MUNSTER Rugby have started this seasons Investec Champions Cup with a 33-7 victory over Stade Francais in Thomond Park this Saturday evening.
Munster will face a trip to France next Friday as they take on Castres in the second round of the Champions Cup. Castres will be aiming to record their first win of the Cup after defeat to Northampton Saints in round one.
As expected Stade Francais moved the ball quickly out to the wings in the opening minutes, with Charles Laloin making a fantastic line-break, getting past four Munster tackles. A tap penalty worked against them though, as they gifted possession back to the home side.
Ian Costello’s charges were patient in attack, with Thaakir Abrahams unlucky not to go over the white wash on the fourth minute. Through their patients Munster were awarded a penalty for Stade Francais going offside. After their opening attack confidence was high, but the Paris team did just enough to win the penalty and clear their lines from a scrum on the eighth minute.
Munster’s line-out was working well in the opening minutes of the contest with Irish international Casey throwing a lovely pass out to Calvin Nash on the wing. Yet again the French side got out of danger with Nash unable to regain his grubber kick.
Stade Francais looked dangerous while attacking in space, but a combination of Tom Farrell and Gavin Coombes did well to create a maul and win the ball back for a Munster scrum just inside their own-half.
On the next play Irish International out-half Jack Crowley spotted space in the back field with French full-back Joe Jonas letting the ball dribble out over the sideline to gift Munster a line-out only a few meters out from their opponents try line.
It was a well taken line-out by Peter O’Mahony, with his fellow forwards joining around him for a text book Munster maul. Scrum-half Craig Casey took the ball at the perfect time from captain Diarmuid Barron and shot a quick pass to Thaakir Abrahams on the short side to send him over for his second try in Munster colours.
After creating the scoring opportunity Crowley did extremely well to add the conversion to put Munster 7-0 up after 16 minutes.
Munster soaked up the first bit of attacking pressure from the French outfit with 24 minutes played and for the third time created a maul through the defence to give them possession once again.
The home side were reduced to fourteen men after 26 minutes with Alex Nankivell receiving a yellow card for a high tackle. Back-to-back lineouts went astray for Stade Francais with Munster pinning them back inside their own try line to set up another attack.
Munster were able to swing the ball well with Casey moving his team quickly across the pitch. Casey was then able to find a totally free Shane Daly on the wing and the full-back did incredibly well to chip the ball on not once but twice for himself. After getting around three Stade Francais defenders Daly dotted a try down to mark his 100th appearance for Munster in style. Crowley followed it up with his second conversion of the afternoon to leave Munster 14-0 ahead after 33 minutes.
With fire in their bellies Munster went on the attack again with a penalty advantage in their favour the pack continued to pick and go but Stade Francais did well to hold the ball up with Costello’s side going back for the penalty five meters out. A quick tap and go from Peter O’Mahony allowed them an attacking platform. With 42 minutes played it was Munster that knocked the ball forward with Luke Pearse calling a halt to the first-half proceedings leaving it 14-0 the home teams favour at the break.
Munster soaked up five minutes of opening second-half pressure from Stade Francais, with their huge defensive effort paying off well for them as the French side coughed up the possession with a forced knock-on.
Stade Francais’ Pierre-Henri Azagoh committed a horrible high-tackle on Munster’s Peter O’Mahony, who had made a fantastic line break on the left wing. After much deliberation from referee Luke Pearse the Stade Francais second-row was shown a red-card with only 48 minutes played.
Sensing the French side were on the ropes Munster opted to kick the penalty to the corner for a line-out. After a quick take Alex Kendellen did well to scuttle through the maul to give Munster their third try of the game. Crowley was foot perfect from the kicking tee once again pushing their lead out to 21-0 after 52 minutes of play.
A moment of madness from Stade Francais’ other second-rower Baptiste Pensnti saw him leave the field of play with a red card for foul play on a Craig Casey tackle.
Now attacking against 13 men, newly introduced hooker Niall Scannell got the ball back from his forwards on the short side after another successful lineout. This created space on the wing as the French team scrambled back into defence, but not quickly enough, as Casey whipped the ball out to his backs with Tom Farrell finding an acre of space to go over the try line for Munster with Crowley adding the extra two points, the lead now 28-0.
Stade Francais did a similar attack to Munster on their next play with the hooker getting the ball back from a lineout only five meters out from Munsters try line. Moving the ball quickly French prop Clement Castets went over the white wash for Stade Francais’ first score of the game, quickly converted by Zach Henry after 58 minutes.
Even with two men missing from their side it was Stade Francais continued to keep the ball in Munsters half and after infringing on the previous play John Hodnett did well to rip the ball from the French attack with the home team getting out of the danger zone through a strong scrum.
Munster put the icing on the cake in the closing minutes of the encounter as they spread Stade Francais’ defence across the pitch to find Alex Nankivell who unselfishly fired the ball out to Gavin Coombes. Crowley missed his first conversion of the game with the strong wind blowing into his face. Despite this miss Munster had done enough to be awarded the 33-7 bonus point victory.
SCORERS MUNSTER: Tries: Thaakir Abrahams, Shane Daly, Alex Kendellen, Tom Farrell, Gavin Coombes CONVERSIONS: Jack Crowley four conversions. STADE FRANCAIS: Clement Castets try (58 minutes) CONVERSIONS: Zack Henry
MUNSTER: Shane Daly; Calvin Nash, Tom Farrell, Alex Nankivell, Thaakir Abrahams; Jack Crowley, Craig Casey; Dian Bleuler, Diarmuid Barron (C), John Ryan; Evan O’Connell, Fineen Wycherley; Peter O’Mahony, Alex Kendellen, Gavin Coombes.
REPLACEMENTS: Niall Scannell for D Barron (50 minutes), Tadhg Beirne for E O’Connell (50 minutes), John Hodnett for A Kendellen,(55 minutes), Stephen Archer for J Ryan (55 minutes) Paddy Patterson for C Casey (59 minutes), Jack O’Donoghue for P O’Mahony (59 minutes), Kieran Ryan for D Bleuler (70 minutes), Billy Burns for Abrahams (70 minutes)
STADE FRANCAIS: Joe Jonas, Charles Laloi, Joe Marchant, Jeremy Ward, Samuel Ezeala, Zack Henry, Thibaut Motassi; Clement Castets, Lucas Peyresblanques, Franciso Gomez Kodela, Pierre-Henri Azagoh, Baptiste Pensnti, Pierre Huguet, Ryan (C) Chapuis, Yoan Tanga
REPLACEMENTS: Juan Martin Scelzo for J Jonas (51 minutes), Setareki Turagacoke for C Yoan Tanga (51 minutes), Andy Timo for P Huguet (60 minutes), Luka Petriashvili for L Peyresblanques (60 minutes), Louis Foursans-Bourdette for T Motassi (73 minutes)
REFEREE: Luke Pearse
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Author : rugby-247
Publish date : 2024-12-07 20:25:17
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