European Champions Cup: Munster scored some wonderful tries as they hammered Sale 65-10
Last Updated: 28/01/15 9:14am
Munster ended their European Champions Cup campaign on a high, running in a series of brilliant tries as they thrashed Sale Sharks 65-10.
Neither side began the day with any chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals and, although they were very competitive in the first half, Sale were taken apart in the second, finishing their Pool One campaign with six defeats from as many matches.
Munster were looking for a third Pool victory and got off to superb start at Thomond Park, scoring the first try of the match in just the second minute.
Ronan O’Mahony made ground down the left with a fine run before the backs passed the ball to the right and Keith Earls eventually found Simon Zebo, who produced an excellent finish, breaking one tackle and then planting the ball over the line when he was stopped just short.
Ian Keatley added a conversion and two penalties but Sale responded with a Nick MacLeod penalty and a brilliant solo try from Tom Arscott.
The wing still had loads to do when MacLeod passed the ball to him but he made a little room for himself with a dummy, and then powered past Keatley to score.
That reduced Munster’s lead to 13-10 and the hosts then had Andrew Conway sin-binned for repeated defensive infringements but the Sharks were unable to capitalise.
It was still 13-10 at the interval but Munster then began a half with a try for the second time in the match, producing a scintillating score before the second period was a minute old.
Zebo made the initial ground by grabbing a box kick and replacement Ivan Dineen then passed to Earls, who burst across the halfway line and went on a brilliant, weaving run before just about touching down, despite colliding with a post and a brave covering tackle from Luke McLean.
Munster thought they might have scored another try soon afterwards when a gang of forwards plunged over the line but the television match official could not see the ball being grounded.
However, Sale’s reprieve lasted just seconds as the Munster pack stormed forward looking for a pushover score at the resulting five-metre scrum and the referee blew for a penalty try when the back-tracking Sharks forwards infringed.
Keatley kicked the conversion to make it 27-10 and Munster then began to play some delightful running rugby with victory apparently in the bag.
They scored another lovely try with 15 minutes left when Keatley produced a clever inside pass to replacement Pat Howard, who crashed through a pair of despairing tackles to score under the post.
Howard’s fellow replacement Dineen had a superb second-half and set up another try minutes later with a magnificent, side-stepping run down the middle of the field. The ball was then worked out to the right and Zebo cleverly rolled over the line to score his second try.
Munster were now running riot and they scored a third try in a matter of minutes when Dineen found Zebo and the irrepressible full-back blazed a trail down the right wing before unselfishly putting Conway over in the corner.
The hosts were still not satisfied and bagged their seventh and eighth tries of the afternoon in the closing stages as Tommy O’Donnell dived over from close range and Stephen Archer’s pass made a try for Duncan Williams.
And try number nine came from the final move of the game and it was another brilliant score as man-of-the-match Zebo made ground again and produced a delightful offload to another replacement in the form of JJ Hanrahan, who put Conway over and then slotted over the conversion.
