MUNSTER Rugby have started this season’s Investec Champions Cup with a 33-7 bonus point victory over Stade Francais in front of an attendance of 17, 241 at Thomond Park this Saturday evening.
Munster will face a trip to France next Friday as they take on Castres Olympique in the second round of the Champions Cup, kick-off 8pm Irish time.
Castres will be aiming to record their first win of the Cup after suffering a heavy defeat away to Northampton Saints in round one.
As expected, Stade Francais moved the ball quickly out to the wings in the opening minutes, with Charles Laloin making a fantastic line-break, getting past four Munster tackles. A tap penalty worked against them though, as they gifted possession back to the home side.
Ian Costello’s charges were patient in attack, with Thaakir Abrahams unlucky not to go over the whitewash on the fourth minute.
Munster’s line-out was working well in the opening minutes of the contest with Irish international Craig Casey throwing a lovely pass out to Calvin Nash on the wing. However, Nash unable to regain his grubber kick.
Stade Francais looked dangerous while attacking in space, but a combination of Tom Farrell and Gavin Coombes did well to create a maul and win the ball back for a Munster scrum just inside their own-half.
On the next play, Ireland international out-half Jack Crowley spotted space in the back field with the French side’s full-back Joe Jonas letting the ball dribble out over the touchline to gift Munster a line-out only a few meters out from their opponents’ try line.
It was a well taken line-out by Peter O’Mahony, with his fellow forwards joining around him for a text book Munster maul. Scrum-half Craig Casey took the ball at the perfect time from captain Diarmuid Barron and fired a quick pass to Thaakir Abrahams on the shortside to send him over for his second try in Munster colours.
After creating the scoring opportunity, Crowley did extremely well to add the conversion in windy conditions and to put Munster 7-0 up after 16 minutes.
Munster soaked up the first bout of pressure from the French outfit with 24 minutes played and for the third time created a maul through the defence to give them possession once again.
The home side were reduced to fourteen men after 26 minutes with Alex Nankivell receiving a yellow card for a high tackle. Back-to-back lineouts went astray for Stade Francais with Munster pinning them back inside their own ’22 to set up another attack.
Munster were able to move the ball well with Casey moving his team quickly across the pitch. The scrum-half was then able to find a totally free Shane Daly on the wing and the full-back did incredibly well to chip the ball on not once but twice for himself.
After getting around three Stade Francais defenders, Daly dotted a try down to mark his 100th appearance for Munster in style. Crowley followed it up with his second conversion of the evening to leave Munster 14-0 ahead after 33 minutes.
With fire in their bellies, Munster went on the attack again with a penalty advantage in their favour the pack continued to pick-and-go but Stade Francais did well to hold the ball up with Costello’s side going back for the penalty five meters out.
A quick tap and go from Peter O’Mahony created an attacking platform. With 42 minutes played it was Munster that knocked the ball forward with Luke Pearse calling a halt to the first-half proceedings leaving it 14-0 the home team’s favour at the break.
Munster soaked up five minutes of pressure from Stade Francais at the start of the second half, with their huge defensive effort paying off well for them as the French side coughed up the possession with a forced knock-on.
Stade Francais’ Pierre-Henri Azagoh committed a high tackle on Munster’s Peter O’Mahony, as he made a terrific linebreak on the left wing. After much deliberation from referee Luke Pearse, the Stade Francais second-row was shown a red-card with only 48 minutes played.
Sensing the French side were on the ropes, Munster opted to kick the penalty to the corner for a line-out. After a quick take, Alex Kendellen did well to scuttle through the maul to give Munster their third try of the game.
Crowley was foot perfect from the kicking tee once again pushing their lead out to 21-0 after 52 minutes of play.
A moment of madness from Stade Francais’ other second-rower Baptiste Pensnti saw him leave the field of play with a red card for foul play when halting Craig Casey.
Now attacking against 13 men, newly introduced hooker Niall Scannell got the ball back from his forwards on the short side after another successful lineout. This created space on the wing as the French team scrambled back into defence, but not quickly enough, as Casey whipped the ball out to his backs with Tom Farrell finding an acre of space to go over the try line for Munster.
Crowley duly added the extra two points, the lead now 28-0.
Stade Francais produced a similar attack to Munster on their next play with the hooker getting the ball back from a lineout only five metres out from Munster’s try line.
Moving the ball quickly, French prop Clement Castets went over the whitewash for Stade Francais’ first score of the game.
The try quickly converted by Zach Henry after 58 minutes.
Even with two men missing from their side, Stade Francais continued to keep the ball in Munsters half and after infringing on the previous play, John Hodnett did well to rip the ball from the Stade Francais attack with the home team getting out of the danger zone thanks to a strong scrum.
Munster then put the icing on the cake in the closing minutes of the encounter as they moved Stade Francais’ defence across the pitch to find centre Alex Nankivell who unselfishly fired the ball out to Gavin Coombes to score.
Crowley missed his first conversion of the game with the strong wind blowing into his face. However, despite this miss, Munster had done enough to be awarded the 33-7 bonus point victory.
SCORERS: MUNSTER: TRIES: Thaakir Abrahams, Shane Daly, Alex Kendellen, Tom Farrell, Gavin Coombes CONVERSIONS: Jack Crowley four conversions. STADE FRANCAIS: TRIES Clement Castets CONVERSIONS: Zack Henry
MUNSTER: Shane Daly; Calvin Nash, Tom Farrell, Alex Nankivell, Thaakir Abrahams; Jack Crowley, Craig Casey; Dian Bleuler, Diarmuid Barron (C), John Ryan; Evan O’Connell, Fineen Wycherley; Peter O’Mahony, Alex Kendellen, Gavin Coombes.
REPLACEMENTS: Niall Scannell for D Barron (50 minutes), Tadhg Beirne for E O’Connell (50 minutes), John Hodnett for A Kendellen,(55 minutes), Stephen Archer for J Ryan (55 minutes) Paddy Patterson for C Casey (59 minutes), Jack O’Donoghue for P O’Mahony (59 minutes), Kieran Ryan for D Bleuler (70 minutes), Billy Burns for Abrahams (70 minutes)
STADE FRANCAIS: Joe Jonas, Charles Laloi, Joe Marchant, Jeremy Ward, Samuel Ezeala, Zack Henry, Thibaut Motassi; Clement Castets, Lucas Peyresblanques, Franciso Gomez Kodela, Pierre-Henri Azagoh, Baptiste Pensnti, Pierre Huguet, Ryan (C) Chapuis, Yoan Tanga
REPLACEMENTS: Juan Martin Scelzo for J Jonas (51 minutes), Setareki Turagacoke for C Yoan Tanga (51 minutes), Andy Timo for P Huguet (60 minutes), Luka Petriashvili for L Peyresblanques (60 minutes), Louis Foursans-Bourdette for T Motassi (73 minutes)
REFEREE: Luke Pearse (England)
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