Munster Claim Bonus Point Win

Tries from Denis Leamy, Tony Buckley, Doug Howlett, Mick O’Driscoll and James Coughlan gave Munster a 45-18 win over Toulon in Thomond Park today.

Toulon had the ideal start with a try after less than a minute from hooker Jean Philippe Genevois although it came courtesy of a massive forward pass in the lead-up.

Munster made light of this and replied with tries from Denis Leamy, Tony Buckley and Doug Howlett, with O'Gara kicking three out of three to give Munster a 21-10 lead at half-time. 

O'Gara kept the score ticking over in the second half with a further three conversions and a penalty. The bonus point try came after 58 minutes with Mick O'Driscoll taking the honours and Doug Howlett added his second of the day four minutes later as Munster moved ahead 38-13. 

Johann Van Niekerk pulled one back for Toulon but Munster finished in style with the sixth try coming from James Coughlan. 

Johne Murphy after the win “Out there today was something special, the lads had asked for it during the week and the crowd were up for it.  We just want to play for each other, we’re a real tight-knit squad and we’ve gotten a bit of stick over the last few weeks and we just wanted to go out and play for each other.  Today the pack were fantastic, they gave us a platform to play off and they were immense.”

Philippe Saint-Andre afterwards “Munster were fantastic today, they played with a lot of urgency, were well drilled and showed good character.  It was tough for us playing for 20 minutes with 14 against 15 and injuries didn’t help, we had four injuries in the backs and we finished with George Smith playing in the centre. But Munster were too good and we didn’t have enough, they deserved to win today. They were clever and identified our weaknesses straight away and punished us.”