Ireland wing Simon Zebo scored a stunning first-half hat-trick as Munster finally ended their Thomond Park hoodoo with a 31-5 victory over Zebre.

Zebo’s treble took his tally to four tries for the season, the same number he managed the whole of last term, as he looks to recapture the form that saw him included in the British & Irish Lions squad for their victorious 2013 tour to Australia.

Munster were without a GUINNESS PRO12 win in front of their own supporters since March, but claimed victory against injury-hit Zebre, running in five tries on a dominant evening, with the Italians still yet to taste a win over an Irish province.

Anthony Foley made seven changes to his starting line-up, with Paul O’Connell and Conor Murray among those introduced to the Munster XV in the hope of changing their fortunes.

They were made to be patient in the early exchanges, but the Zebre defence succumbed 15 minutes into the first-half, with Andrew Smith feeding Zebo to touch down.

Johnny Holland, instrumental in the build-up from the 10m scrum, missed the conversion though.

Zebo was on the scoresheet again on 29 minutes, after Ronan O’Mahony took Murray’s high kick and set up Zebo’s second try.

Again the conversion was missed, but it was not long until the scoreline was stretched as Zebo completed his hat-trick.

Tommy O’Donnell broke from his own 22, found replacement JJ Hanrahan, whose pass to Zebo was fumbled, but the Irishman gathered and touched down under the posts, leaving Hanrahan an easy conversion to kick Munster into a 17-0 lead at the interval.

Within seconds of the restart Munster were on the board again.

This time Murray gathered after Zebre failed to kick to touch and found Smith out wide, who dived over to score his first try for the club.

Hanrahan’s conversion hit the woodwork and threatened to bounce clear, yet crept over to added two points.

Replacement Dave Kilcoyne drove over in the corner on 63 minutes, Hanrahan nailing a third conversion.

With the bonus point in the bag, Munster took their foot off the gas in the final 10 minutes.

And Zebre were allowed a consolation try to take back with them to Italy.

Samuela Vunisa dotted down after a rare period of pressure from the visitors, though Kelly Haimona failed to convert with the final kick of the game.

Follow us on Facebook, join the conversation on Twitter, sign up to our YouTube channel for extensive match highlights and sign up for our newsletter for regular updates on the GUINNESS PRO12