Caerphilly 18 Munster 61
Ireland international centre Mick Mullins helped himself to four tries
as Munster swept to the top of Pool B in the Celtic League.
The Irish provincial champions made it four wins out of five in the new
competition and the eight tries they scored at Virginia Park saw them
move ahead of Neath at the head of the table.
Caerphilly, without a win so far this season, never looked likely to end
that dismal run.
Munster could afford the luxury of making 13 changes from the side that
defeated Newport last Friday.
The hosts did manage to take an early lead with the first of two tries
for wing Ken Morris but their joy was to be short lived.
Jeremy Staunton and Stuart Lawrence traded penalties and then in the
13th minute Munster prop Marcus Horan was sin-binned for deliberately
preventing a quick penalty.
Despite being a man down however, Munster were leading 18-8 by the time
Horan returned courtesy of tries from lock Donncha O’Callaghan and wing
John Kelly.
Morris’ second try reduced the arrears but in the run-up to half time
Mullins struck twice as the Irish side turned round 30-15 ahead.
Caerphilly put up some staunch resistance in the third quarter to
restrict Munster to just a Horan try.
But in the final quarter it was one-way traffic as former Wallaby number
eight Jim Williams claimed their sixth try and Mullins completed a superb
individual night with two more.
Sat, 4 May 02 6 WSLP Cardiff v Swansea Postponed - now being played Sat,
Sept 22 2001
Sat, 22 Sep 01 213 WSLP Swansea v Cardiff Postponed - now being played
Sat, May 4 2002
Fri, 14 Sep 01 15 RUCELA Swansea v Leinster Postponed - now being played
Sat, Sept 15
Sat, 15 Sep 01 179 RUCELB Connacht v Caerphilly Postponed - now being
played Sun, Sept 16