Munster Lose In Italy

The losing consolation point they picked up will be no consolation to Munster as they went down 19-18 to Benetton Treviso today.

And they can have no complaints even if they did fight back from being 16-3 down and at one stage had two players in the bin.

They trailed 6-3 at the break before Willen de Waal landed his third penalty in the 45th minute and when the out-half converted Gonzalo Padro's try from the touchline ten minutes later Munster were in all sorts of bother.

They came back with a Warwick penalty and tries from Doug Howlett and James Coughlan but then conceded another penalty for De Waal to kick the crucial penalty

Munster: S Deasy; D Howlett capt, T Gleeson, L Mafi, S Zebo; P Warwick, D Williams; D Hurley, D Varley, S Archer; I Nagle, D Foley; B Holland, T O'Donnell, J Coughlan. Replacements: M Sherry, W du Preez, P Borlase, M O'Driscoll, D Ryan, C Sheridan, S Tuitupou, D Hurley.

Benetton Treviso: B Williams; L Nitoglia, E Galon, A Pratichetti, M Sepe; W De Waal, T Botes; M Rizzo, F Sbaraglini, L Cittadini; Antonio Pavanello capt, C van Zyl; B Vermaak, G Padro, M Fillipucci. Replacements: E Ceccato, M Muccignat, P Di Santo, I Fernandez Rouyet, Enrico Pavanello, T Benvenuti, B De Jager, A Marcato.

Referee: James Jones (WRU).