Munster Rugby suffer pre-season friendly defeat to Gloucester

MUNSTER Rugby suffered a 28-19 defeat to Premiership side Gloucester in the first of their two pre-season fixtures before an attendance of 5376 at Musgrave Park on Friday night.

The home side was outscored by four tries to three as Graham Rowntree's tenure as Munster Rugby head coach began with a defeat.

New head coach Rowntree and the province's new attack coach Mike Prendergast and defence coach Denis Leamy will have plenty to work on ahead of next Friday's second pre-season friendly against London Irish back at Musgrave Park, 7.30pm.

The visitors did the bulk of the damage in the opening half after which they enjoyed a significant 21-0 interval lead, thanks to three converted tries. 

Munster hit back in the second half scoring tries from Calvin Nash and Alex Kendellen to trailed by nine points, 12-21. 

However, a fourth Gloucester try from Jack Reeves sealed the win, although Munster did cross the whitewash for a third time through promising 18-year-old Academy member Ruadhan Quinn, a Munster Schools Senior Cup winner with Crescent College Comprehensive this year, in

Munster selected a 30-strong squad for the game and gave gametime to all those players. Opponents Gloucester fielded two different sides.

New signings Malakai Fekitoa and Chris Moore were among the replacements for Munster and were among those to make their debuts off the bench.

Greencore Munster Rugby Academy trio Edwin Edogbo, Ruadhan Quinn and Conor Phillips also got for their first taste of senior action with the province.

Munster trailed their slick opponents 0-21 at the end of the opening, the visitors scoring three converted tries. 

The Premiership side got off to the best possible start when scoring the game's opening try in the second minute. Winger Ollie Thorley pounced on a beautifully-weighed crossfield kick from Hastings in the first 90 seconds following a strong attacking line-out to score.

Adam Hasting's successful conversion made it 7-0 to the Kingsholm side.

At that stage, Munster's Jack O’Sullivan was off with a HIA, replaced by debutant Ruadhan Quinn, and out-half Ben Healy was in the sin-bin.

As Munster pressed to get back into the contest, powering their way deep inside the Gloucester '22, centre Chris Harris intercepted a pass, before running the length of the pitch to score under the posts. 

Hastings conversion made it 14-0

The third try arrived in the 32nd minute. Atkinson linked with centre Harris to secure his second and the visitor's third try of the game, following a solid driving maul from the Gloucester men. Hastings duly added the extras.

Gloucester, who have been in pre-season longer than Munster, held onto possession impressively, their handling accurate and assured in the excellent playing conditions.

While Gloucester changed their entire line-up at half-time Munster opted for seven of their own changes at the mid-point, with Fekitoa replacing Rory Scannell and Dan Goggin coming in for for Chris Farrell. Switches at half-back saw Paddy Patterson and Jack Crowley replace Neil Cronin and Ben Healy. Munster fielded a new front row with Liam O’Connor, Scott Buckley and Roman Salanoa introduced.

Munster finally bagged their first points of the contest in the 54th minute on 54 minutes, with Shane Daly putting Limerick winger Calvin Nash over in the right-hand corner for an excellent score.

Kendellen then burrowed over from close range for the home side, after some fine work from the likes of winger Daly and replacement scrum-half Patterson, while Jack Crowley added the conversion for 21-12.

Gloucester ended any hopes of Munster pulling off the great escape when Reeves dotted down for their fourth try. Evans' conversion put a gaping 16 points between the sides at 28-12.

Munster continued to ring the changes as the half wore on. There were first senior appearances for Paddy Kelly, Edwin Edogbo and Conor Phillips, while signed English hooker Chris Moore also debuted, coming on for replacement hooker Scott Buckley.

It was left to new boy Quinn to complete the scoring, bagging Munster's third try on his first appearance at this level. Crowley also added the extras.

SCORERS: Munster Rugby: Calvin Nash, Alex Kendellen, Ruadhán Quinn try each, Jack Crowley two cons. Gloucester: Chris Harris two tries; Ollie Thorley, Jack Reeves try each, Adam Hastings three cons, Lloyd Evans con.

MUNSTER RUGBY: Simon Zebo; Calvin Nash, Chris Farrell, Rory Scannell, Shane Daly; Ben Healy, Neil Cronin; Josh Wycherley, Diarmuid Barron, Keynan Knox; Cian Hurley, Eoin O’Connor; Jack O’Donoghue (C), Alex Kendellen, Jack O’Sullivan. Replacements used: Ruadhan Quinn for O'Sullivan (3mins, injured), Chris Farrell for Goggin, Malakai Fekitoa for Scannell, Jack Crowley for Healy, Patrick Patterson for Cronin, Liam O'Connor for Wycherley, Scott Buckley for Barron, Roman Salanoa for Knox (all half-time, Conor Phillips for Nash, Liam Coombes for Zebo, Edwin Edogbo for Hurley, Paddy Kelly for O'Connor (all 51 mins), Daniel Okeke for Kendellen (60 mins), Chris Moore for Buckley, Hurley for O'Donoghue (67 mins), Tony Butler for Daly (69 mins).

GLOUCESTER: Kyle Moyle; Tom Seabrook, Chris Harris, Mark Atkinson, Ollie Thorley; Adam Hastings, Charlie Chapman; Harry Elrington, Jack Singleton, Fraser Balmain; Freddie Clarke, Arthur Clark; Ruan Ackermann (capt), Harry Taylor, Ben Morgan.

GLOUCESTER (second half): Reece Dunn; Jack Reeves, Billy Twelvetrees (capt), Giorgi Kveseladze, Jake Morris; Lloyd Evans, Stephen Varney; Ciaran Knight, Henry Walker, Jamal Ford-Robinson; Andrew Davidson, Arthur Clark; Cam Jordan, Freddie Thomas, Jack Clement.

REFEREE: Peter Marshall (IRFU)

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