[su_dropcap style=”flat” size=”4″]L[/su_dropcap]et’s not overcomplicate this one. Munster were as good as they needed to be to stick 52 points on a disjointed, inexperienced Zebre outfit that, despite the lopsided scoreline, can be proud of their display here. That’s about it. Munster scored some nice tries, kept a big Zebre pack to a solitary three-point penalty and got some valuable minutes into young players. Sure, the shoulder injury to Matt Gallagher and a late, cowardly shot on Craig Casey that kept him down for a spell was a blot of worry on the copybook but this was a good, solid end to the first block of the season played out without having to leave second gear.

Seven games, seven wins, all three of our primary non-Irish in-conference rivals beaten and a 16 point gap at the top of the conference is our reward for successfully navigating one of the more difficult opening schedules. Yes, Ulster and Leinster have beaten Edinburgh and Scarlets, but they didn’t beat the same Edinburgh and Scarlets that we did in the opening rounds and I think that will stand to us over the next few weeks – in theory, anyway.

Back to this game, I thought that while Munster were certainly imperfect for large stretches, the tries we scored showed an encouraging variety.

We cut Zebre open at the set-piece with regularity. Look at Coombes pinning in two defenders with his decoy line on the first example which opens the hole up for Goggin. JJ’s pop over the top of the defensive line to Goggin was sharply executed from top to bottom.

At the scrum, Coombes quick tap and offload to De Allende was a clinical bit of work, as was Casey’s break from the base late in the game. When your set-piece runs like this, even with a few late flubs, you’ll score tries and it’s to Zebre’s credit that they managed to stem Munster’s flow here with their contesting, otherwise they could have been looking at a 70 point concession relatively easily.

Zebre’s kicking game lead directly to a lot of lineouts. With so little training together, you’d expect much of their phase sequencing to end with kick exits – I spoke about this pregame – but we didn’t get to stretch our legs in transition in the manner I expected. We had 21 lineouts in total and we ran a number of variations of some basic schemes (on both sides of the throw) and that has as much to do with Friday week as it did about producing a functioning platform in this game. We’ll be annoyed with the four or five malfunctions but happy enough on the whole.

That last part of the sentence – annoyed with the four or five malfunctions but happy enough on the whole – describes much of the game.

Once we got rolling on our phase play, we showed nice variety, footwork into contact and advanced forward handling under pressure.

This is all very nice stuff.

We left a try or more out there, for sure, but when the time came to be sharp and convert opportunities, we showed an ability to raise the temperature when we needed to and slice through Zebre.

In the end, it was a very handy result that never once threatened to dip into a slog like we saw at the weekend. It wasn’t without error but it was a comfortable, easy victory that showcased some good debuting moments for young players and a few tries that might make an nice end of season sizzle reel. Looking too deeply into the nuts and bolts of this eight try win would be to focus on the wrong thing – this was about the five points, the lead extending at the top of the conference and the exclamation mark at the end of the opening block of the season.

This was the end of the beginning of the 2020/21 season. By the time we finish up January away in the Twickenham Stoop, we will know a lot more about what Munster look like this season and who, ultimately, we want to be going forward. We have seen glimpses of what is possible but the first real fire of the season begins in earnest next week.

Notable Players

This was a good collective performance with season high looks from Nick McCarthy, who started the game pretty ropey with his pass off his right side and the casual nature of some of his exits but he finished strongly. Craig Casey only played five minutes – so I didn’t feel it was fair to mark him one way or the other – but I’ll put it like this; he had the vibe of a Munster captain walking onto the field to guide the game home.

I thought Josh Wycherley showed up really well here and dominated on-ball and looked very strong in the scrum. It’s unfortunate he wasn’t able to start with Fineen, but he hinted at the quality that saw him as a consistent starter in the Grand Slam winning U20 team.

I thought Damian De Allende and Dan Goggin were quality here and, while the opposition has to be taken into context, I thought they looked the best match in midfield since the start of the new season. Goggin, in particular, showed the same quality that has stood out in him for a few seasons now in scoring a try, popping up for two assists and consistently breaking the line throughout.

JJ Hanrahan started relatively slowly (even with one assist and one disallowed assist inside the first quarter) but he knew he didn’t need to force anything. If you want a picture of how a first receiver should utilise lateral and forward movement in the moments before the pass to make things easier for the players outside him.

This was an assured, mature performance from a player looking to impress.

Seán French didn’t expect to get as many minutes as he did and, while he looked to be forcing it a small bit in his first few minutes, I thought he grew into the game well and finished incredibly strongly.

French looked athletic, powerful in contact, quick and with that little bit “extra” that’s always made him stand out through the levels. He certainly earned more time later in the season.

Gavin Coombes just keeps rolling. He’s down for one assist but his roll pass out the back in the build up to Seán French’s try was the kind of skill we don’t often see as standard in big ball carrying forwards on this island. He is playing with all the assurance of a Top Guy and you get the feeling that it’s only a matter of time before he ascends to European contention and, with a fair wind there, the test arena.

Thomas Ahern didn’t have too long to think about his role changing to that of a starter but I thought he did really well in his first full 80 minutes. Impact defence? He showed it. Advanced footwork and power in contact? He showed that too. Comfort and length in the lineout? He was as comfortable as we’ve come to expect from young Munster forwards. Tighthead scrummaging? He made it work for 80 minutes.

How about freakish, Avengers tier displays of athleticism? Have a look for yourself.

That’s a 6’9″, 110kg+ second row forward outpacing his own support and the opposing defenders as he regathered a chip over the opposition defence. That is not something we see every day from big second rows anywhere, and here it is being unveiled with top end acceleration, footwork and a show and go by a Munster academy player.

If we’d been able to keep up with his break, it probably would have lead directly to a try but, even then, he managed to get the pop up pass away to Goggin.

Ahern topped off the display with a late try but, for a guy on his first start, this was remarkably impressive. ★★★★★

 

The Wally Ratings: Zebre (H)

The Wally Ratings explainer page is here.  

Players are rated based on their time on the pitch, if they were playing notably out of position, and on the overall curve of the team performance. DNP means the player did not feature and N/A means they weren’t on the pitch long enough to warrant a fair rating.

Names	Rating
Josh Wycherley	★★★★
Rhsy Marshall	★★★
Stephen Archer	★★★
Thomas Ahern	★★★★★
Billy Holland	★★★★
Jack O'Donoghue	★★★★
Chris Cloete	★★★
Gavin Coombes	★★★★
Nick McCarthy	★★★
JJ Hanrahan	★★★★
Darren Sweetnam	★★★
Damian De Allende	★★★★
Dan Goggin	★★★★
Calvin Nash	★★★
Matt Gallagher	N/A
Diarmuid Barron	★★
Liam O'Connor	★★★
Keynan Knox	★★★
Tommy O'Donnell	★★★
Jack Daly	★★★
Craig Casey	N/A
Ben Healy	★★★
Seán French	★★★★