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Munster make light work of Connacht to boost home URC QF hopes

By PA
Limerick , Ireland - 11 May 2024; Gavin Coombes of Munster is tackled by Dylan Tierney-Martin and Tom Farrell of Connacht short of the try line during the United Rugby Championship match between Munster and Connacht at Thomond Park in Limerick. (Photo By Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Munster are within reach of a home quarter-final in the BKT United Rugby Championship following a runaway 47-12 derby win over Connacht at Thomond Park.

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A swamped Connacht had to make 81 tackles during the opening 24 minutes, but only trailed 14-7 at half-time thanks to a late Byron Ralston try.

Munster profited from Shamus Hurley-Langton’s yellow card to cross through RG Snyman and Calvin Nash, and Alex Nankivell’s sucker-punch 45th-minute effort restored their 14-point lead.

Replacement Conor Murray claimed a 64th-minute bonus point for Graham Rowntree’s side, before a second Ralston try was cancelled out by closing scores from Joey Carbery, Tom Ahern, and Shane Daly.

Despite conceding some early turnovers to Hurley-Langton and Peter Dooley, in-form Munster duly advanced downfield via penalties won in the scrum and at maul time.

Dooley and Oisín Dowling earned the defensive plaudits as Munster were kept scoreless but the pressure told in the 19th minute as, just after Hurley-Langton’s yellow for offside, Snyman stretched out for the line with TMO Mark Patton confirming the grounding. Jack Crowley made it a full seven-pointer.

Fixture
United Rugby Championship
Munster
47 - 12
Full-time
Connacht
All Stats and Data

The defending champions doubled their lead with a slick first-phase score when Nash got outside Tom Farrell and backed his pace to score from 40 metres out.

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Connacht protested the winger’s one-handed finish, leading to Crowley’s missed conversion being retaken. He was successful with his second attempt from out wide.

However, the westerners hit back before the break. Having turned down a kickable penalty, Jack Carty’s superb skip pass put Ralston over in the left corner.

Carty followed up with the conversion, halving the deficit, but his side failed to take advantage of a spritely start to the second period, including a brilliant run from Farrell.

Instead, when the ball went loose between Bundee Aki and Hurley-Langton, Nankivell reacted quickest to raid over from 65 metres out. Crowley converted for a 21-7 advantage.

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After Hurley-Langton had a try ruled out for a foot in touch, Murray was sent clear by Simon Zebo with Munster’s sharp handling a key factor again. Carbery converted.

Another pinpoint lofted pass from Carty put Ralston over on the left, yet Connacht struggled thereafter.

Slick hands from Munster’s midfield played in Carbery, Ahern swatted Farrell aside for a romp to the left corner, and Daly touched down during the final play.

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Tom 57 minutes 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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