Rassie’s Munster monster Cheetahs

Cape Town - Rassie Erasmus' Munster have proved that life in the PRO14 will continue to be tough for South African teams as they easily defeated the Cheetahs 51-18 at Thomond Park.

Munster were on the board as early as the 4th minute when Ian Keatley slotted an easy penalty after the Cheetahs were pinged for offside in their own 22. 

The first try of the match soon followed in the 7th minute after the home side won a tighthead and No 7 Tommy O'Donnell crossed the whitewash. Keatley added the extras for Munster to lead 10-0 after just 8 minutes. 

Robbie Peltzer then saw the Cheetahs on the scoreboard as he kicked an easy penalty to make the score 10-3 after Munster were ruled offside at a ruck.

But the home side made life difficult for the visitors, making far better use of their possession to run in two further tries, both scored by left wing Alex Wootton in the 20th and 35th minute, one of which was converted by Keatley. 

Pletzer added a penalty for the Cheetahs as they trailed 22-6 at half-time.

The second half saw the Cheetahs score virtually from the kick-off as Francois Venter put William Small-Smith into space with the centre outsripping the defence to score an unconverted try in the right-hand corner. 

Munster quickly hit back as Jean Klein forced his way over in the 49th minute and centre Chris Farrell stepped his way through a number of defenders to score just two minutes later. Keatley converted Farrell's try to push the score out to 34-11 in the 51st minute.

And there was no let up from Munster as Wootton collected a kick ahead to score his hat-trick try and extend the lead to 39-11. Six minutes later, he had his fourth, before he was substituted for Simon Zebo. Keatley added the extras as Munster led 46-11. 

Munster reached the 50 mark in the 72nd minute following a try from veteran Zebo who managed to beat Torsten van Jaarsveld to a ball over the Cheetahs line, just getting his hand to it before the Cheetahs hooker. 

The Cheetahs managed a try on 80 minutes as Henco Venter forced his way over after an excellent breakout by Francois Venter and Sergeal Petersen.

And that's the way the match ended with the Cheetahs no doubt looking forward to their first home match against Leinster on September 22. 

Scores

Munster

Tries: O'Donnell, Wootton (4), Farrell, Kleyn, Zebo

Conversions: Keatley (4)

Penalty: Keatley

Try: Small-Smith, Venter

Conversion: Peltzer

Penalties: Peltzer (2)

Teams

Munster

15 Andrew Conway, 14 Darren Sweetnam, 13 Chris Farrell, 12 Jaco Taute, 11 Alex Wootton, 10 Ian Keatley, 9 Duncan Williams, 8 Jack O’Donoghue, 7 Tommy O’Donnell, 6 Sean O’Connor, 5 Billy Holland (captain), 4 Jean Kleyn, 3 Stephen Archer, 2 Rhys Marshall, 1 Liam O’Connor

Substitutes: 16 Niall Scannell, 17 Dave Kilcoyne, 18 John Ryan, 19 Fineen Wycherley, 20 Robin Copeland, 21 James Hart, 22 Rory Scannell, 23 Simon Zebo

Cheetahs

15 Clayton Blommetjies, 14 Sergeal Petersen, 13 Francois Venter (captain), 12 William Small-Smith, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Robbie Petzer, 9 Shaun Venter, 8 Niell Jordaan, 7 Henco Venter, 6 Paul Schoeman, 5 Reniel Hugo, 4 Rynier Bernardo, 3 Johan Coetzee, 2 Jacques du Toit, 1 Charles Marais

16 Torsten van Jaarsvel, 17 Ox Nche, 18 Tom Botha, 19 Armandt Koster, 20 Gerhard Olivier, 21 Tian Meyer, 22 Ali Mgijima, 23 Rayno Benjamin