Dragons are humiliated by 10-try Munster in URC

The Rodney Parade region were huge underdogs for the United Rugby Championship clash in Limerick but few expected it to be quite so one-sided.

It was a record defeat that eclipsed the 60-3 humiliation at the hands of Glasgow in Newport in 2013.

A grim evening was made even grimmer by an injury to promising centre Aneurin Owen on the stroke of half-time.

Munster had their bonus point in the bag to lead 28-3 at the break and ran in six more scores in a hammering that does little for the Dragons’ bid for respectability.

They have won just one game this season, have now gone 10 games without success and are in a tussle with Zebre to avoid being the URC’s worst side.

Complaints about the lack of Welsh Rugby Union funding and planning are valid, it is true that everyone else has bigger budgets but the Dragons should undoubtedly be doing better than this with what they have got.

The Dragons might have made five encouraging signings for the summer but the other players that are being targeted to bolster the ranks might be tempted to hit ignore on phone calls in the coming weeks.

Director of rugby Dean Ryan insisted this week that they have made progress on his watch and is set to continue at the helm for a fourth season on a fresh contract.

Yet the pressure will be mounting on the boss and his coaching team with a tough South African double-header against the Bulls and Sharks to come after the Six Nations.

Dragons boss Dean Ryan (Image: Huw Evans Agency)

“I am incredibly disappointed, we were blown off the park,” he said. “We came second in every area and collision.

“The second half wasn’t really acceptable, we made it easy for them and they could score at will.

“We need to answer why that was in our game and why we were not physical, because we pride ourselves on being physical and making life difficult for the opposition. Today we didn’t.

“It’s not about players, it’s about me and how the region gets better and learns. Today was a poor day for us.

“It hurts and there is some stuff there that we didn’t recognise; under that amount of pressure people behaved in a way that we haven’t seen before.

“It’s a pretty raw night for us in terms of some things that we set out to do but never got on the pitch at all.”

Rhodri Williams is tackled high

Munster sauntered into a 28-3 half-time lead, with young fly-half Jack Crowley converting tries from Craig Casey (2), captain Jack O’Donoghue and Chris Cloete.

Sam Davies’ 16th-minute penalty proved to be the Dragons’ only score on a deflating night.

With their bonus point secured by the 36th minute, Munster cruised home with further scores from Simon Zebo, Chris Farrell, Shane Daly, Cloete, replacement John Hodnett and O’Donoghue.

Ollie Griffiths got over the ball to break up Munster’s early momentum, but scrum-half Casey duly crossed in the ninth minute, breaking to the blindside of a maul and shrugging off Davies’ attempted tackle.

The Dragons made good ground in response, Davies knocking over a close-range penalty before their own indiscipline brought Munster back into try-scoring range.

Casey squeezed in under Joe Maksymiw to complete his brace in the 22nd minute, and it got worse for the Dragons straight from the restart.

O’Donoghue evaded Owen’s tap tackle to finish off a terrific team score from deep, with Crowley converting to make it 21-3.

As the interval approached, Crowley’s inviting pass had John Ryan charging up into the visitors’ 22. Farrell then injected further pace, freeing up flanker Cloete to go over out wide.

Crowley nailed the difficult conversion for good measure, the Dragons’ cause not helped by a miscued line-out and centre Owen’s injury-enforced departure.

A forward pass denied Mike Haley a try on the resumption, but Zebo had a simple run-in after Casey’s quickly-taken penalty.

Crowley missed the conversion and his opposite number Davies fluffed the restart, Haley hoovering it up to step inside Davies and feed Farrell for a muscular finish to the right of the posts.

Crisp offloading from Crowley, Gavin Coombes and Haley sent Daly over, and Casey’s whizzing pass soon handed Cloete his second of the night.

Ben Healy converted Munster’s closing efforts from fellow replacement Hodnett, who finished off a slick move off a line-out, and O’Donoghue, who enjoyed another chance to stretch his legs.

Munster scorers: tries - Casey (2), O'Donoghue (2), Cloete (2), Zebo, Farrell, Daly, Hodnett; conversions - Crowley (5), Healy (2)

Dragons scorer: penalty - S Davies