Munster continued their impressive start to the GUINNESS PRO12 season as they comfortably swept aside Newport Gwent Dragons at Rodney Parade thanks to five different try scorers.

Duncan Casey, who celebrated his 24^th birthday last week, was joined by scores from Robin Copeland, Andrew Smith, Ronan O’Mahony and Paddy Butler while fly-half Ian Keatley added 13 points from the boot with a perfect kicking display as Munster claimed their fourth win in a row to move above rivals Glasgow and into third in the table.

The Dragons came into the match full of confidence after securing an impressive cup victory over Ospreys last week, in which they scored three tries from driving line-outs, and were looking to end a three-game losing streak in the GUINNESS PRO12 to pull clear of Bennetton Treviso and Zebre at the bottom of the table.

The history books were stacked against the Dragons right from the off though as they haven’t beaten the Red Army since April 2013 and have won just twice in the league at Rodney Parade since February while Munster have lost just one game away from home since March.

But despite that it was Lyn Jones’ men who started the brighter and they went ahead after just five minutes when Rhys Jones kicked over a penalty.

The lead didn’t last long though as Munster, who started the day in fourth, forced a scrum towards the Newport try line and new Ireland cap Copeland eventually scrambled the ball over the line before Keatley added the extras after 17 minutes.

But the Dragons fought back and pulled themselves to within one point five minutes later when Rhys Jones slotted a second penalty over. And the Welsh fullback gave his side a 9-7 advantage just before half-time when he kicked over a third penalty on 34 minutes.

The visitors flew out of the blocks after the restart and Keatley kicked over his only penalty of the evening to give his side a 10-9 lead.

And barely three minutes later the travelling faithful were celebrating again as Munster blocked a Dragons clearing kick and from the resulting lineout the visitors forced their way across the Newport try line with Casey dotting down his first before Keatley converted.

The one-way traffic continued as Smith touched down following a lovely passing move from Anthony Foley’s side which saw Keatley combine well with JJ Hanrahan and his pass found Smith who collected and ran home unopposed before Keatley added two more to make it 9-24.

Another Rhys Jones penalty reduced the score to 12-24 but it wasn’t to be for the hosts as Butler added the bonus-point score following a powerful maul and Keatley duly converted.

With time winding down a miserable evening for the Dragons was completed when O’Mahony crossed the whitewash for the visitors’ fifth try of the evening and Keatley rounded off a perfect kicking performance with his 13^th point of the night and complete a 12-38 away win.

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