Munster v Dragons

Munster played the Gwent Dragons at Musgrave Park,Cork on Sunday last .

The atmosphere was electric.We all came to see the new kid on the block, Jean De Villiers.Fresh from ,what must be for him ,the season of his life.South Africa have just won the Tri Nations and also come through a tough Lions series with a 2-1 series win.

A full house at Musgrave Park as O'Callaghan goes highest at the lineout.

As well as De Villiers,Munster welcomed back some of their "big guns",Donnacha O' Callaghan,Ronan O'Gara,and Thomas O'Leary.
For O'Leary it was his first competitive start since breaking his ankle at this same venue last April.

The first half was a tame enough affair with just a penalty a piece to show on the scoreboard at half time.Indeed the Dragons should have been ahead by 3 points when a perfectly good drop goal just on the stroke of half time was disallowed by the TV match official.I was directly behind the goal and the ball went right between the posts!
Whatever Tony McGahan said to his players at the interval, worked wonders.
Munster came out with all guns blazing and it was the forgotton man from New Zealand, Nick Williams, who showed them the way.At the final whistle he had gone over for 3 tries and came close on at least another 3 occasions.

Nick Williams going over for one of his three trys.

Dougie Howlett chipped in with a marvellous solo effort, and Munster ran out comfortable winners on the day,with a scoreline of 29-3.

Dougie Howlett scores a wonderful solo try at Musgrave Park

The only note of concern was the kicking performance of O'Gara.He missed a number of very kickable attempts.Lets hope that he'll have his eye in for next weeks big clash with near rivals a Leinster at the RDS.
Best for Munster were, De Villiers, Alan Quinlan(who went off injured) and the outstanding Nick Williams.