looked to have a late score to bring them back in to contention, but the television match official couldn't find a clear grounding.

The scorers:

For Munster:
Tries:
Taute, Sweetnam, Oliver
Cons: Bleyendaal 3

For Scarlets:
Tries:
Parkes, McNicholl, Van der Merwe
Cons: Jones 3
Pens: Jones 3

Munster: 15 Jaco Taute, 14 Darren Sweetnam, 13 Francis Saili, 12 Dan Goggin, 11 Ronan O'Mahony, 10 Tyler Bleyendaal (c), 9 Duncan Williams, 8 Conor Oliver, 7 Tommy O'Donnell, 6  Dave O'Callaghan, 5 Billy Holland, 4 Dave Foley, 3 Stephen Archer, 2 Rhys Marshall, 1 Dave Kilcoyne
Replacements: 16 Kevin O'Byrne, 17 Peter McCabe, 18 Brian Scott, 19 Darren O'Shea, 20 Fineen Wycherley, 21 Abrie Griesel, 22 Ian Keatley, 23 Andrew Conway

Scarlets: 15 Johnny McNicholl, 14 DTH van der Merwe, 13 Steff Hughes, 12 Hadleigh Parkes (c), 11 Tom Williams, 10 Dan Jones, 9 Jonathan Evans, 8 Will Boyde, 7 James Davies, 6 Aaron Shingler, 5 Tadhg Beirne, 4 Tom Price, 3 Werner Kruger, 2 Ryan Elias, 1 Wyn Jones
Replacements: 16 Dafydd Hughes, 17 Luke Garrett, 18 Nicky Thomas, 19 Rynier Bernardo, 20 Morgan Allen, 21 Aled Davies, 22 Aled Thomas, 23 Ioan Nicholas

Referee: Dan Jones (Wales)
Assistant Referees: (Wales), Jonny Erskine (Ireland)
TMO: Charles Samson (Scotland)