A superb second half performance by Ireland fly-half Ronan O'Gara steered
Munster to a comfortable victory over the former European champions.
Bath were in touch until the last 10 minutes but were then hit by a 17-point
blitz which included two tries converted by O'Gara, who also added a drop goal.
Bath rarely threatened and their effort was crucially undermined by the
sin-binning of hooker Mark Regan just before the break.
Munster began nervously, surprising for a team who were already favourite to
top Pool Four of the Heineken Cup after wins over Newport and Castres.
When the Munster forwards did get into their stride passes were too often
misdirected or dropped in the back line.
In fact it was Bath who opened the scoring with the first of three penalties
from Jon Preston on 17 minutes.
It took the sin-binning first of flanker Alan Quinlan, for stamping on Regan
to kick start the Irishmen's game.
Six rucks in quick succession caught Bath defenders offside and O'Gara
levelled the scores on 24 minutes.
Regan followed Quinlan to the sin-bin on 41 minutes, also for stamping and
O'Gara put his side ahead for the first time.
With Bath a man down, last season's Heineken Cup finalists stepped up the pace
after the restart and went further ahead within five minutes thanks to a fine
try by left wing Anthony Horgan. The initial dent was made by Australian lock
John Langford and it was O'Gara who eventually created the overlap on the left,
although he was wide with the conversion.
Bath pulled back three points through Preston 10 minutes later but O'Gara
restored the eight-point margin on 63 minutes as his forwards began ominously to
get into their stride.
Bath burst into life briefly with a break by Mike Tindall which led to a third
penalty for Preston, but a lapse of concentration from the restart gifted
Munster a try for flanker David Wallace from a five-metre scrum.
O'Gara converted and effectively put the game out of reach with a drop goal on
80 minutes.
Horgan's second try with a celebration effort under the posts in injury time
and O'Gara fittingly added the conversion to end up with a personal tally of 16
points. Munster's unbeaten record at Thomond Park still looks impregnable.
E-mail Article 
Print-Friendly
Subscribe to RSS Feed 
Post to del.icio.us
Facebook