Indisciplined Kings whitewashed again
PRO14 REPORT: The Southern Kings – who collected three yellow cards in an indisciplined display – were whitewashed yet again.
Darren Sweetnam finished a marvellous Munster move to get the pick of the tries as they beat Kings 43-0 at the Irish Independent Park on Friday.
Neil Cronin and Andrew Conway’s first-half scores put Munster in control, before Sweetnam and Billy Holland touched down to secure the bonus-point win early in the second period.
Rhys Marshall, Jean Kleyn and Rory Scannell added three more tries in the final quarter, as Munster solidified their position at the top of Conference A.
The visitors started the stronger, carrying the ball with power around the fringes to work their way up field. But they could not make it count, with several errors when they were deep in the Conference A leader’s half.
Munster made them pay with one of their first entries into the opposition 22.
A driven lineout from five metres out could not quite get over the line but the ball was recycled before Cronin took his chance to dart through a gap to touch down.
On the half-hour, the Irish No.9 had a chance to seemingly spread the ball wide for his team to score but his pass was wayward.
Munster stayed in the ascendancy as the half went on, as Southern Kings struggled to clear their lines in the strong winds.
It got worse for the visitors just before half-time when No.8 Ruan Lerm was sin-binned for illegal play at the ruck.
The hosts did not take long to make the most of the man advantage, Tyler Bleyendaal’s pass gave Conway a gap to power through and score, leaving it 12-0 at the break.
The South African started brightly but two more tries before the hour, Sweetnam got the first as he latched onto back-to-back kicks through after the ball went wide.
Holland made sure it was a bonus-point win on the hour after he was shunted over the line by two teammates after Munster went through the phases with the ball at close quarters.
It was more of the same when the Irish outfit grabbed their next two scores, with Marshall and Kleyn both touching down following deep lineouts.
Scannell added the seventh right at the death as Bader-Werner Pretorius, making his first start for the visitors, lost the ball in the tackle inside his own 22.
The inside-centre, who finished with 13 points, scooped it up and ran in under the posts to complete the triumph.
The scorers:
For Munster:
Tries: Cronin, Conway, Sweetnam, Holland, Marshall, Kleyn, Scannell
Cons: Scannell 4
For the Southern Kings:
None
Yellow cards: Ruan Lerm (Southern Kings, 35), Tertius Kruger (Southern Kings, 68), Andisa Ntsila (Southern Kings, 69)
Teams:
Munster: 15 Mike Haley, 14 Andrew Conway, 13 Chris Farrell, 12 Rory Scannell, 11 Darren Sweetnam, 10 Tyler Bleyendaal (captain), 9 Neil Cronin, 8 Arno Botha, 7 Chris Cloete, 6 Fineen Wycherley, 5 Billy Holland, 4 Jean Kleyn, 3 John Ryan, 2 Niall Scannell, 1 Jeremy Loughman.
Replacements: 16 Rhys Marshall, 17 Liam O’Connor, 18 Stephen Archer, 19 Darren O’Shea, 20 Gavin Coombes, 21 Alby Mathewson, 22 JJ Hanrahan, 23 Dan Goggin.
Kings: 15 Masixole Banda, 14 Yaw Penxe, 13 Meli Rokoua, 12 Berton Klaasen, 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Bader Pretorius, 9 Stefan Ungerer, 8 Ruaan Lerm, 7 Tienie Burger, 6 Stephen de Wit, 5 JC Astle (captain), 4 Andries van Schalkwyk, 3 De-Jay Terblanche, 2 Michael Willemse, 1 Schalk Ferreira.
Replacements: 16 Alandre van Rooyen, 17 Alulutho Tshakweni, 18 Pieter Scholtz, 19 Stephan Greeff, 20 Andisa Ntsila, 21 Sarel Pretorius, 22 Tertius Kruger, 23 Ulrich Beyers.
Referee: Andrea Piardi (Italy)
Assistant referees: Sean Gallagher (Ireland), Matteo Liperini (Italy)
TMO: Alan Falzone (Italy)
Source: @PRO14Official
What a performance from the @Munsterrugby lock 🙌🙌@JeanKleyn is presented with his Man of the Match award by Michael Lyons 🏅#GUINNESSPRO14 #MUNvISK pic.twitter.com/0HojREF8CU
— PRO14 RUGBY (@PRO14Official) 15 February 2019
