Munster Trail At The Break

Having gifted two soft tries to the Scarlets Munster find themselves trailing 20-5 at the break after opening brightly with a long range try from Ian Dowling.

A turnover on the Munster 10 metre line saw the ball get to Dowling and he outpaced the Llanelli defence to score in the left hand corner, Ronan O’Gara’s touchline conversion into the strong wind falling just short.

From the restart Munster were penalised for not rolling away from the tackle on Nathan Brew and Stephen Jones drilled over the penalty.

Munster might have gone behind in the 10th minute when they were penalised on half way for offside but Jones was narrowly wide with his effort and Jerry Flannery released Munster from their 22 with a quick tap and go.

A lineout steal on half way handed possession back to the Scarlets and when Flannery was penalised for coming in from the side, Jones opted for position and a lineout ten metres out.  The Scarlets moved the ball right turned over possession then won it back, were awarded a penalty five metres out they opted for a scrum only to be turned over when Nathan Thomas was turned in the tackle by the Munster back-row defence.

Munster finally went behind and were reduced to fourteen in the 23rd minute when David Wallace was yellow carded for coming in from the side and Jones kicking the points.

The game’s second try came on the half hour Dafydd James dancing through weak tackles to score to the right of the posts, Jones’ conversion pushing the Scarlets eight points clear and a further try, from Matthew Watkins, will have left Tony McGahan fuming, as once again Munster failed to make their tackles allowing the Scarlet’s wing in for another soft score.

They roused themselves in the closing stages and were unlucky when knocking on over the line after a good chip n chase by Wallace but in truth they will be very unhappy with this first half display.