Munster scored 26 unanswered points in the second half to lead them to comfortable 39-16 bonus point win over Cardiff Blues in Thomond Park on Saturday.
Munster got back to their winning ways with tries from John Ryan, Conor Murray, JJ Hanrahan and Robin Copeland leading them to a big win against Cardiff.
In the opening forty, Cardiff played tough defence and turned the province away time and time again before opening the scoring after 7 minutes when number 10 Jarrod Evans kicked for three after Darren Sweetnam was whistled for offside.
Munster would take the lead minutes later when CJ Stander took a quick penalty and set up returning scrum-half Conor Murray to run it in between the posts.
Cardiff were quick to reply to Murray’s try and took a substantial lead after another Evans penalty and try from number 6 Josh Turnbull.
Quinton Immelman was the referee for the day and he had a busy afternoon with plenty of penalties exchanged throughout the game.
Evans hit his third penalty from 50 metres out right on the half-hour mark but Munster’s Ian Keatley would score the last chance of the half bringing the halftime deficit to 3 points.
Munster found a lot of momentum in the second using the scrum as the starting point and the tries came more frequently.
Munster would score two quick tries after they gained a man advantage after prop Taufa’ao Filise was yellow carded eight minutes into the half.
John Ryan scored the first and JJ Hanrahan was on the field for two minutes and found himself at the end of a tremendous run by Rory Scannell and he easily touched down to give Munster a sizeable lead.
Munster secured the bonus point after 60 minutes when Chris Farrell did great to bring the ball into the Cardiff half before Conor Murray weaved his way through the defence to set up Robin Copeland with an easy score.
Munster weren’t done there though, and they scored their fifth try of the game after Conor Murray and Man of the Match Ian Keatley set up Hanrahan for his second try in his return game to Munster.
The game finished 39-16 and fly-half Ian Keatley was awarded Man of the Match after scoring 14 points during the win.
You can read more stories like this in the Limerick Post Sports section
