Seventh heaven for Munster who find scoring touch in returning to winning ways in URC

MUNSTER returned to winning ways in a timely fashion this Saturday evening in the United Rugby Championship.

After plenty off-field headlines in recent weeks and results on the field not what was needed, Clayton McMillan's side responded in emphatic fashion with a 15-45 victory over Benetton at Stadio Monigo.

Now lying sixth in the league table and bidding to make the top eight for the URC quarter-finals, Munster now have three league matches to play - Ulster up next in Thomond Park on April 25, Connacht in Galway on May 9 and the last day of the URC season has the Lions in Limerick from South Africa.

Prior to this evening, Munster's only win on the road in any competition since October was the 26-10 over Ospreys in December.

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Despite only two wins from nine games in 2026 - the last on February 28 - Munster hit the ground running.

Munster welcomed back a number of key players from injury and it was the returning Calvin Nash who had Munster on the scoreboard inside the 10-minute mark. The Limerick man was airborne as he touched down in the right corner. Despite the near touchline conversion, Jack Crowley added the conversion points for an ideal start for the visitors.

Ten minutes later, came try no2 and this time it was on the opposite wing. Some swift passes released Tom Farrell and he raced to the line.

Less than 20-minutes played and Munster were 0-12 clear against a side, who had not been victorious against Munster since 2013.

The home side in Treviso were stung into action and only some strong defensive cover kept them at bay.

They eventually made their mark on the scoring in the 27th minute with a penalty

Inside the final 10-minutes of the half, Munster had a third try - Crowley kicked to the corner from a penalty and from there the ball was recycled well until Gavin Coombes scored a third try of the evening for Munster.

And that it was it for the opening half  - Munster 19-3 ahead at the break.

It was the home side that made early in-roads on the resumption but a memorable last ditch tackle from Alex Nankivell kept them from scoring a try in just the third minute.

Down the field went Munster and Jean Kleyn went over for a fourth bonus point try for the province.

Not 50-minutes played and the scoreboard made for welcome reading 3-26.

Jacob Umaga did finally get over for a Benetton try but that was merely to open the floodgates even wider for Munster with two tries following in quick succession.

Firstly Alex Kendellen profited from a cross-field kick from Crowley to go over and then Tadhg Beirne finished a move created by Alex Nankivell.

So six tries and not an hour played and Munster 10-38 ahead.

All appeared to be going too smoothly and then came sin-bins for Crowley and Craig Casey in the space of three minutes. 

Testament to the performance on the night, Munster weren't to concede a single score while down to 13 players.

While the result was beyond doubt, there was time for the sides to exchange late tries - Brian Gleeson and Alessandro Garbisi.

MUNSTER: Shane Daly (Gavin Coombes, 72); Calvin Nash, Tom Farrell (Dan Kelly, 23), Alex Nankivell (Dan Kelly, 72), Andrew Smith; Jack Crowley, Craig Casey; Jeremy Loughman (Michael Milne, 56), Diarmuid Barron (Lee Barron, 56), Michael Ala’alatoa (Oli Jager, h-t); Jean Kleyn (Edwin Edogbo, 59), Tadhg Beirne; Tom Ahern (Brian Gleeson, 59), John Hodnett (Alex Kendellen, 52), Gavin Coombes (Ben O'Donovan, 67).