Munster crushes Zebre for his seventh consecutive win

Damien De Allende, Sean French and Thomas Ahern scored their first Munster attempts in a Pro14 thrashing of Zebre in Thomond Park.

In addition to a penalty try, Dan Goggin, De Allende and Darren Sweetnam went over converted scores as Munster pocketed his bonus point to lead 28-3 at the break.

They added four more tries at the end when JJ Hanrahan and the young Frenchmen Craig Casey and Ahern made it.

Paolo Pescetto launched a single penalty for the exhausted Italians.

The fastball at the lineout allowed Hanrahan, player of the match, to launch a kick over the top, setting center Goggin to pick it up on the rebound and land next to the posts.

Zebre responded with a Pescetto penalty at the quarter-hour mark before another deft kick from Hanrahan nearly played on Matt Gallagher for Munster’s second try.

It was a double setback for Gallagher with the TMO review against him and an injury that forced him to retire.

However, Munster’s heavy scrum soon forced trouble and De Allende advanced under the posts thanks to a clever volley from Gavin Coombes. Hanrahan was quickly converted.

With his forwards now under intense pressure, Zebre skipped a penalty try from a maul and number 8 Lorenzo Masselli also saw yellow.

Just on the edge of the break, Goggin stepped between two defenders midway through and passed for Sweetnam to shoot to the left of the posts.

Munster had been sloppy at times, but they went up a gear after the restart with the impressive Hanrahan, who finished with 15 points, using a deft three-man move to pass from close range.

Zebre used a series of penalties to threaten through his maul, but Munster held them up and some beautiful hands from Coombes and Hanrahan sent the academy young Frenchman flying straight up in the 56th minute.

Hanrahan achieved the difficult conversion when her native Kerry partner Jack Daly was sent in for his debut. It is the first time two of Kerry’s men have played a senior game for Munster in three years.

With starter Ahern joining Jack O’Donoghue in Munster’s group, it was also the first time that two Waterford players started for Munster at this level.

Zebre ended the game with Gabriele Venditti blocking in the container of sin and when Munster moved 16 points ahead at the top of Conference B, Casey and the towering young block Ahern turned it into an eight-shot loss to the final.