Gavin Coombes strikes as Munster get job done with bonus point in the bank

The tedium of the long flight home for Munster will have been broken by the flashes of satisfaction from a job well done.

A sixth win in a row in this competition and a first-ever success in Johannesburg. The Lions were surprisingly poor in lots of areas here but they are a far better side than their league table position suggests.

This was a great day’s work for Munster: more progress towards a home quarter-final from which they badly need the cash as well as the bounce it gives them towards retaining their title.

They were low on juice going down the home straight but by then the most important thing was not to compound it with panic.

Fittingly they were able to summon up the energy for a scrum penalty that opened the door to a bonus point, with replacement Gavin Coombes getting the winning touch at a maul.

If the Lions plan had been to welcome Munster to altitude with a lung-bursting pace to the game then it ran aground on a combination of inaccuracy from their own men and cuteness from Munster.

So just when they wanted to be putting phase upon phase instead they were either waiting for Conor Murray to box kick or Jack Crowley to shoot off the tee.

The due care and attention the outhalf paid to his craft not only earned nine points for his side from three successful penalties in the opening quarter but had the added bonus of heaping frustration on the Lions and their handful of fans scattered around Ellis Park.

The only thing to go against Munster in that opening period was a penalty reversal against Niall Scannell, for a high shot at a ruck, which cost them a handy three points and ultimately led to the Lions getting off the mark through Jordan Hendrikse off the tee.

​It was mostly awful stuff to watch, which caused Munster zero heart-ache. They were doing what they had come to do, and when Crowley was adding the extras to a Jack O’Donoghue try off a driven lineout they were luxuriating in a 16-3 lead.

Could it get any better than that? When Hendrikse pulled back another three points — against Alex Kendellen for hands on the ground at a clean out — we had two minutes to the break and still all going well for Munster.

A 10-point lead at half-time, with a decent band of reinforcements, would have been good business. Bump that up to 23-6 instead and it was a hefty down payment on at least four match points to take away.

There was a cherry on top of that penalty try in overtime with the dismissal, on a yellow card, of Marius Louw for illegally impeding Simon Zebo’s fair passage towards a contender for try of the season.

Factor in a comfortable scrum with the potential to maybe earn some more points and the second half looked like an inviting prospect for Graham Rowntree’s side.

Indeed it was a scrum that launched them towards their third try, courte-sy of a series of woeful errors from the home side. Coombes was hardly on the field a minute when he was making the try-scoring pass for Shane Daly in the corner. With a half hour to play the game looked done.

A try from PJ Botha, after an age of grunt and grind around the Munster line, breathed some life into the Lions who desperately needed the game to break up if they were to have any chance of catching up. It never happened.

Scorers – Munster: J O’Donoghue, S Daly, G Coombes try each; pen try; J Crowley 3 pens, con. Lions: PJ Botha try; J Hendrikse 2 pens, con.

Lions: J Hendrikse; R Kriel, E Cronje, M Louw (yc 40-50), E van der Merwe; S Nohamba, M van den Berg (N Steyn 67); M Naude, J Visagie (PJ Botha 48), R Dreyer (A Ntlabakanye 48), W Alberts (R Nothnagel 45), R Delport, JC Pretorius, J Horne, E Tshituka (R Venter 55).

Munster: S Zebo (M Haley 50); C Nash, A Frisch (J Carenry 68), S O’Brien, S Daly; J Crowley, C Murray (C Casey 43); J Loughman (J Wycherley 52), N Scannell (E Clarke 67) , S Archer (O Jager 59); RG Snyman, T Beirne (capt), P O’Mahony (T Ahern 52), J O’Donoghue (G Coombes 48), A Kendellen.

Referee: C Evans (Wales).

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