Top: Two try Munster hero, Darren Sweetnam and above Cillian and Gearoid Murphy from Tramore with Munster scrum-half Conor Murray at the RSC.

A bit of Munster rugby history was made at Waterford’s RSC on a wet and dank Friday last, as a new era in the province’s history got underway. It was the first game in charge for new Director of Rugby, Johan ‘Rassie’ Erasmus, and he got his tenure off to a winning start over Pro12 rivals, Zebre of Italy.
While it was great to get off to a winning start, I’m sure the new Munster boss will be more happy to get game time into his squad and also to give Munster debuts to no less than 12 players, ahead of the new season that gets underway with the first league game in Wales against the Scarlets on September 3.

TESTING CONDITIONS
On a pretty rubbish night for rugby and with a strong breeze blowing right down the field into the City end, Munster played the first half against the wind and opened brightly with the men in red well on top n the opening five minutes without managing to venture into Zebre’s 22.
That changed in the seventh minute when Waterford’s own, Jack O’Donoghue, brought the decent crowd to life with a great break into the 22 but Zebre scrambled well and eventually turned it over and got to clear their lines when they were awarded a penalty.
There was a special cheer from the knowledgeable home crowd on 17 minutes when Munster centre, Cian Bohane, made a lovely break. Bohane was stretchered from this pitch when a very bad leg injury when Munster last played here, against London Irish, back in 2014.
Munster continued to dominate and the exciting Stephen Fitzgerald almost put Darren Sweetnam in for the game’s first try in the 20th minute.
The try was coming for Munster and it duly arrived on 26 minutes. It was created by a piece of magic from Ian Keatley with his beautiful through kick which wasn’t dealt with by the covering Zebre defender and the ball ran loose into the path of Munster winger, Darren Sweetnam, and the former Cork senior hurler made no mistake in finishing off the chance in the corner. With Duncan Williams struggling to keep the ball on the tee, it was no surprise that Keatley failed to add the extras with the conversion kick.
Zebre made a rare excursion into the Munster 22 five minutes before half-time when they kicked a penalty to touch but Munster turned them over to clear their lines. The Italians spent the last five minutes of the half camped in the Munster 22 but the home side defended well and ensured that the half-time score read, Munster 5 Zebre 0.
The first of the plethora of substitutions took place for both sides at the short whistle and when we resumed, Zebre again were bossing the game but struggling to break down a well organised Munster rearguard.
The game’s second try arrived 13 minutes into the second period and again Munster’s number ten, Keatley was at the centre of it. Another peach of a kick carved open the Zebre defence and Ronan O’Mahony didn’t have to be asked twice to latch onto the through ball and race over in the corner to make it 10-0 to Munster. Keatley added the conversion to make it 12-0 to Munster.
Winger O’Mahony could easily have been in again seven minutes later when he and his captain, Billy Holland, found themselves in a two on one down the left wing but Holland’s pass was too high for O’Mahony and Zebre surived.

SWEETNAM DOUBLES UP
They weren’t so lucky ten minutes later when Munster sub Dan Goggin made a great break and evaded a couple of tackles before sending that man again, Darren Sweetnam, racing clear and over the line in the corner for his second and Munster’s third try of the night, to make it 17-0. The conversion just slipped by and moments later new Director of Rugby, Erasmus emptied his bench, as did Zebre. One of those who made his entrance, to probably the biggest cheer of the night, was Dungarvan Academy player, Steve McMahon, who plays in the centre and could be one to watch for the reds this season, along with fellow Waterford man Woodstown’s Jack O’Donoghue, who is now an established Munster player, despite the fact that he’s still only 22.
Both teams had chances of a try in the closing stages. Zebre were awarded a five metre penalty with three minutes to play but were held up by the Munster defence, while Munster had a similar penalty in stoppage time but were also just held up on the Zebre line.
All in all Rassie Erasmus and his coaching team were happy with what they saw in terms of effort and especially in defence.
“Some adjustment had to be made because of the weather and the way I would describe this would be to say it was a solid start, not a great one, not a bad one, but a solid one. Overall, I was happy, particularly (happy) with the defence when called upon,” said Erasmus.
Munster travel to Cork this Friday night to take on the Worcester Warriors at Musgrave Park in their final pre-season game.

MUNSTER: Stephen Fitzgerald (Calvin Nash ’72); Darren Sweetnam (Steven McMahon ’72), Cian Bohane (Shane Daly ’72), Colm O’Shea (Dan Goggin ’51), Ronan O’Mahony; Ian Keatley (Conor Fitzgerald ’72), Duncan Williams (John Poland ’72); John Ryan (Peter McCabe ’65), Niall Scannell (Kevin O’Byrne ’65), Stephen Archer (Brian Scott ‘HT (John Andress ’65 (Brian Scott ’80); John Madigan (Dave Foley ‘HT (Dave O’Callaghan ’76), Billy Holland (captain); Dave O’Callaghan (Darren O’Shea ’51), Conor Oliver (Ollie Lyons ’72), Jack O’Donoghue (Gavin Coombes ’72).
ZEBRE: Carlo Canna (Carlo Engelbrecht ’53); Giovanbattista Venditti (Tommasso Boni ’68), Tommasso Boni (Giulio Bisegni ’53), Tommasso Castello, Gabriele di Giulio; Edoardo Padovani, Gugliemo Palazzani; Andrea Lovotti (Andrea de Marchi ’65), Oliviero Fabiani (Tommaso D’Apice ’57), Pietro Ceccarelli (Dario Chistolini, ’53); Gideon Koegelenberg, Federico Ruzza (Quintin Geldenhuys HIA ’43 to ’50 (Guillermo Roan ’63)); Jacopo Sarto (catpain) (Giovanni Pettinelli ’57), Maxime Mbanda, Derick Minnie.
Referee: Gary Conway (IRFU).
Attendance: 2,376.