Ryan Bailey reports from Thomond Park
THIS WAS MORE like it, Munster at their ruthless, domineering best as they put a depleted and sorry Ulster side to the sword, but they know better than anyone that much sterner tests lie ahead.
It’s hard to gauge just how good Johann van Graan’s side were given the players Ulster were without, the fact they then lost Iain Henderson and John Cooney mid-match and the way the visitors meekly surrendered in the face of a Munster onslaught.
But the southern province can take great satisfaction from the way they rebounded from last week’s disappointment in Cardiff, and to register a record Guinness Pro14 victory (64-7) was the perfect response in what turned out to be an underwhelming, and low-key, inter-pro derby.
The hosts ran in nine tries during an utterly dominant display at Thomond Park, as the forwards bullied the Ulster pack into submission and, with the platform to run the show, Joey Carbery gave the Saturday evening crowd plenty to enjoy with another masterful performance.
Dan Goggin and Tommy O’Donnell helped themselves to two tries apiece in the first period, and with the bonus-point already secured, Munster ensured there was no let-up this week as they crossed five times after the break, with the outstanding Peter O’Mahony and man-of-the-match Carbery among those to get in on the act.
Overall, it was a pleasing night’s work for Munster and it left their head coach quietly content leading into the serious business, starting with Saturday’s round six clash against Leinster at the Aviva Stadium.
“Obviously very happy to put in a good performance from our side,” van Graan said afterwards.
“We asked for a response from our guys and the most important thing was we needed to improve in all areas, and I thought we did. The small things were very good tonight, I thought our scrum and our lineout were very good. Ulster attacked pretty well and kept us in our 22 for multiple phases and I thought we defended pretty well then.
“We were in this position twice [Glasgow and Cardiff], when we’ve had a very good first half and kind of didn’t really put the foot on the accelerator in the second half and I thought we did that tonight.”
On scoring nine tries to rack up 60 points, the South African added: “You have to be happy with that, although I think we left quite a few out there tonight. But a real positive was the small things, some of the passing was excellent and the decision-making was very good. I don’t think we overplayed or chased the game, even when we were into the 60s, we didn’t try and do anything fancy, we just kind of stuck to what we set out to do.