The Munster A side opened their British and Irish Cup campaign tonight at the Athletic Ground in Richmond in a hard fought battle against London Scottish that saw them come away with a losing bonus point.
With the sides level at the interval the second half produced more open rugby with 5 tries scored, 3 v 2 in favour of the hosts. The superior try count proved to be the difference come the final whistle as the Scots held on for a 27-25 victory.
London Scottish opened the scoring with an early penalty and went further ahead through an unconverted try from centre Lee Millar after 6 minutes.
Young academy out-half Bill Johnston replied with a penalty after 17 minutes only to see his game-time cut short through injury minutes later and he was replaced by Dan Goggin.
The Young Munster man went on to make his presence felt when crossing for the province’s first try after 35 minutes. Bill’s brother David switched from fullback to out-half, however, when taking over the kicking duties was unable to add the conversion and a subsequent penalty before the half-time whistle so the sides remained level at the break.
The Clonmel-man did kick Munster A ahead 6 minutes into the second half and crossed from close range for his own converted try, and Munster’s second, after 63 minutes.
Previous to that, Scottish had already pulled ahead through captain Freddie Clarke after driving over from a successful rolling maul.
The hosts then went on to enjoy a 10 minute period where they scored two converted tries, and with a decisive lead Munster A had it all to do moving into the final minutes.
The men in red fought back to within a score after Dan Goggin touched down for his second try of the night and Johnston kicked the extras on 78 minutes. However, with the clock winding down the home side held on, and secured a final 27-25 victory.
Munster 'A': David Johnston; Stephen Fitzgerald, Matt D'Arcy, Cian Bohane, Ronan O'Mahony; Bill Johnston, Duncan Williams; Liam O'Connor, Niall Scannell Capt., Mario Sagario; Sean McCarthy, Billy Holland; Jordan Coghlan, Sean Doyle, Shane Buckley.
Replacements: Kevin O'Byrne, Rory Burke, Brendan Quinlan, Sean O'Connor, Conor Oliver, Cathal Sheridan, Dan Goggin.
