Munster A took on Connacht A last night in Thomond park in front of a good crowd. Both Declan Cusack and Connachts Number 10 exchanged two penalties a piece in the open 20 minutes. It was Munster who crossed the line first, Rowley floating the softest of passes to prop Dave Ryan who ghosted through a gap in the Connacht defence taking play up to Connachts 5 meter line, where some good hands from Tom Gleeson put Danney Barnes over in the corner.

Connacht’s Nicora had two opportunities to reduce the deficit but missed both penalties and Munster were reduced to 14 men for the end of the first half when Dave Sherry saw yellow from referee Leo Colgan for not rolling away. Munster went into the break with a 14 – 6 lead.

The opening score in the second half came from some good pressure from the Munster pack. After a number of attempts at the pick and drive over the line, it was finally Ryan who managed to get over for Munsters second of the night.

Some lovely interplay between backs and forwards and a good offload game resulted in Munster third try, O’Mahony finishing off the move.

Connacht dominated at the end of the game and were gifted a late consolation try from a Munster line-out. Varley will not want to see the replay of this one. The ball went straight over the top of a 5 meter line-out to Munster. Connachts number 8 Mike McComish more than happy to recieve to walk over the line