Representative friendlies/Munster 38; Rotherham 19: With Keith Wood leading from the front, Munster's battery of heavyweight World Cup contenders generally stated their individual credentials with gusto at Thomond Park last night. Most importantly, they all got through 40-60 minutes' work without any notable scars.
In truth, the exercise was probably more useful to the Irish management than Alan Gaffney, for even Munster's best spell, in the opening quarter, was achieved with a number of players whom he won't see in competitive action until November.
"Most of the nationals got a fair amount of time, and then we tried to give our guys enough time for it to be useful, so it was very hard to cram it all into 90 minutes," admitted Gaffney. "The ball got a bit slippery and we didn't build through the phases after controlling the ball for the first 15 or 20 minutes. I would have hoped for a little bit better but overall I can't be too disappointed."
Most of all, Wood adorned one of his old stomping grounds in the manner of yore. Donning the Munster red jersey for the first time since the 2000 European Cup final, he regularly stood one-off scrumhalf Eoin Reddan and was an ever-willing target runner - running hard and true. Just as encouraging was the manner he put his body into big hits, while his throwing was pretty satisfactory as well.
David Wallace also took on a big amount of ball and ran hard in contact, though it will be of more interest for the watching Niall O'Donovan and Brian O'Brien that he appeared to line up some good hits - bearing in mind his long road back from a shoulder operation over a year ago. He departed after turning over on his ankle, but it was deemed to be nothing serious.
No-one caught the eye more though, than Alan Quinlan. A muscular defensive presence, especially when Munster repelled two line-out mauls close to their own line, Quinlan provided a secure line-out target, made one rampaging gallop off the tail and played an alert, creative part in one try off a quickly taken tap penalty by Reddan when putting Mossie Lawlor scampering away.
John Hayes, Donncha O'Callaghan and Paul O'Connell will also have benefitted from the run-out; their sheeer presence contributing to Munster's dominant first quarter.
There was also a try for Anthony Horgan although, alas, Rob Henderson received a couple of ball-and-man passes early on and, with Jason Holland not at his best and Munster struggling to create go-forward platforms, the game never broke his way thereafter.
Aside from the surfeit of replacements, the game's pre-season status was evident in other tell-tale signs. The Thomond Park pitch has never seemed smoother or greener, while the scoreboard was pretty much an aside - as evidenced by neither side opting for shots at goal.
Munster's early reward was a brace of tries off line-out mauls for Simon Kerr and Wood. There followed their third try by Lawlor before they somewhat lost their way and the territorial battle. Despite some good passages of continuity they couldn't close out moves; as the timing between offloader and support runner was a fraction awry.
A sustained post-interval drive, with Wallace figuring prominently, was finished off by Horgan, who took a good, diagonal line in gathering one-handed after the talented Denis Leamy had made vital inroads.
However, as the chopping and changing kicked in, Munster coughed up soft tries for Jonathon Pritchard and Michael Wood. By the end, young hopefuls and new arrivals were being blooded all over the place, but there was a blast from the past as Eddie Halvey broke a few tackles to score. Some of the old magic is still there.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 4 mins: Kerr try, Staunton con 7-0; 12 Wood try, 12-0; 15: Lawlor try 17-0; 43: Horgan try, Holland con 24-0; 47: Pritchard try, Jones con 24-7; 54: M Wood try, Jones con 24-14; 65: Halvey try, Holland con 31-14; 80: Payne try, Holland con 38-14; A Elliot try 38-19.
Munster: J Staunton; M Lawlor, M Mullins, R Henderson, A Horgan; J Holland, E Reddan; S Kerr, K Wood, J Hayes, D O'Callaghan, P O'Connell, A Quinlan, J Williams, D Wallace. Replacements: D Crotty for Staunton (38 mins), S Payne for Lawlor, D Leamy for Quinlan, E Halvey for O'Connell (all half-time), J Blaney for Wood, F Roche for Hayes, M McPhail for Horgan (all 50 mins), C McMahon for Wallace, J Jones-Hughes for Mullins, F Murphy for Reddan (all 52 mins), C O'Sullivan for Henderson, P Malone for Williams, T Hogan for O'Callaghan, J Flannery for Blaney (all 65 mins), E McGovern for Roche (72 mins), A Long for Flannery, T Hayes for Leamy (both 79 mins), D Ulrich for Murphy, J Danaher for Kerr, F McLoughlin for Holland (all 81 mins).
ROTHERHAM: J Benson; A Elliott, J Ewens, P Jorgensen, M Wood; P Jones, J Rauluni; N Lloyd, C Johnson, C Loader, D Cook, G Kenworthy, L Greeff, J Cockle, R Earnshaw. Replacements: J Pritchard for Ewens, C Harrison for Rauluni (both half-time).
Referee: M Kilgore (IRFU).
