A young Munster A side fell to a more experienced Leinster A outfit in the Celtic Cup at Irish Independent Park on Friday night.
The Munster scores came courtesy of two excellent Ben Healy tries and a strong finish from replacement Cian Hurley with Healy landing all three conversions.
With six of the Leinster A side having previously lined out for their senior side, the youthful Munster A side were up against it from the off with Leinster A racing into an early lead.
Clinical attack from the visitors saw Leinster race into a 28-0 lead before Munster A had the chance to strike a blow with Andrew Smith, Jack Aungier, Ronan Watters and Bryan Byrne scoring as Harry Byrne kicked all four conversions.
Facing an extremely tough task, Munster A knuckled down. Although Craig Casey had a try chalked off for taking a quick tap from the wrong position, Healy crossed for Munster’s first try after a smartly-worked move down the blindside to get Munster off the mark.
Healy pinged the touchline conversion over the bar and Munster needed strong defence to prevent another Leinster try in the final moments of the half with Leinster leading 28-7 at the interval.
Leinster crossed twice in the opening 13 minutes of the second half with Smith on the double to complete his hat-trick.
Healy weaved his way through for Munster’s second try after the hour and Hurley crossed for Munster’s third late on after an extended period of pressure but Leinster had the last work with Dan Sheehan scoring in the last play.
