Munster too strong for Maori All Blacks

A strong second-half performance saw Munster beat the Maori All Blacks 27-14 at Thomond Park on Friday night.

Munster opened the scoring through Rory Scannell inside the first 15 minutes but Ian Keatley failed to add the extras.

The Maori All Blacks hit back 10 minutes later when Otere Black made the gap with a dummy pass before sending James Lowe through the gap on the 22 line.  He was caught before the 5m line, but the wet conditions took him over the line.

The visitors doubled their lead just two minutes later when Munster gave a loose kick towards midfield where Akira Ioane took it at pace.

Marty McKenzie gave it some width out wide before Black got a hand on the ball to attract a tackler before putting Ambrose Curtis away.

Munster were awarded a penalty try after Reed Prinsep was deemed to have taken out a Munster player off the ball, which also resulted in the flanker receiving a yellow card.

The conversion was miss but Munster managed to take the lead going into half time when Darren Sweetnam scored to give his side a narrow 17-14 lead at the break.

The second half had barely resumed when Keatley added a penalty to give Munster some breathing space on the scoreboard.  They had the better of the second 40 and when Ronan O'Mahony went over with 12 minutes left it effectively sealed the game for Munster.

The scorers:

For Munster:
Tries:  Scannell, Penalty Try, Sweetnam, O'Mahony
Cons:  Keatley 2
Pen:  Keatley

For Maori All Blacks:
Tries:  Lowe, Curtis
Cons:  Black 2
Yellow Card:  Prinsep

Munster:  15 Andrew Conway, 14 Darren Sweetnam, 13 Jaco Taute, 12 Rory Scannell, 11 Ronan O’Mahony, 10 Ian Keatley, 9 Duncan Williams, 8 Robin Copeland, 7 Conor Oliver, 6 Tommy O’Donnell (c), 5 Darren O’Shea, 4 John Madigan, 3 Stephen Archer, 2 Niall Scannell, 1 James Cronin
Replacements:  16 Rhys Marshall, 17 Peter McCabe, 18 Brian Scott, 19 Sean O’Connor, 20 John Foley, 21 Te Aihe Toma, 22 Dan Goggin, 23 Alex Wootton

Maori All Blacks:  15 Marty McKenzie, 14 Ambrose Curtis, 13 Matt Proctor, 12 Tim Bateman, 11 James Lowe, 10 Otere Black, 9 Billy Guyton, 8 Akira Ioane, 7 Shane Christie, 6 Reed Prinsep, 5 Tom Franklin, 4 Leighton Price, 3 Ben May, 2 Ash Dixon (c), 1 Kane Hames
Replacements:  16 Leni Apisai, 17 Chris Eves, 18 Marcel Renata, 19 Whetu Douglas, 20 Kara Pryor, 21 Brad Weber, 22 Ihaia West, 23 Jason Emery

Referee:  Craig Maxwell-Keys (England)
Assistant Referees:  Frank Murphy (Ireland), Leo Colgan (Ireland)
TMO:  Brian MacNeice (Ireland)