Munster come back to sink DHL Stormers

The DHL Stormers dominated the first half, but could not stop a Munster comeback in the second half as they went down 34-18 at Thomond Park in Limerick on Saturday.

The home side fought back after half-time and had all the momentum, after an inspired opening period from the DHL Stormers.

The DHL Stormers took the game to the home side from the outset and got good reward, scoring 15 unanswered points in the opening half-hour.

The visitors were looking to play into space at every opportunity and dominated territory and possession in the opening exchanges.

Some fantastic interplay between forwards and backs saw fullback Warrick Gelant get through for the opening try.

They followed that up with another soon afterwards as some slick handling saw wing Leolin Zas dance down the touchline to score and make it 12-0.

They kept the pressure on and it was Gelant who stepped up to kick a penalty and make it 15-0 after 30 minutes.

Munster got on the scoreboard on the stroke of half-time, with a try from No.8 Jack O’Donoghue, but it was the DHL Stormers that took a 15-7 lead into the break.

The DHL Stormers were reduced to 14 early in the second half, when captain Salmaan Moerat was shown a yellow card for dangerous play at a line-out and Munster took advantage with a try from Jean Kleyn to make it 15-14.

The home side hot the lead for the first time through a maul try from Niall Scannell, which made it 19-15 heading into the last half-hour.

Further tries from O’Donoghue and RG Snyman put Munster firmly in control. To their credit the DHL Stormers played hard until the final whistle, but their only points in the second half came from the boot of Tim Swiel as they went down 34-18 in the end.

The scorers:

For DHL Stormers:
Tries: Gelant, Zas
Con: Libbok
Pens: Gelant, Swiel

For Munster:
Tries: O’Donoghue 2, Kleyn, Scannell, Snyman
Cons: Carbery 2, Healy
Pen: Healy

DHL Stormers: 15 Warrick Gelant, 14 Sergeal Petersen, 13 Ruhan Nel, 12 Dan du Plessis, 11 Leolin Zas, 10 Manie Libbok, 9 Stefan Ungerer, 8 Evan Roos, 7 Willie Engelbrecht, 6 Nama Xaba, 5 Salmaan Moerat, 4 Adre Smith, 3 Neethling Fouche, 2 Scarra Ntubeni, 1 Brok Harris.
Replacements: 16 Andre-Hugo Venter, 17 Leon Lyons, 18 Sazi Sandi, 19 Ernst van Rhyn, 20 Marcel Theunissen, 21 Godlen Masimla, 22 Tim Swiel, 23 Rikus Pretorius.

Munster: Mike Haley; Calvin Nash, Keith Earls, Rory Scannell, Shane Daly; Joey Carbery, Craig Casey; Dave Kilcoyne, Niall Scannell, Keynan Knox; Jean Kleyn, Fineen Wycherley; Peter O’Mahony (captain), Jack O’Donoghue, Gavin Coombes.
Replacements: Diarmuid Barron, Jeremy Loughman, Stephen Archer, RG Snyman, Jack O’Sullivan, Rowan Osborne, Ben Healy, Simon Zebo.