Only once before have Declan Kidney's Munster team lost a home game in the Heineken Cup and that record never looked threatened in Cork this afternoon even though Bridgend put up stubborn resistance before eventually succumbing to Munster's superiority, losing 40-6, with the home side scoring five tries in the process.
Defence and discipline are the key to success in this competition and sadly Bridgend were lacking on both counts as they finished the game with 14 men after scrum-half Jason Hewlett was rightly sent off for stamping on Marcus Horn as he lay defenceless on the ground. It was also difficult to keep track of the number of Bridgend players who spent time in the sin-bin as they lost the plot in the second half completely.
On the field of play, Craig Warlow's penalty and drop goal put the visitors ahead by six points to three after 11 minutes. Munster are notorious slow starters and looked nervous in the opening stages as Bridgend piled on the pressure with the home side doing themselves no favours as Ronan O'Gara missed several vital penalties. It seemed like things could only get better when Munster were reduced to 14 players after Marcus Horn was yellow-carded for a technical infringement and so it proved as the numerical inferiority made no difference to the Munster challenge which was beginning to take shape.
It culminated in a fantastic try on the half-hour when centre Mike Mullins sent over a brilliant kick through to Anthony Horgan and he kicked it past Bridgend full-back Adrian Durston before picking up to run over the try-line. O'Gara added the conversion and two penalties to leave the home team ahead by 16-6 at the break when they looked to be in trouble just ten minutes earlier.
In the second-half, it was all Munster as Kidney's half-time talk took effect. Two minutes after the re-start John Kelly touched down after a cross-field kick from O'Gara and although O'Gara subsequently missed the conversion, there was no way back for Bridgend.
They played long periods of the second half with just 13 players and were severely punished when Jeremy Staunton and Jason Holland both scored tries. Rob Henderson was introduced as a replacement with Mullins moving to the wing and Mullins completed the try-scoring ten minutes from time with O'Gara adding the conversion. This was a fully deserved victory for Munster while Bridgend, with all their discipline problems, can have very few complaints.
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
