ASIDE from the 22-9 loss to Connacht, Munster also suffered more injury woe in the URC inter-pro Derby in Galway on New Year’s Day.
The visitors were forced to make a couple of pre-match changes when hooker Eoghan Clarke and lock Fineen Wycherley joined an already lengthy casualty. Then Graham Rowntree lost a couple of key players in the opening half when tight-head Oli Jager, with a head injury, and No.8 Jack O’Donoghue, with a knee issue, were stretchered off.
In a close affair, the sides were level going into the final quarter but two more penalties from former Munster player JJ Hanrahan and the only try of the game in the closing stages from prop Jack Aungier ensured Munster travelled home empty-handed.
Hanrahan got Connacht off the mark with a penalty after 17 minutes but Tony Butler levelled five minutes later with a penalty.
Butler edged Munster back in front seven minutes from the break without another penalty.
Connacht, with the wind behind them on the restart, levelled when Hanrahan converted a 35-metre penalty Munster hit back and worked their way upfield with a few penalties before Butler edged the home outfit back in front around the hour mark.
Hanrahan soon levelled.
Connacht then went ahead with another Hanrahan penalty, and finished the contest on top.
Munster: Simon Zebo; Calvin Nash, Antoine Frisch, Rory Scannell, Shane Daly; Tony Butler (Sean O’Brien, 72), Conor Murray (Paddy Patterson, 75); Jeremy Loughman (Josh Wycherley, 78), Scott Buckley, Oli Jager (inj, John Ryan, 11); Gavin Coombes, Tadhg Beirne (captain); Tom Ahern, John Hodnett (Brian Gleeson, 78), Jack O’Donoghue (inj, Alex Kendellen, 40).
