Munster thrashed the Ospreys 49-13, while there were also wins for Edinburgh, Leinster, the Scarlets and Zebre in the Pro14.
The Ospreys were unbeaten before this game, while Munster had lost one of their two previous games, against the Glasgow Warriors last week.
But the hosts were in fine form as they overpowered an understrength Ospreys side. On his return from injury, Chris Cloete was particularly influential. He bossed the breakdown, making several turnovers, and was named the Man of the Match.
And man of the match goes to Chris Cloete – a huge performance from the @Munsterrugby man – he picks up his medal from Michael Lyons ?#GUINNESSPRO14 #MUNvOSP pic.twitter.com/5iks5oqBHU
— PRO14 RUGBY (@PRO14Official) September 14, 2018
A penalty try and scores by Joey Carbery, James Cronin and Rhys Marshall gave Munster a handy 28-6 lead at the break. They drove home the advantage in the second half with tries by Marshall, Arno Botha and Darren Sweetnam. Carbery and Ian Keatley kicked all the conversions to ensure a blowout scoreline.
The Ospreys did score a try of their own in the 60th minute when wing Luke Morgan barged over, but by then the damage had been done by poor defence and ill-discipline, which led to two yellow cards in the first half.
REPORT: Rampant Warriors down Cheetahs
In other results, tries by Duhan van der Merwe and Pierre Schoeman inspired Edinburgh to a 17-10 win over Connacht, Leinster hammered the Dragons 52-10, the Scarlets came out 38-29 victors in an entertaining clash against Treviso, and Zebre edged the struggling Cardiff Blues 26-24.
Round 3 results:
Munster 49 Ospreys 13
Edinburgh 17 Connacht 10
Leinster 52 Dragons 10
Scarlets 38 Treviso 29
Zebre 26 Cardiff Blues 24
Cheetahs 24 Glasgow Warriors 52
Photo: @Munsterrugby/Twitter
