European Champions Cup: Stade Francais beat Munster 27-7
Last Updated: 10/01/16 10:16am
Stade Francais soundly beat Munster 27-7 in their rearranged European Champions Cup clash at Stade Jean Bouin.
Despite being down to 14 men for the second half, Stade Francais still had too much firepower for Munster.
Stade winger Josaia Raisuqe was shown red after making contact with the eye area of CJ Stander but Munster could not make the extra man count and produced one of their poorest displays in years.
The win took Stade to within four points of Pool 4 leaders Leicester who must still travel to France, while Munster cannot now make the play-offs, leaving Ulster as the only Irish province still in with a chance of reaching the quarter-finals.
Stade were denied an early lead when a last-ditch, diving tap-tackle from Munster centre Francis Saili stopped Fijian wing Raisuqe from streaking down the wing for a certain try.
But Stade opened the scoring when Samoa centre Paul Williams hit a perfect line to run onto Julien Dupuy's pass and break between two tacklers to score.
Morne Steyn converted and then added a penalty, but on the stroke of half-time Raisuqe was dismissed for eye-gouging.
Yet Stade still dominated the second period and Steyn scored another penalty after Robin Copeland was penalised for coming in at the side of a ruck.
On the hour mark, Munster finally made an impression as they worked an overlap for Rory Scannell to touch down in the corner, only for the score to be chalked off due to a forward pass.
And the Irish province were made to pay on 67 minutes as Stade flanker Sekou Macalou scored a stunning individual try, brushing off three tacklers before side-stepping wing Keith Earls and sprinting over.
Moments later, more flimsy tackling from Munster allowed Hugo Bonneval to burst through to score in the corner and Conor Murray's try six minutes from time was scant consolation for two-time European champions Munster.