United Rugby Championship: Munster hammer disappointing Dragons, while Leinster move back top

Munster moved up to third position in the United Rugby Championship after producing a dominant display to defeat the Dragons 64-3 at Thomond Park.

The Irish province were excellent throughout and had the bonus-point wrapped up before the break as Craig Casey, who went over twice, Jack O’Donoghue and Chris Cloete touched down for a 28-3 advantage.

Johann van Graan’s men could then enjoy themselves in the second period as Simon Zebo, Chris Farrell, Shane Daly, John Hodnett, O’Donoghue and Cloete all crossed the whitewash.

They are still nine points behind arch rivals and league leaders Leinster in the URC, but the Limerick outfit do have a game in hand.

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Ollie Griffiths got over the ball to break up Munster’s early momentum, but scrum-half Casey duly crossed in the ninth minute, breaking to the blindside of a maul and shrugging off Davies’ attempted tackle.

The Dragons made good ground in response, Sam Davies knocking over a close-range penalty before their own indiscipline brought Munster back into try-scoring range.

Casey squeezed in under Joe Maksymiw to complete his brace in the 22nd minute, and it got worse for the Dragons straight from the restart.

O’Donoghue evaded Aneurin Owen’s tap tackle to finish off a terrific team score from deep, with Jack Crowley converting to make it 21-3.

As the interval approached, Crowley’s inviting pass had John Ryan charging up into the visitors’ 22. Farrell then injected further pace, freeing up flanker Cloete to go over out wide.

Crowley nailed the difficult conversion for good measure, the Dragons’ cause not helped by a miscued line-out and centre Owen’s injury-enforced departure.

A forward pass denied Mike Haley a try on the resumption, but Zebo had a simple run-in after Casey’s quickly-taken penalty.

Crowley missed the conversion and his opposite number Davies fluffed the restart, Haley hoovering it up to step inside Davies and feed Farrell for a muscular finish to the right of the posts.

Crisp offloading from Crowley, Gavin Coombes and Haley sent Daly over, and Casey’s whizzing pass soon handed Cloete his second of the night.

Ben Healy converted Munster’s closing efforts from fellow replacement Hodnett, who finished off a slick move off a line-out, and O’Donoghue, who enjoyed another chance to stretch his legs.

Leinster go back above Ulster after thrashing Benetton

Leinster reclaimed top spot in the United Rugby Championship with a 61-17 thrashing of Benetton in Treviso.

Ulster’s big win against Cardiff on Friday night saw them edge ahead of Leo Cullen’s men in the overall table but the Dubliners ran in nine tries to claw their way back to the summit with a four-point margin.

Max Deegan, Sean Cronin, Jordan Larmour and Ross Byrne earned Leinster a bonus point by half-time, with a single penalty from Rhyno Smith the only response Benetton could muster before the interval.

The hosts did touch down twice in the second half but Cronin’s second and two tries each for James Tracy and Jimmy O’Brien saw Leinster to a comfortable victory, with Byrne also kicking 14 points.

Scarlets dent Glasgow’s title chances

The Scarlets triumphed 35-10 over Glasgow in Llanelli to bring the visitors’ five-match winning run in the United Rugby Championship to an end.

Tries from Steff Evans, Scott Williams, Gareth Davies, Sione Kalamafoni and Ryan Conbeer earned the Scarlets their first win in five games in all competitions.

Rhys Patchell, Evans and Sam Costelow also kicked 10 points between them.

All Glasgow could muster was a try from Johnny Matthews and five points from the boot of Duncan Weir.

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