Munster secured a record 10-try victory over the Southern Kings in the Guinness PRO14 at Irish Independent Park on Friday night.
The 65-point winning margin was a competitive record for Munster.
Arno Botha (three), Calvin Nash, Jack O’Donoghue, Man of the Match John Hodnett, Neil Cronin, Shane Daly (two) and Dan Goggin scored the tries with JJ Hanrahan (six) and Ben Healy (three) kicking the conversions.
It was a fantastic night for Hodnett with the Academy man producing a Man of the Match display on his PRO14 debut.
Munster were on top from the off and an early Mike Haley offload released Hodnett and he showed speed and power to charge up to the Southern Kings five-metre line.
Kings full-back Andell Loubser killed the ball and was shown a yellow card for cynical play with Munster opting for a five-yard scrum as no.8 Arno Botha powered over for the first try.
Demetri Catrakilis kicked the first penalty on 16 minutes but that was to be Kings’ only score.
Munster were soon back on top with a clever reverse pass from Neil Cronin sending Shane Daly through a gap as the hosts were full of enterprising rugby.
The second try came when Dan Goggin switched play and threw a great pass in front of Haley with the full-back strecthing to take and feeding Nash on the right wing. The winger did superbly to burn his man on the outside and finish off a fine move.
Great hands from Shane Daly and Chris Farrell on the left wing started another fine move and JJ’s skip pass put Botha through a gap and score Munster’s third try of the night.
The bonus-point was secured on the stroke of half-time when O’Donoghue latched onto Hanrahan’s chip over the top and shrugged off a defender to score. JJ added the conversion for a 28-3 half-time lead.
Hodnett’s big moment arrived on 50 minutes as Haley did superbly to counter off a Kings clearance and a well-timed Neil Cronin pass put Hodnett through. The Rosscarbery man still had a lot to do but was able to hand-off Catrakilis and finish under the posts.
Neil Cronin added the sixth try on 55 minutes after a Goggin offload sent him clear down the right wing with the scrum-half showing good pace to streak clear. Hanrahan’s conversion was his 16th successive successful kick in the PRO14.
Munster were in for their seventh try on 61 minutes as Goggin kicked in behind and Daly pounced on a loose Kings pass to dot down. Academy out-half Healy drilled over the conversion and Munster led 49-3.
Dan Goggin scored the eighth Munster try on 73 minutes after Nick McCarthy sniped down the blindside of a rolling maul and popped for Goggin to score in the right corner.
Another flowing move led to the ninth try with Botha diving over in the left corner and Healy landed the very difficult conversion.
Daly crossed for his second in the final minutes and Healy kicked his third conversion for a record victory.
Guinness PRO14 Round 11 Round-Up
Three Greencore Munster Rugby Academy trio John Hodnett, Keynan Knox and Ben Healy all featured in the clash with Hodnett starting on his Guinness PRO14 debut and scoring his first Munster try.
The win was a record margin of victory for Munster in the PRO14 and the 10 tries and 65-point winning margin were also records.
Munster moved to the top of Conference B ahead of Edinburgh and Scarlets with those sides facing off in Wales on Saturday.
Munster: Mike Haley; Calvin Nash (Rory Scannell, 56), Chris Farrell, Dan Goggin, Shane Daly; JJ Hanrahan (Ben Healy, 56), Neil Cronin (Nick McCarthy, 56); James Cronin (Jeremy Loughman, 59), Niall Scannell (Kevin O’Byrne, 59), John Ryan (Keynan Knox, 59); Fineen Wycherley (Gavin Coombes, 63), Billy Holland (C); Jack O’Donoghue, John Hodnett (Chris Cloete, 63), Arno Botha.
