Munster squad enjoy a great day out and a big win over the Barbarians in Thomond Park

Munster 52 

Barbarians 35 

MUNSTER outscored the Barbarians by eight scores to five in a very entertaining first ever meeting between the sides at Thomond Park on Saturday, with debutant Brian Gleeson standing out with an impressive brace.

Munster opened the scoring in the fifth minute after openside Jack Daly burst through a gap in the Barbarians defence and fed the supporting Diarmuid Barron on his inside, who showed his pace to blast home from 40m.

The sharp looking Joey Carbery crossed in the 14th minute, after his own 50-22 had created the attacking platform, as he picked up a loose ball to walk in a simple try.

The crowd had come to see the Barbarians fling the ball around and they got to witness a brilliant try from the famous black and white striped jerseys in the 23rd minute when outhalf Julien Dumora fizzed a sublime pass into the hole that full back Nans Ducuing was arriving into at a rate of knots, and he split through the Munster cover to score.

Gavin Coombes was a late cry-off but you would have hardly noticed as his replacement Gleeson skittled a number of Ba-Ba defenders to barrel over from 10m in the 26th minute.

Kristian Dacey crossed for a maul try from the Barbarians on the half hour mark and right on half time Jean-Baptiste Dubié and Ducuing showed slick handling to release Toby Arnold down the left touchline to leave it 21-21 at the break.

Gleeson continued his best Coombes impression when he crossed from close range in the 42nd minute, but it was his own barnstorming run that had kickstarted the move, and almost straight from the restart Shane Daly latched onto a loose bouncing ball to send Shay McCarthy under the posts.

Josh Wycherley scored two minutes later when put away by McCarthy in the right corner, after wonderful work by Antoine Frisch in the build-up, and Lucas Tauzin crossed for the fourth try in eight minutes after a wonderful Barbarians try.

The scoring calmed until the 65th minute when Fineen Wycherley muscled over from close range, but the Barbarians soon crossed through Kirby Myhill, although Munster finished the game in style when Ethan Coughlan broke down the left and fed Neil Cronin to score in the corner.

Scorers for Munster: J Carbery (1 try, 6 cons), B Gleeson (2 tries), D Barron, S McCarthy, J Wycherley, F Wycherley, N Cronin (1 try each) Barbarians: J Dumora (5 cons), N Ducuing, K Deasy, T Arnold, L Tauzin, K Myhill (1 try each) Munster: S Daly; S McCarthy, A Frisch, R Scannell, C Nash; J Carbery, E Coughlan; J Wycherley, D Barron, S Archer; E Edogbo, F Wycherley; J O’Donoghue (C), J Daly, B Gleeson.

Subs: T Ahern for E Edogbo (32), E Edogbo for T Ahern (40), N Scannell for D Barron (47), N Cronin for E Coughlan (49), J Ryan and F Gibbons for S Archer and S Daly (50), M Donnelly and T Ahern for J Wycherley and Edogbo (57), T Butler for J Carbery (60), E O’Connell for F Wycherley (67), J Wycherley and E Coughlan for M Donnelly and C Nash (70).

Barbarians: N Ducuing (France); L Tauzin (France), J-B Dubié (France), S Guitoune (France), T Arnold (New Zealand); J Dumora (France), J Ruru (Spain); R Neti (France), K Dacey (France), V Cobîlaș (Moldova); L Goujon (France), P Faʻasalele (Samoa); B Heguy (France), A Shingler (Wales), L Nakarawa (Fiji).

Subs: K Myhill (Wales), T Tatafu (Japan), J Brennan (France) for K Dacey, V Cobîlaș, L Goujon (47), R Evans (Wales) for R Neti (56), M Green and D Hoyland for J Ruru and L Tauzin (57), G Licata for L Nakarawa (58), L Tauzin for J-B Dubié (63), L Nakarawa for A Shingler (67), J Ruru for N Ducuing (74) 

Referee: Frank Murphy (IRFU).