It was pretty painless in the end.
This was a calmly conceived and executed bonus-point win on the road that was exactly what the doctor ordered. That isn’t to say that Munster didn’t have to work for their money here – they absolutely did – but the bonus point try in the 73rd minute was well deserved and taken with a clinicality that defined Munster’s work with the ball in hand when it came to executing clear scoring opportunities.
There were errors, yes, but when Munster got into position to score they invariably took their opportunities. From a tactical perspective, this was a split game.
The first half featured a lot of Munster kicking.
Was that the instruction from the off? Or was it in reaction Zebre having a winger sent off for this forearm charge on Cloete on 10 minutes?
I don’t know. But what I do know is that Munster kicked away a lot of possession in the first half – off the back of short mauls, off #9, off #10 sometimes to touch but mostly on long “hit” kicks. These are where you balance a kick out of directly contestable range but within pressure range of the player catching the ball.
Essentially, you’re “moving the chains” to gain territory while pressurising the catcher. That can mean forcing a turnover in contact, bundling them into touch or stressing the ensuing breakdown but one it definitely does is stress the cardio of your forwards. That isn’t a problem if you’re a well-conditioned, elite unit. It becomes a big problem if you’re a side like Zebre that are known to have a second-half crack in them.
You can see their forwards starting to get very leggy in this kick exchange.
We made a good few errors with the positions we earned on these hit kicks in the first half, but overall it’s a low-risk way to work a team that you expect to have a fitness advantage over in the second half.
Part of this was exaggerated by Zebre missing a backfield defender; you can see that here when we combine a won contestable with a kick over the top into the empty space.
If this kicking strategy were to hold true, then we would expect Munster’s approach in the second half would be drastically different from the first half’s work. On the very first possession, we got our answer.
This is a long GIF but watch the difference in approach from the first half.
We moved Zebre up and down the field in the first forty and would look to move them across the field in this half.
Our exits looked for the same hit pressure but this time around we swamped their first and second transition rucks with heavy jackals and started to reap the rewards. Wycherley and Cloete, in particular, started to pick off clean breakdown steals and penalties at key moments.
From there, it came down to putting Zebre away on the scoreboard. After another Wycherley steal on a Zebre kick return set, Munster had a close-range lineout that we took down and started to work it across the field through the forwards. When the time came to release out to the backs, a solid carry from Scannell set the table and Hanrahan finished strongly to put Munster two tries to the good.
Another Munster breakdown penalty – Cloete this time – put Munster into decent field position and, after nine high tempo phases in the Zebre 22, Hanrahan put Scannell away for Munster’s third.
Guess the sequence of the bonus point try?
Breakdown penalty win. Lineout. But the added bonus this time was some super slick handling from Loughman, Coombes, Archer, and O’Byrne before the impressive Neil Cronin released the ball to Hanrahan for the finishing touch to Sweetnam.
And that was that.
A very strong defensive effort shut out Zebre in the dying embers of the game and sent them back to Parma with nothing. Not what they deserved given their efforts, but it’s what they got all the same.
If the second half was an illustration of Munster’s clinicality against a sticky opponent, then the last five minutes was a story of a young Munster side gritting out a clean sheet on their own try line when it’d be easier to concede a try with 30 seconds left, cheese down the clock and get back to the hotel. That’s what we want to see.
So it was job done. Five points, a healthy entry into the points difference column and some real satisfaction for a well schemed, well-executed, mid-season job in Milan while the internationals were away. A potential banana skin was swept out of the way with minimal miles on the clock and the maximum on the scoreboard.
That’s what we want.
The Wally Ratings: Zebre (A)
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 |
|---|---|
| James Cronin | ★★★ |
| Niall Scannell | ★★★ |
| John Ryan | ★★★ |
| Fineen Wycherley | ★★★★★ |
| Darren O'Shea | ★★ |
| Arno Botha | ★★★★ |
| Chris Cloete | ★★★★ |
| Jack O'Sullivan | ★★★★ |
| Craig Casey | ★★★★ |
| JJ Hanrahan | ★★★★ |
| Darren Sweetnam | ★★★★ |
| Rory Scannell | ★★★ |
| Sam Arnold | ★★★ |
| Calvin Nash | ★★★★ |
| Mike Haley | ★★★ |
| Kevin O'Byrne | ★★★ |
| Jeremy Loughman | ★★★★ |
| Stephen Archer | ★★★ |
| Gavin Coombes | ★★★★ |
| Tommy O'Donnell | ★★★ |
| Neil Cronin | ★★★★ |
| Dan Goggin | ★★★ |
| Jake Flannery | N/A |
Notable Players
It was a pretty good game from most of the matchday squad.
Darren Sweetnam had a nice return from injury – a well-taken try and some excellent pressure on the kick chase. He came in at late notice but you wouldn’t know it. Great to see him back.
Calvin Nash backed up his solid outing last week with a top-class performance here. Have a look at his chase on this kick over the top from Casey.
That is serious pace and desire to score a try for his team. His work under the high ball was excellent throughout and I thought he worked unselfishly off the ball. A very promising performance from a player who is growing into the week-on-week pressure of professional rugby.
Craig Casey showed he’s got the tactical acumen to stick to a gameplan in the first half and, despite getting a hand injury inside the first five minutes, I felt he managed the game really well when he was on the field. His pass accuracy, smart kicking and defensive application while clearly injured were enough to push him up to four stars for me.
Neil Cronin came off the bench and executed the second half of Munster’s scheme perfectly. Good pace to the breakdown, fast service and energetic delivery were the highlights of his game here. Class performance.
I thought our starting back row were very impressive in different ways. While Botha didn’t have the impact of last week, he took on more of a support role with big ruck arrivals, tight lineout work and good defensive stops.
Chris Cloete had his best game for some time. He was mature with his decision making around the breakdown, decisive when he attacked the breakdown and made a few impactful carries with the ball. Good to see.
Jack O’Sullivan didn’t have the game he might have wanted with the ball in hand – even though he forced Zebre into some big stops – but he made up for that with a very strong defensive display that showed his power, work-rate and mental fortitude.
Off the bench, I thought O’Byrne, Loughman and Coombes had a strong, game-changing impact off the bench. Loughman made real inroads with the ball in hand that added massively to three scoring sequences. Coombes continued his strong form from last week with a powerful display of ball carrying, slick handling, lineout work on both sides of the ball and strong defensive impact. He continues to impress.
JJ Hanrahan continued his solid vein of form with another composed display. He shook off a few early errors from the boot to put in an authoritative performance in link play, key assists and drained every kick put in from of him. Quality.
The standout performer for me was Fineen Wycherley. This was an all-action display. Sure, he pushed the envelope a little at defensive lineout and maul, but that’s what you want from a versatile, athletic lock like him. We want him pushing guys.
He took eight Munster lineouts, stole one of theirs, made 16 tackles and carried ball impactfully ten times. Does breakdown steal? He had three of those. Wycherley altered the course of this game and that’s what we want from young players that want to step up to be bigger, more important players. He was top class here and you still feel he’s got more levels to go to. ★★★★★
