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PRO14 ROUNDUP - South African sides flogged again
Munster racked up a second bonus-point win of the season, smashing Pro14 newcomers the Cheetahs 51-18 at Thomond Park. Fellow South African side the Southern Kings also went down to Connacht in round two of the competition.
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The new franchises new to the competition are yet to get off the mark, with Cheetahs’ thrashing displaying the size of the task that now confronts them.
Munster were dominant from the set-piece on home turf, Tommy O’Donnell going over in the seventh minute after the Cheetahs were pushed back and lost possession from their own scrum put-in.
Alex Wootton scored the first of his four tries from a line-out maul and he was at it again as Munster changed tact to produce some neat ball skills five minutes later.
🎥 📺 4 tries tonight, not bad, not bad at all @alexanderwotton 😉
Full Match Report | https://t.co/7LhJBh1isg#MUNvCHE pic.twitter.com/jL3B7gchU5
— Munster Rugby (@Munsterrugby) September 9, 2017
Trailing 22-6 at the interval, the Cheetahs made the perfect start to the second half as Francois Venter broke the line and fed his fellow centre William Small-Smith to go half the length of the field and touch down.
But the visitors’ joy was short-lived as Jean Kleyn and Chris Farrell secured the bonus point and Wootton added to his personal tally twice in the space of six minutes – victory was polished off by Ireland wing Simon Zebo six minutes from time.
Meanwhile, the Southern Kings slipped to a second defeat from as many games – going down 32-10 at Connacht.
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Like Munster, Scarlets also have maximum points from two games after hammering Zebre 41-10 in Parma.
The visitors had the better of things in rain-drenched conditions. Johnny McNicholl, Steff Evans, Paul Asquith, Tadhg Beirne and Aled Davies all scored tries along with 14 points from the boot of Rhys Patchell, as the men from Llanelli became the only Welsh side to win this weekend.
Glasgow and Ulster kept up respective winning starts, the Warriors beating Ospreys 31-10 at Scotstoun to secure a bonus point, which eluded the Irish side as they could not manage a fourth try in a 21-14 win over Benetton Treviso.
