WITH one win under their belt, the Munster ‘A’ side advance to week two of the British and Irish Cup to face fellow Pool B table toppers, Bristol Rugby in Nenagh this Friday night.
Notching up an opening week 20-13 victory over Coventry at the Butts Stadium, Munster A take their bonus point win to face Bristol with their two try win over Neath last week.
Bristol come to the Tipperary venue with just one loss from their last seven matches and have won five of their last six away games, but have lost the only two competition matches they have played against opponents from Ireland: to Leinster in the European Cup in season 2002/03. The two teams have never met in a competition match.
In last weeks 20-13 victory over Coventry, Munster led 15-3 at the break, things looked good for the men in red. Despite an early second half try from Ian Nagle, a player who showed excellent promise in the season opening friendlies last August, Munster had to withstand a late home side rally that yielded two tries to earn Coventry a losing bonus point.
A try after just four minutes from Duncan Williams marked the card early in favour of Munster with James Coughlan adding a second just 11 minutes later.
Tries from Tom Gleeson and Nagle went unanswered as Coventry could only slot over a penalty to keep them in touch as Munster strayed offside in the opening exchanges.
Ian Costello, Munster A assistant coach told munsterrugby.ie after the game that; “Yes, we had to defend very very strongly to keep them out, and in fairness to the lads in the last 10, 15 minutes, they showed great character. I know they (Coventry) scored late and we’d been under pressure for about 15 minutes before that as well.
“Physically they were definitely a bigger side than we were. They played clever rugby, getting themselves into parts of the field where they could use their maul and they had a very effective maul. I don’t know really if we took our foot off the gas after we got that fourth try. Sometimes I suppose that can happen. They scored two late push over tries, obviously we’d have liked to have been out of sight but credit to them they came back at us very strongly.”
The Munster A side to play Bristol shows six changes from the side that started against Coventry, three of those changes involve players, Danny Riordan, Billy Holland and Tommy O’Donnell, who had been originally selected, missing out through injury or illness.
Elsewhere, sub-Academy player Simon Zebo, a second half replacement at Butts Stadium, comes onto the wing for Ireland A call-up Denis Hurley, scrum half Conor Murray replaces the injured Duncan Williams while another sub-Academy player, Dave Kilcoyne comes into the front-row in place of Julien Brugnaut.
Munster: D Riordan; D Barnes, T Gleeson, S Deasy; S Zebo; D Cusack, C Murray; D Kilcoyne, M Sherry, S Archer; I Nagle, D Foley; B Holland, T O’Donnell, J Coughlan; Replacements: S Henry, P O’Regan, N Williams, P O’Mahony, P Rowley, A Burke, R O’Mahony.
In other Munster Rugby news, their website, www.munsterrugby.ie, has been awarded the 2009 Eircom Golden Spider Award for the best Sports and Leisure Website.
CEO Garrett Fitzgerald and media manager Pat Geraghty were present to accept the award on behalf of Munster Rugby.
According to Munster Rugby, “Our website is designed to allow our supporters follow the Munster team, their local club, purchase tickets and merchandise all through one outlet. The website looks to deliver up to date news, exclusive content, competitions, and a dedicated Domestic Game section that promotes rugby outside of the professional team. It is an important tool to promote our brand”.
