Warwick leads way in Munster show of force
Munster: 35 Connacht: 3
Connacht captain Gavin Duffy prevents Munster's Niall Ronan from scoring a try
MUNSTER coach Tony McGahan praised the tremendous depth in his squad after an understrength side scored a bonus-point victory over Connacht in their Magners League clash at Thomond Park on Saturday night.
Australian Paul Warwick produced a man-of-the-match display having come on for full-back Felix Jones after 16 minutes before slotting in for Ronan O'Gara at out-half for the second period.
Warwick scored 10 points, including one of Munster's four tries, the others coming from winger Ian Dowling, hooker Damian Varley and a superb 80th-minute effort from centre Jean de Villiers with Connacht managing a single Ian Keatley penalty in reply.
McGahan was without a raft of frontline internationals, including captain Paul O'Connell, but is happy to travel with the same squad to Ravenhill for next weekend's meeting with Ulster.
"It is the way we like to keep things going," said McGahan. "When there is such a big group of them (players), you really need to provide opportunities for the squad to shine and I thought we did that quite well last year and we have plenty faith in what they are doing. I thought they were tremendous.
"The internationals are on an IRFU programme and have another week off; we will go to Ulster with pretty much the same squad," he confirmed. "We are really looking forward to that it because it hasn't been a great ground for us to get a result in, we have really struggled up there."
Saturday was never going to match the wondrous win over French champions Perpignan six days earlier, with O'Gara and winger Denis Hurley the only survivors from the side that started at the Stade Aime Giral. However, although they struggled in the face of Connacht intransigence for the bones of 30 minutes after half-time, the champions will be satisfied with an outing that keeps them at the business end of the table.
Peter Stringer has been short on match time this season having had to play understudy to Tomas O'Leary for province and country and he turned in a busy performance that was built around some exquisite passing, while O'Gara exerted calm control outside him until withdrawn for preservation purposes.
In midfield, De Villiers was solid in attack and defence and took his try brilliantly in the dying moments, bursting through three Connacht tackles on his way to the line with the video analysis session likely to be a grim affair in Galway this week.
Next to the South African, Cork Constitution centre Tom Gleason (in only his third league start in four seasons) looked extremely lively, raising once again the issue of how the 24-year-old's career might be better nourished if he were playing for Saturday's opponents where he would surely gain regular first-team exposure rather stay on his current diet of AIB League and Academy games.
industrious
On the wings, Hurley and Dowling were industrious and efficient in keeping with the ethos of predecessors John Kelly and Anthony Horgan, while the sight of Jones being carried off on a stretcher after several minutes' delay was a disquieting one before the talented full-back had a chance to get going.
Up front, there was a decent performance from Munster's second-string grunters. Varley had a good outing at hooker, Mick O'Driscoll was prominent in the second-row and Billy Holland and Niall Ronan put themselves about in the back-row. With Denis Leamy expected to miss the rest of the season, Saturday was audition night for No 8 Nick Williams. The Aucklander had a couple of eye-catching surges and was unlucky not to claim a try, but he needs to raise his game a couple of levels again to present a credible argument against re-uniting the back-row of Alan Quinlan, Ronan and David Wallace for Heineken Cup duties.
Connacht went into the game on a confidence-high following back-to-back European Challenge Cup wins over Worcester, but, without the squad strength of the other Irish provinces, could never really hope to compete without front-line stars such as Sean Cronin, Frank Murphy, Fionn Carr and captain John Muldoon.
Their resolve could never be questioned and, after the introduction of Keatley at out-half, they had a strong third quarter, but had nothing in their backline to trouble the home team and, with Leinster arriving in Galway next weekend, they will target the following week's home clash with the Dragons as their next most realistic chance of a league victory.
O'Gara's two penalties and two conversions following the tries by Dowling and Varley meant Munster were 20-0 up after half an hour with Keatley's late penalty leaving it 20-3 to Munster at half-time.
Warwick scored an excellent chip-and-chase try against his old team before De Villiers' coup de grace as Munster continue on their upward graph after a mixed first section of the season.
"It was important to get a bonus point to stay in touch with the top of the league," said Warwick. "We haven't played well and we are only three points off the top of the league before tonight, so that is a pretty good place to be. If we can start building and going forward, hopefully we can be there or thereabouts at the end of the season."
MUNSTER -- F Jones (P Warwick 16); D Hurley, T Gleeson, J de Villiers, I Dowling; R O'Gara (capt, S Deasy 41), P Stringer (D Williams 73); J Brugnaut, D Varley (M Sherry 77), T Buckley; D Ryan, M O'Driscoll; B Holland (T O'Donnell 64), N Ronan, N Williams (J Coughlan 64).
CONNACHT -- G Duffy; T Nathan, N Ta'auso, K Matthews, L Bibo; M Nikora (I Keatley 38), C O'Loughlin (K Campbell 66); B Wilkinson (R Loughney 41), A Flavin (D Murphy 50), J Hagan (Wilkinson 64); M Swift, B Upton (D Browne 41); M McComish, J O'Connor, G Naoupu.
REF -- A Rolland (Ireland)
Irish Independent
