Murray and Farrell returns the big positive from Zebre

MUNSTER earned their second victory on the road in this season’s Pro14 on Sunday but were made to work for every score against Zebre in Parma. Played on a quagmire of a pitch in the Italian city, Munster did well to earn the bonus point win against the Italian minnows. Tries from Fineen Wycherly, Kevin O’Byrne, Ronan O’Mahony and Rory Scannell paved the way for the 32-7 win.

Outside of the trip yielding maximum points, Johann van Graan welcomed Conor Murray and Chris Farrell into the matchday squad for the first time this season after neck and knee injuries respectively. Murray looked sharp when he came off the bench to replace the impressive Neil Cronin, playing a big part in Munster’s third and fourth tries.

O’Mahony and Conor Oliver also made their first appearances of the season in Parma and van Graan has welcome selection headaches looking ahead to Edinburgh in Cork this Friday, the Champions Cup double header with Castres and the upcoming Interpro Pro14 fixtures against Ulster, Leinster and Connacht. The comprehensive win over Zebre sees Munster move to within eight points of Conference A leaders Glasgow Warriors.

Van Graan also welcomed his Irish contingent of Dave Kilcoyne, Niall Scannell, John Ryan, Tadhg Beirne, Peter O’Mahony, CJ Stander, Joey Carbery, Sammy Arnold, Keith Earls and Andrew Conway back into the fold after an unbeaten Autumn International series.

Darren Sweetnam met with a specialist on Tuesday after picking up a back injury early on in Ireland’s win over the USA on Saturday. Elsewhere, James Cronin and Alby Mathewson picked up knocks and will be assessed by the medical team throughout the week.