Munster 13 Leicester 17:MUNSTER RETURNED to action with a loss against English Premiership side Leicester Tigers at Musgrave Park last night. Minus Ronan O'Gara, Paul O'Connell and a host of front-line players, the next generation of Munster stars were given a chance against a full-strength Leicester side who scored two tries through Alesana Tuilagi.
Fit-again Denis Leamy scored Munster’s only try and despite the loss, there were several positives for Tony McGahan. Leamy looked sharp and shaded his battle against England hopeful Jordan Crane. Ian Dowling was Munster’s most impressive back while new signing Sam Tuitupou had an industrious first outing.
Paul Warwick looked reasonably assured at outhalf and his long-range penalty on 16 minutes opened the scoring for Munster.
Leicester eventually broke their duck shortly after when Alesana Tuilagi barged his way over for a try, converted by Toby Flood.
Tempers threatened to boil over around the half hour mark and Leicester prop Boris Stankovitch was yellow-carded for lashing out against Dowling. Munster made good use of their one-man advantage and Warwick tapped over another penalty after excellent work by Tommy O’Donnell.
But a powerful Leicester scrum forced a penalty on the stroke of half time, and Flood tapped over to send the visitors into the break with a four-point advantage.
Munster were sharp out of the blocks in the second half and Leamy marked his return with a smart try, converted by Warwick.
A raft of substitutions then disrupted the flow of the game and Tuilagi crashed over in the corner after neat work by Geordan Murphy. Flood once more converted, his last action before former Munster-man Jeremy Staunton replaced him at outhalf.
Leicester began to boss the game and caused considerable damage through their scrum but Felix Jones, also returning after a long injury lay-off, was impressive having come on as a substitute, making a string of impressive tackles. Academy graduate Simon Zebo also made a strong impact off the bench, and his running inspired a late surge.The Tigers held their nerve to secure the win.
MUNSTER: S Deasy; D Hurley, D Barnes, S Tuitupou, I Dowling; P Warwick, D Williams; W du Preez, D Fogarty, S Archer; B Holland, D Foley; D Ryan, T O’Donnell, D Leamy. Replacements: F Jones for Tuitupou 40 mins, P O’Mahony for T O’Donnell, I Nagle for D Foley, D Hurley for Archer all 41 mins, C Murray for D Williams 55 mins, J Coughlan for Ryan 55 mins, M Sherry for Fogarty 66 mins, P Butler for Leamy, I Dowling for Zebo 67 mins, C Hircock for Barnes 76 mins.
LEICESTER: G Murphy; S Hamilton, A Allen, M Smith, A Tuilagi; T Flood, B Youngs; D Cole, G Chuter, B Stankovitch; C Green, G Skivington; T Waldron, B Woods, J Crane. Replacements: M Amerza for Waldron 34- half-time, M Tuilangi Hamilton 40 mins, M Castrogiovanni for Cole, D Hipkiss for Smith 41 mins, S Slater for Crane 53 mins, J Grindal for Youngs, J Staunton for Flood, both 60 mins, S Hamilton for Murphy 67 mins.
Referee: D Phillips.
