Simon Zebo delights Thomond Park as Munster blitz Wasps
Simon Zebo of Munster celebrates after his side's victory in the Heineken Champions Cup at Thomond Park. Picture: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Munster 45 Wasps 7
A BRACE of tries from the returning Simon Zebo was the headline maker as a professional performance ensured that Munster saw off Wasps at Thomond Park, to ensure that Munster qualified as third seeds from Champions Cup Pool B.
Munster opened the scoring in the ninth minute with a brilliant team try. Multiple players were involved in a multi-phase move, with Stephen Archer, Tadhg Beirne, Mike Haley and Gavin Coombes particularly prominent, and with one excellent Ben Healy offload occurring in the build-up, and the move was finished when a Conor Murray pass to Beirne was knocked loose by Wasps scrum-half Dan Robson and spilled perfectly into the path of Murray for him to walk in a simple touchdown.
Healy kept the scoreboard moving in the right direction with a penalty in the 15th minute after some loose Wasps play, which Jeremy Loughman exploited by winning the jackal on the deck.
Two minutes later Munster scored again through a delightful pre-planned move. Healy received off the top of an attacking lineout and immediately dinked a delicate chip over the top and his blindside winger Simon Zebo was there to collect.
He had just enough gas to get home for a try that made him Munster’s top try-scorer in Heineken Champions Cup history.
Wasps got themselves up and running through a close-in snipe from Robson in the 27th minute after sustained pressure.
Munster instantly responded with their third try, which was created by a devastating carry by number eight Gavin Coombes off the back of a scrum, as he bounced the unfortunate young Wasps out-half Charlie Atkinson. Although he was stopped just short the supporting Jack O’Donoghue had the simple task of picking up and falling over the line to mark his 150th Munster appearance with a try.
Wasps didn’t lie down and put Munster under intense pressure on their own line, once again, with Coombes receiving a 35th-minute yellow card for persistent team infringements, but Munster’s 14 men held firm, and Jean Kleyn won a superb turnover two metres from his own line after some heroic defending, to ensure that Munster led 24-7 at the break.
Worryingly young Wasps flanker Tom Young was stretchered off with what looked like a serious neck injury, with a lengthy break in play in order to ensure he received the required medical attention.
Munster began the second half eager to get the bonus point in the bag as soon as possible, and despite being down a man they went after the Wasps pack through an attacking maul, and the move eventually finished with Jeremy Loughman getting the try from close range in the 44th minute.
Wasps scrum-half Robson was sin-binned in the 51st minute and Munster would have expected to cut loose at this point, but instead, the game lost all momentum and shape. Munster had their four tries and Wasps looked to have pretty much given up on getting the one match point they needed to advance to the last-16 stage, so the game effectively petered out.
Nothing much happened for the guts of half an hour but the Munster crowd got something to cheer about late on when Zebo ran in an excellent try in the left corner in the 79th minute after a flowing backline move to seal the win.
They got to see an even better one soon after when Munster went over half the length of the pitch with some superb passing, and Craig Casey’s huge looping pass was collected by Rory Scannell out wide and he dotted down.
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