A young Munster side containing 13 Academy players were beaten by an experienced Leicester Tigers side in a mid-season clash at a rainy Welford Road on Friday night.
Brian Gleeson, UCC’s Conor Ryan and Seán Edogbo were the try-scorers on the night with a number of young players gaining valuable experience at the famous English venue.
A one-sided first half ended with Leicester 28-0 in front through tries from Joseph Woodward (two), Olly Cracknell and Cameron Henderson with Handre Pollard kicking all four conversions. A dominant scrum laid the platform with some well-worked tries putting the hosts well ahead.
Munster were held up over the line in the opening 40 after big carries from Seán Edogbo and Ruadhán Quinn with Quinn also having a try disallowed after a brilliant piece of athleticism to catch an overthrown Leicester lineout.
The centre pairing of Ben Brownlee and Gordon Wood impressed in the opening half and a big impact from half-time replacement Ronan Foxe won a breakdown penalty immediately after the restart.
Tony Butler kicked to the corner and Gleeson finished strongly from close range. Butler kicked the tough conversion to reduce the gap to 21 points.
Things got even better when Edogbo and UCC lock Conor Ryan carried into the Leicester 22 with Ryan finishing from close range to continue the fightback. Butler again converted.
After Munster were held up over the line, Edogbo picked up a loose Leicester kick to canter over in the right corner for Munster’s third try and we were within nine points.
Sol Kata steadied the ship for Leicester after a kick in behind with their fifth try all but securing the win after an hour.
Fittingly, the Leicester scrum had the final say as they drove over the line in the final minutes for Charlie Bemand to score the final try.
All 24 players got game time with Ben Brownlee, Andrew Smith, Jed O’Dwyer and Darragh McSweeney making their first appearances for the province.
There were no injury concerns following the game.
Munster: Ben O’Connor (Jed O’Dwyer, 72); Patrick Campbell (Ben O’Connor, 74), Gordon Wood, Ben Brownlee, Shay McCarthy (Andrew Smith, 40); Tony Butler (Dylan Hicks, 72), Paddy Patterson (Jack Oliver, 60); Mark Donnelly (Kieran Ryan, 60), Max Clein (Danny Sheahan, 40), John Ryan (Ronan Foxe, 40) (Darragh McSweeney, 72); Cian Hurley (Conor Ryan, 40), Evan O’Connell (Cian Hurley, 60); Seán Edogbo, Ruadhán Quinn, Brian Gleeson.
