Below par opening forty leaves Munster with too much to do against Blues

Munster suffered a 25-18 defeat on the road at the Cardiff Blues on Saturday evening with a error strewn and sloppy opening half proving very costly.

The defeat sees Munster trail conference topping Glasgow by a whopping 16 points and means that reeling in their Scottish rivals is looking increasingly unlikely heading into next week’s game with the Warriors at Irish Independent Park.

Johann van Graan cannot have been pleased as his team never got going and left themselves with too much to do. Opening half tries from Macauley Cook, Lloyd Williams and Owen Lane while Jarrod Evans converted two tries as well as slotting two crucial second half penalties to ensure the blues took the win.

Munster’s tries came through Chris Cloete in the first half and Stephen Fitzgerald in the second with Ian Keatley adding a conversion and a penalty. Tyler Bleyendaal added a late penalty as time expired to see Munster escape with a losing bonus point.

Munster’s Tyler Bleyendaal in action in the Guinness PRO14 game versus Cardiff Blues

Munster endured a woeful opening with some basic errors that allowed the Blues to build momentum and confidence. It was a similar start to the one against Zebre a week previous but Cardiff are an entirely different proposition and made Munster pay.

Ian Keatley was off target with a relatively straight forward penalty which set the tone for what was to come. What followed a three-try blitz inside eight minutes that amounted to the winning of the game.

First, Ellis Jenkins’ excellent pass found Cook, who dived over. Evans failed to add the extras. Munster might have had reason to feel aggrieved as there looked to be both a knock on and a forward pass in the build up but the TMO did not intervene.

The second try followed soon as a Duncan Williams’ clearance kick was charged down by Lloyd Williams who finished well. Then Rey Lee-Lo kicked ahead from a scrum platform to give flying wing Lane a try. Evans added the extras for both tries and Munster trailed 19-0.

Munster were shell-shocked but finally responded before the interval as Cloete peeled off the back of a line-out drive to go over the line for their first try. Keatley kicked a penalty as Munster flew out of the blocks at the start of the second period and Blues hooker Matthew Rees was yellow-carded for offside as the visitors hit back.

Fitzgerald dived over in the right corner to finish off a flowing team move and the conversion was added by the boot of Keatley to set up a four-point game.

Munster were now snapping at the Blues heels but the comeback never materialised as the home side demonstrated some super defensive resolve to keep the visitors at bay while two critical three-pointers from Evans made sure they were home and hosed.

The returning Tyler Bleyendaal to slot a late penalty which salvaged a losing bonus point for Munster but did little to mask what had been a poor overall performance.

Cardiff scorers:
Tries: Cook, L Williams, Lane
Penalties: Evans

Munster scorers:
Tries: Cloete, Fitzgerald
Conversions: Keatley
Penalties: Keatley, Bleyendaal

CARDIFF BLUES: R Williams; Summerhill (Myhill 53-63), Smith, Lee-Lo, Lane; Evans, L Williams (T Williams 66); G Jenkins (capt) (Gill 61), Rees (Myhill 63), Filise (Lewis 55), Earle (Turnbull 61), Davies, Cook (Robinson 74), E Jenkins, N Williams.

Replacements not used: Shingler, Edwards.

MUNSTER: Fitzgerald; Sweetnam, Arnold, Scannell, O’Mahony (Zebo 56); Keatley (Bleyendaal 61), Williams (Hart 70); Kilcoyne (Cronin 54), Marshall (Sherry 62), Ryan (Archer 54), Grobler (Kleyn 54), O’Shea, O’Donoghue (capt), Cloete, Copeland (O’Callaghan 70).

Referee: Stuart Berry (South Africa)