Munster warmed up for their first Heineken Cup match next Saturday against Harlequins at Thomond Park with a comfortable 49 points to 18 victory over Cardiff Blues in the Celtic League.


It didn’t always look as comfortable as the scoreline suggests with Munster conceding two tries early on, before getting themselves back into the game thanks to a number of penalty kicks from Ronan O’Gara. Then Munster got the breakthrough they were looking for when Christian Cullen scored his first try of the night and his seventh of the season going over for Munster’s only try of the first half. At the break after an unconvincing first half Munster led 19-15.


Within 90 seconds of the restart the Ireland number 10 had pushed the advantage to seven points. Former skipper Jim Williams then added Munster’s second try in a fitful beginning to the second half. A Lee Thomas penalty kept the Blues in the hunt at 29-18 down, but Munster then ran away with the match.



First new signing Paul Devlin scored on his debut before O’Gara’s kick through gave Cullen his second of the night. Cullen followed up his second try with an impressive long range drop goal. Rob Henderson then confirmed Munster’s superiority with a late try to put Munster to fourth in the Celtic League.

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