Try for Munster: Niall Ronan
Related links
Teams
Also see
Munster climbed to second place in the PRO12 standings on Saturday thanks to a 33-13 bonus-point win over Dragons at Thomond Park.
The hosts led from the second minute and never looked back as Ian Keatley, Niall Ronan, Conor Murray, Simon Zebo and Tommy O'Donnell all crossed for tries for Munster, while Ronan O'Gara added eight points.
The Dragons crossed the line once in the shape of full-back Dan Evans but Tom Prydie had a bad day kicking just one of his three attempts before Lewis Robling took over his duties.
Zebo combined with captain Doug Howlett on the left wing and passed on to Ian Keatley to go over after 7 minustes.
O'Gara's converted, to put the men in red ahead 7-0 which was soon doubled when O'Gara converted Ronan's try.
Prydie scored a penalty on 16 minutes but Dragons had to wait until the 42nd minute of the first half for their next three points, which came from Robling, reducing the deficit to 14-6 just before half-time.
In the second half Dragons' prop Dan Way was shown a yellow card for coming in at the side.
Murray came on in place of Peter Stringer, and the scrum-half immediately took advantage of the extra man with a try on 53 minutes.
O'Gara missed the conversion but didn't have to wait long for another chance after Zebo's first league try for his province since May.
Dragons did pull a try back as Evans crossed the line on 62 minutes but it was too little too late a replacement Tommy O'Donnell crossed six minutes from time and O'Gara made no mistakes this time to complete the win.
The scorers:
For Munster:
Tries: Keatley, Ronan, Murray, Zebo, O'Donnell
Cons: O'Gara 4
For Dragons:
Try: Evans
Con: Robling
Pens: Prydie, Robling
Yellow cards: O'Callaghan (Munster - 17th min) ; Way (Dragons - 49th min)
Munster: 15 Ian Keatley, 14 Doug Howlett (c), 13 Keith Earls, 12 James Downey, 11 Simon Zebo, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Paddy Butler, 7 Niall Ronan, 6 Dave O'Callaghan, 5 Billy Holland, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 BJ Botha, 2 Mike Sherry, 1 Marcus Horan.
Replacements: 16 Damien Varley, 17 Wian du Preez, 18 Stephen Archer, 19 Dave Foley, 20 Tommy O'Donnell, 21 Conor Murray, 22 Danny Barnes, 23 JJ Hanrahan.
Dragons: 15 Dan Evans, 14 Will Harries, 13 Adam Hughes, 12 Ashley Smith, 11 Tom Prydie, 10 Lewis Robling, 9 Jonathan Evans, 8 Tom Brown. 7 Jevon Groves, 6 Dan Lydiate, 5 Adam Jones, 4 Ian Nimmo, 3 Dan Way, 2 Steve Jones (c), 1 Phil Price.
Replacements: 16 Sam Parry, 17 Aaron Coundley, 18 Tim Ryan, 19 Toby Faletau, 20 Lewis Evans, 21 Liam Davies, 22 Andy Tuilagi, 23 Pat Leach.
Venue: Thomond Park, Limerick
Referee: tbc (Italy)
Assistant referees: Mark Patton (Ireland), David Connolly (Ireland)
Television match official: Jude Quinn (Ireland)
Comments
melkdave says...
Saw the match ,and a very one sided affair it was,Dragons have had a big clearout and it really showed ,The one redeeming thing for them ,is they will get better asthe season progresses and the players bed in ,well hopefully anyway lol.
Posted 14:32 23rd September 2012
QKRAM79 says...
Another good display. Onward and upward. Earls did well. Young back row impressing too.
Posted 22:42 22nd September 2012