So this week saw the visit of the Newport Gwent Dragons to Musgrave Park for week 4 of the Magners League with Munster currently sitting 5th in the table with 2 wins from 3 one place behind the Dragons.
This week saw the much needed return of the British & Irish Lions pairing of Ronan O’Gara and Donncha O’Callaghan it was also expected that Paul O’Connell would make his debut this season when he was named in the original squad but was later withdrawn due to a hamstring problem. Elsewhere in the squad the injury that Nall Ronan suffered in the Scarlets game and the continued absence of David Wallace meant that Tommy O’Donnell gets to wear the number 7 jersey with Kiwi born Nick Williams returning from a knee injury to anchor the scrum. Making his much anticipated debut for Munster was Jean de Villiers in place of Keith Earls due to a late injury sustained by Earls ruling him out, Felix Jones therefore moved to full back with Barry Murphy moving to the wing with Denis Hurley on the other flank leaving De Villiers to complete the the mid-field pairing with Lifeimi Mafi.
And what a week in the world of rugby and the introduction of some key missing players from the opening three games of the season can make to the performance of Munster, the returning Nick Williams was just outstanding in scoring three of the homes sides four tries on the day with the other coming from a fellow southern hemisphere player in Doug Howlett who scored his 11th try since joining Munster. The debutant Jean de Villiers likewise had a very impressive opening game in front of the Cork crowd showing that Munster have the makings of a world class set up in the centre with De Villiers, Mafi and Earls forming what could be a extremely effective unit in weeks to coming and providing Ronan O’Gara with all sort of options.
Overall the home side seemed a much improved and cohesive unit than in previous weeks conceding much less penalties than in the opening games and only managing to pick up one sin-binning for Ronan O’Gara in the second half for what all-in-all was a moment of stupidest but with the big game next Saturday against old the rivals Leinster at the RDS, Munster certainly have taken the psychological advantage by picking up a bonus point 27-3 victory to place them 2nd in the Magners League above Leinster.
I still think there is a good bit of work to be done by Munster in the coming weeks and they are certainly going to have very tough games against Leinster next week and against a much in form Northampton Saints in there opening game of the Heineken Cup a week later.
Munster: Jean de Villiers; Felix Jones, Barry Murphy, Lifeimi Mafi, Denis Hurley; Ronan O’Gara, Tomas O’Leary; Marcus Horan, Denis Fogarty, Tony Buckley; Mick O’Driscoll, Donncha O’Callaghan; Alan Quinlan, Tommy O’Donnell, Nick Williams.
Replacements: Damian Varley, Julien Brugnaut, Donnacha Ryan, James Coughlan, Toby Morland, Jeremy Manning, Doug Howlett.
Dragons: Martyn Thomas; Aled Brew, Tom Riley, Ashley Smith (capt), Richard Fussell; James Arlidge, Wayne Evans; Hugh Gustafson, Steve Jones, Nigel Hall, Adam Jones, Rob Sidoli, Dan Lydiate, James Harris, Joe Bearman.
Replacements: Duane Goodfield, Ali McKenzie, Gethin Robinson, Grant Webb, Hoani MacDonald, Shaun Connor, Danny Lee
September 29, 2009 at 7:48 AM
A good synopsis there Darren. Although the first half was well contested by both teams, Munsters power game eventually wore down the dragons and then the tries came. I was very impressed with Williams, as he showed signs of a true No8, making huge yards from the base of the scrum, the likes of which havent been seen from a munster No8 in quite a while – each backrower in the munster squad brings a certain individual skill to the team, so i assume it will be horses for courses as usual for the season ahead. Should be a cracker against Leinster this weekend. An Mhumhain abu.
September 29, 2009 at 9:20 PM
I couldn’t agree more Williams really is going to give the management something to think about at No8 for the remainder of the season and with the likes of Mafi, Howlett and De Villiers all looking outstanding last week I honestly think they are going to catch Leinster napping on Saturday and give them a unexpected and rude awakening.