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Munster earn bonus-point win over Hollywoodbets Sharks in URC opener

By PA
Ethan Coughlan of Munster dives over to score his side's fifth try during the United Rugby Championship match between Munster and Hollywoodbets Sharks at Thomond Park in Limerick. (Photo By Seb Daly/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Final-quarter tries from Andrew Conway and Ethan Coughlan earned Munster a 34-21 bonus-point win over the Hollywoodbets Sharks as they made a successful start to their BKT United Rugby Championship title defence at Thomond Park.

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Academy lock Edwin Edogbo’s first URC try put his side on course for a 21-7 half-time lead, with Diarmuid Barron and Antoine Frisch also scoring to sandwich Werner Kok’s 37th-minute reply.

Despite James van Rensburg crossing in the 48th minute to cancel out a Joey Carbery penalty, the Sharks lost Cameron Wright to the sin bin and those scores from Conway and Coughlan put the result beyond doubt.

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The Sharks did muster a late consolation effort from Aphelele Fassi, something to take with them into next week’s trip to Leinster.

The South African outfit failed to capitalise on Ntuthuko Mchunu’s eye-catching early break, with the supporting Wright denied a try by Shane Daly’s tackle.

Munster had a couple of false starts with Carbery throwing a forward pass, but he soon combined with Barron to prevent Mchunu from breaking the deadlock.

Points Flow Chart

Munster win +13
Time in lead
62
Mins in lead
0
75%
% Of Game In Lead
0%
31%
Possession Last 10 min
69%
5
Points Last 10 min
7

Twenty minutes in, nice hands from Carbery and late call-up Shay McCarthy released Daly down the left wing, and three defenders were unable to stop the 20-year-old Edogbo from five metres out.

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Carbery converted and it was his sharp footwork and link-up with Alex Kendellen that sent hooker Barron in behind the posts to make it 14-0.

Nearing the interval, a brilliant solo run from Curwin Bosch split open the hosts’ midfield and played in Kok to score in the right corner.

However, Frisch sucker-punched the Sharks when he kicked through and got the bounce of the ball to touch down, much to the disgust of the covering Wright and Marnus Potgieter.

22m Entries

Avg. Points Scored
3.4
10
Entries
Avg. Points Scored
2.6
8
Entries

Carbery took his kicking haul to nine points early after the restart, yet the Sharks hit back with another opportunistic try. Wright took a quick lineout after his own 50:22 kick and replacement Van Rensburg crashed over from a Phepsi Buthelezi pass.

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Although Bosch’s conversion made it a 10-point game, Munster wrestled back control past the hour mark. Wright was yellow carded for a high tackle on Daly.

The Irish province’s maul did some damage before newcomer Alex Nankivell’s long skip pass put Conway over untouched for the bonus-point try.

Kendellen and Frisch showed their passing skills to send Coughlan over in the 77th minute, before replacement Fassi had the final say, clawing back seven points from Bosch’s kick over the top.

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Tom 1 hour ago
England player ratings vs South Africa | 2024 Autumn Nations Series

That 2019 performance was literally the peak in attacking rugby under Eddie. If you thought that was underwhelming, the rest of it was garbage.


I totally get what you're saying and England don't need or have any God given right to the best coaches in the world... But I actually think the coaches we do have are quite poor and for the richest union in the world, that's not good enough. 


England are competitive for sure but with the talent pool up here and the funds available, we should be in the top 3. At the very least we should be winning six nations titles on a semi-regular basis. If Ireland can, England definitely should.


England's attack coach (Richard Wigglesworth) is Borthwick's mate from his playing days at Saracens, who he brought to Leicester with him when he became coach. Wigglesworth was a 9 who had no running or passing game, but was the best box kicker in the business. He has no credentials to be an attack coach and I've seen nothing to prove otherwise. Aside from Marcus Smith’s individual brilliance, our collective attack has looked very uninspiring.

 

England's defence coach (Joe El-Abd) is Borthwick's housemate from uni, who has never been employed as a defence coach before. He's doing the job part time while he's still the head coach of a team in the second division of French rugby who have an awful defensive record. England's defence has gone from being brutally efficient under Felix Jones to as leaky as a colander almost overnight.


If Borthwick brings in a new attack and defence coach then I'll absolutely get behind him but his current coaches seem to be the product of nepotism. He's brought in people he's comfortable with because he lacks confidence as an international head coach and they aren't good enough for international rugby.


England are competitive because they do some things really well, mostly they front up physically, make a lot of big hits, have a solid kicking game, a good lineout, good maul, Marcus Smith and some solid forwards. A lot of what we do well I would ascribe to Borthwick personally. I don't think he's a bad coach, I think he lacks imagination and is overly risk averse. He needs coaches who will bring a point of difference.


I guess my point is, yes England are competitive, but we’re not aiming for competitive and I honestly don't believe this coaching setup has what it takes to make us any better than competitive.


On the plus side it looks like we have an amazing crop of young players coming through. Some of them who won the u20 world cup played for England A against Australia A on the weekend and looked incredible... Check out the highlights on youtube.

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