Sport

O'Connell in dominant form as Munster prevail

'A' Interprovincial/Ulster A 5 Munster A 38: Ireland lock Paul O'Connell got through an hour's hard graft as Munster A swept…

Sat Feb 09 2008 - 00:00

'A' Interprovincial/Ulster A 5 Munster A 38:Ireland lock Paul O'Connell got through an hour's hard graft as Munster A swept past Ulster at Shaw's Bridge last night.

O'Connell, returning from a back injury, was a dominant force in the lineout, both on his own side's ball and Ulster's, and was very lively around the park with some trademark ball carrying and plenty of vigorous defence around the breakdown.

Munster outscored the home side by six tries to one. The writing was on the wall for Ulster when O'Connell stole the first lineout against the head. The visitors had to wait only three minutes for their first score which began with O'Connell charging through midfield. The ball was recycled and winger Keith Earls drew the defence before popping the ball to centre Conan Doyle to go under the posts, Jeremy Manning converting.

Munster doubled their lead two minutes later when Ulster hooker Matt Miles failed to deal with a kick by Manning. Flanker Jake Paringatai, returning to provincial colours for the first time since damaging a cheekbone against Clermont in November, gathered and touched down, with Manning again converting.

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Ulster outhalf Kieran Hallett missed a penalty before Munster scored a third try on 25 minutes. From a driving maul pivot Tomás O'Leary picked up from the base of the scrum to go over. Manning was again on target with the conversion.

The Queen's winger Michael Barker finished off Ulster's best move in the corner to reduce the Munster lead to 21-5 at the break.

Doyle went over for his second try quickly after the restart when good work from the pack created an overlap out wide for the centre to go in at the corner.

Prop Darragh Hurley crashed over from close range after more hard yards by the pack and replacement lock Tom O'Donnell took advantage of a tiring defence for a converted score.

ULSTER:A: R McCarter; M Barker, S Mallon, I Whitten, P McKenzie; K Hallett, K Campbell; J Carey, M Miles, A Kirkpatrick; I Caldwell, S McDonald; T Anderson, N McMillan, C Henry.

MUNSTER:A Horgan; I Hanley, B Murphy, C Doyle, K Earls; J Manning, T O'Leary; D Hurley, D Fogarty, E McGovern; M Melbourne, P O'Connell; J Paringatai, B O'Mahony J Coughlan.

Referee: E O'Dowd(Leinster).