Ronan O’Mahony maintained his try-scoring form as Munster made sure to keep the pressure on their Guinness PRO12 title rivals with convincing bonus-point victory over Zebre. Munster’s leading try scorer in the Guinness Pro12 this season, O’Mahony took his tally for the season to nine with a double against Italians. The returning James Cronin similarly crossed twice with brothers Niall and Rory Scannell also on the scoreboard alongside Tommy O’Donnell as Munster not only maintained their 100 per cent record versus Zebre but kept pace with Ospreys and Leinster. It did not take Munster long to find their feet as they crossed the try line with their very first attack – the returning Niall Scannell – who was later named man of the match – going over after a driving maul. Tyler Bleyendaal successfully sent over the conversion. And after a succession of penalties won, the Munster maul got on a roll again in the 18th minute with O’Donnell the one to go over, Bleyendaal again with the conversion. The momentum was firmly with the Irish province as the penalty count continued to rise for Zebre. Try number three arrived for the visitors after 25 minutes as Munster went through the phases before spinning the ball out to the left win for O’Mahony to record his eighth try of the season. Bleyendaal again dissected the posts and the score was 21-0 to Munster. Zebre have not beaten an Irish Province since winning 13-6 against Ulster in Parma in September 2014, although they did give their fans a lift ten minutes before the break with their first try of the match. After Zebre pressured the Munster line following a line out, South African flanker Derick Minnie picked up the ball to cross, with Marcello Violi’s conversion taking the score to 21-7. There was still time for a Munster penalty before the break though as Bleyendaal took the visitors advantage out to 17 points. Six minutes after the restart and Munster had the try bonus point in the bag as centre Rory Scannell picked a hole in the Zebre defence to cross near the post. Bleyendaal continued his impressive form from the kicking tee while Zebre’s misery was compounded with Violi also sent to the sin-bin. And the man advantage was made to count almost immediately by the visitors as O’Mahony helped himself to his second try of the afternoon after a cute offload by Darren Sweetnam to take the score to 36-7. Zebre’s second converted try of the afternoon came courtesy of Lloyd Greef on 55 minutes but six minutes later Munster crossed the whitewash for the sixth time, replacement Cronin marking his return from a back injury, with Rory Scannell converting this time. After a raft of replacements, Zebre were dealt a further blow on 66 minutes when Oliviero Fabiani was shown a yellow. And just five minutes later, Munster took the score out to 50-14 as Cronin got his second after a pick and go from a five metre scrum. That proved to be the end of the scoring as Munster warmed themselves up nicely for next weekend’s European Champions Cup quarter-final with Toulouse. Guinness PRO12 Final 2017, 27th May, Aviva Stadium, Dublin. Ticket Information: Fans can still avail of an exclusive number of €35 tickets. Book via www.ticketmaster.ie. Further information: www.pro12rugby.com/final
