DANNY Wilson watched his Cardiff Blues side collapse from leading at halftime to conceding an unanswered 26 points in the second, as Munster ran out easy bonus-point winners at Thomond Park.
Former Northampton Saints centre JJ Hanrahan made a two-try return for Munster and helped them to victory, but the Blues boss will be unhappy with his side’s lacklustre secondhalf.
The boot of Jarrod Evans and a try from Josh Turnbull meant Blues looked good to pick up a second win in the west of Ireland in the space of a week, but the sin-binning of tighthead prop Taufa’ao Filise following the concession of three penalties in a row at the scrum saw the game turn on its head.
A man down, Cardiff went on to concede two tries in that ten minute period.
Wilson, who this week confirmed he will leave the club in the summer, said: “At half time we were relatively pleased. When you go in away from home at Munster in the lead put yourself in a position to come out in the second half but unfortunately in that second half we were responsible for our own downfall.
“We conceded the two tries which ultimately meant we were chasing the game. It was a good firsthalf, 16-13, and that second-half we came out and put ourselves under pressure very early.
“Obviously the yellow card is one thing, but we managed to not concede from the yellow card scrum and then we don’t put the ball off the field and we did that again a bit later.”
Trailing 16-13 at the interval, Munster turned this game around with four second-half tries as they kept Cardiff scoreless in the second period to stroll to victory.
As well as Hanrahan’s double, further tries for Conor Murray on his seasonal bow, John Ryan and Robin Copeland gave the home side the easy win as Ian Keatley kicked beautifully.
An early penalty from Jarrod Evans was cancelled out when Murray scored under the posts for Munster after 13 minutes, but another Evans penalty and a Josh Turnbull try 16 minutes form the interval helped the Welsh side to a three-point lead at half time.
But the game turned after Filise was sin-binned, after which Ryan and Hanrahan ran in tries for the home side.
Copeland sealed the bonus 12 minutes from time, while Murray and Keatley combined to send Hanrahan over for his second late on.
A fourth win of the season sees Munster back up to second place and Rassie Erasmus feels his side were good value for the points after they figured out Blues’ game at the breakdown.
He said: “What Cardiff really do well is take advantage if you start playing in your own half; they go so hard at the breakdown and then if you concede penalties, it’s three points.
“Before the break we played too much close to our try-line but when we got out of our half in the second half, we didn’t concede a point and the second half was better.”
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