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Munster beat Connacht despite early red card for Kiwi star

By PA
Craig Casey of Munster celebrates after scoring his side's second try during the United Rugby Championship match between Connacht and Munster at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park in Castlebar, Mayo. (Photo By Seb Daly/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Jack Crowley scored 15 points as Munster overcame Connacht 30-24 at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park despite Alex Nankivell’s red card.

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Munster led 18-5 midway through the Castlebar clash, with Tom Ahern and Craig Casey, back from knee surgery, both touching down.

Centre Nankivell was sent off in the 25th minute for a dangerous clearout on Connacht captain Cian Prendergast, who had to be stretchered off.

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    Caolin Blade opened the second half’s scoring, adding to an earlier effort from Sean Jansen who finished with two tries for the westerners.

    Josh Ioane ultimately made it four tries each – Connacht replacement Dylan Tierney-Martin had a fifth disallowed late on – but Crowley and Diarmuid Barron had both crossed before that as Munster claimed five important BKT United Rugby Championship points.

    Attack

    211
    Passes
    160
    109
    Ball Carries
    134
    154m
    Post Contact Metres
    220m
    6
    Line Breaks
    7

    This was the first professional Connacht fixture to be played in County Mayo, let alone the home of Mayo GAA, and it drew a record Connacht attendance of 27,580.

    Player-of-the-match Crowley landed a sixth-minute penalty before setting up second row Ahern to crash over in the left corner.

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    Jansen powered over from a smart Finlay Bealham pass, closing the gap to 8-5, before Calvin Nash impressively beat three defenders to send Casey over, and Crowley slotted over the conversion.

    Barely three minutes later, Nankivell made direct contact with Prendergast’s head at a ruck, leaving Munster down to 14 men and the hosts without their skipper.

    Bundee Aki and Finn Treacy combined to put Blade over for a converted 44th-minute try, cancelling out Crowley’s second three-pointer.

    Munster continued to have the answers, Crowley scoring from Casey’s brilliant pass, and his extras made it 25-12.

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    Barron burrowed over before Jansen struck on the hour mark, capitalising on Tadhg Beirne’s sin-binning.

    A fast-finishing Connacht had their chances, yet the post meant replacement JJ Hanrahan missed the conversion of Ioane’s try, and an Aki infringement at a prior ruck ruled out Tierney-Martin’s score.

    With Conor Murray on for his 200th appearance and Jean Kleyn stealing a crucial lineout, Munster hung on even though Billy Scannell’s late yellow left them with 13 players.

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    JW 2 hours ago
    'I feel for the players': Jamie Joseph's reflection on falling short again

    Some great leadership quality from Big Jim, he facilitated for large parts then put the responsibility on himself at the end drive the team forward in the last desperate minutes. He also filled in for Withy extremely well, adding real strength to the maul.


    The Force have been playing very well this year indeed, and their stars did make a couple of key players, the main factor though is definitely what I reported in the previous article “

    Gotta say I’m really enjoying the Highlanders desperation in the last 10 minutes of games, maybe it’s just because theyre having to throw the kitchen sink at it again. Another massive effort to hold the opposition out just like in the Blues game. I’m sure the coach’s will be wanting a little more composure though as the play seems to far more hap hazard (really just the type of footy I like watching) than the picture they bring at the beggining of games.

    Again though they don’t have the refs to thank for anything, being down a man twenty more minutes than they should have been. Most importantly they were without one of they best attackers (not counting Tangitau’s early change) for the final push, with Nareki’s bin.

    Again, I can see where this team is trying to go, I hope they can get their this year as they certainly have the game to be a top four team if they click. They are munch of misfits when you look at it objectively though, they probably have the worst cohesion score of any SRP team. A few more wins, maybe a come from behind upset may be the best theey can hope to acheive this year.

    “. Like Jim I thought the defence stood up strongly for large parts, but they may just have some structural issues, where it’s just not paying off. They had Lawaqa on the wing all day, allowed the Force to make a dozen linebreaks, why? Both there attack and defence look a bit too fancy for me, why? Common Joseph, the youngest team with the least cohesion/most new guys, it look overly complicated.


    I hope it clicks. Manson in particular looked to be trying far too hard when he came on, what’s been said in his ear? Stick to you lane son and don’t make any mistakes, don’t lose the game for your team. Should be a comfortable win next week against Drua if they keep there heads up and come back stronger. Lasaqa might be best to come off the bench, would keep Jim at 12 but I’d like Tele’a to come back to the side, though TUJ hasn’t been bad and style might suit Drua more. Hopefully Renton or someone with some size is at 8 or 6, Lasaqa appears to be more an 8 actually, similar to Sititi and I wouldn’t mind if he was groomed behind him and Sotutu. Lennox I thought could make a good halfback but isn’t ready, I’d hope Arscott, Fakatava, or Pledger could return to the side. Other than Drua theyve got Cheifs twice, though the home game is the last of the round/season so potentially a gimme if the Chiefs repeat previous years tactics. The Crusaders and Moana at home are also very doable. Those four wins could see them crash into the top 6 still.

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