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Munster slay Dragons to stay top, Ospreys keep pace
By Peter Thompson
Munster hammered Newport Gwent Dragons 45-17 to stay top of the Pro12 table but Dan Evans scored a hat-trick as Ospreys kept the pressure on by securing another win at Zebre on Friday.
Jaco Taute claimed a first-half double at Musgrave Park before Andrew Conway went over and a penalty try ensured the leaders had the bonus point in the bag at half-time.
Dave Kilcoyne and Ronan O’Mahony added further tries in the second half, with Tyler Bleyendaal scoring 15 points from the tee as Munster maintained their one-point advantage at the summit.
Ospreys are still breathing down Munster's necks after recovering from a poor start to dish out a 40-10 drubbing to bottom side Zebre and extend their winning run to 13 consecutive games in all competitions.
An early converted try from Tommaso Boni put Zebre 10-0 to the good, but the tide turned after Ashley Beck got Ospreys on the board.
It then turned into the Evans show, with the full-back helping himself to a treble within 10 minutes of the restart and Dafydd Howells getting in on the act with a superb solo effort.
Scarlets leapfrogged Glasgow Warriors to go fourth with a 26-14 success at Scotstoun, while sixth-placed Ulster scored four first-half tries to beat struggling Edinburgh 24-18 at at the Kingspan Stadium.
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Latest Comments
The England backs can't be that dumb, he has been playing on and off for the last couple of years. If they are too slow to keep up with him that's another matter.
He was the only thing stopping England from getting their arses handed to them in the Aussie game. If you can't fit a player with that skill set into an England team then they are stuffed.
Go to commentsSteve Borthwick appointment was misguided based on two flawed premises.
1. An overblown sense of the quality of the premiership rugby. The gap between the Premiership and Test rugby is enormous
2. England needed an English coach who understood English Rugby and it's traditional strengths.
SB won the premiership and was an England forward and did a great job with the Japanese forwards but neither of those qualify you as a tier 1 test manager.
Maybe Felix Jones and Aled Walter's departures are down to the fact that SB is a details man, which work at club level but at test level you need the manager to manage and let the coaches get on and do what they are employed for.
SB criticism of players is straight out of Eddie Jones playbook but his loyalty to keeping out of form players borne out of his perceived sense of betrayal as a player.
In all it doesn't stack up as the qualities needed to be a modern Test coach /Manager
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