It was not all bad news for Connacht rugby at the weekend with the u-19 club side overcoming Munster by 16 -10 on Saturday in Cork.
In an open and running game, both sides attempted to play attractive rugby, but in a typical start of season encounter, errors were prevalent from both.
Connacht, however, deserved their victory - they were the more organised and well drilled as they stuck to an open running game plan throughout.
Munster opened the scoring on seven minutes with a well worked try from turnover ball when centre Luke O'Dea went under the posts. Cormac O'Flynn converted and Munster went into a 7-0 lead.
It was not long, however, before Connacht got into their stride. They were rewarded for some quick recycling when right wing Colin Conroy crossed the whitewash, and Brendan Carpenter converted to level the scores. Carpenter added a penalty on 30 minutes, but once again the sides were deadlocked after Cormac O'Flynn levelled with a similar effort before the break.
Good defending from Connacht forced turnover ball from which they captilised, and they closed the game out with two second-half penalties from Carpenter for a deserved opening victory.
The Connacht u-20s, however, went down to Munster by 23 - 13. They suffered in the first half as Munster hit the ground running with an early try from Ronan O’Mahony and a second from Danny Byrnes. However Connacht worked hard in the second half, and as their confidence increased, they reaped the rewards. A try from Liam Carpenter, converted by Sean Joyce, who also landed a brace of penalties, kep them in contention, but they were unable to close the gap.
Connacht u-19: Brendan Carpenter (Westport ), Colin Conroy (Galwegians ), Eoin Griffin (Corinthians ), Finn Gormley (Corinthians ), Kevin Russell (Corinthians ), Conor Murphy (Corinthians ), Shane O'Meara (Galwegians ), Paddy Doran (Buccaneers ), Karl Egan (Corinthians ), Davy Henshaw (Buccaneers ), David Hansberry (Corinthians ), Colin Raftery (Corinthians ), Donnachadh Phelan (Corinthians ), Derek Farrell (Longford ), Shane Connolly (Galwegians ) Replacements: Trevor Thompson (Buccaneers ), James Robinson (Corinthians ), Thomas Gormley (Sligo ), Shane Casey (Castlebar ), Keith Farry (Sligo ), Ronan Browne (Corinthians ), Robert Kennedy (Longford ), Evan Shaughnessy (Galwegians ), Robert Reid (Buccaneers ).
