Connacht 36; Sharks 30
Despite missing their Springboks contingent, Sharks bit deep and often to run in 27 points against a shocked Connacht side at the Dexcorn Stadium on Saturday.
Although the home side had started with two quick tries themselves, they caved in during a 20-minute spell thereafter and by the interval were 20 points in arrears and looking down and out.
How wrong we were though!
Head Coach Pete Wilkins certainly earned his corn with his half-time team talk because his side emerged a different force to totally dominate the second half.
Indeed, the Sharks only got one moment to savor in that 40 minute segment when they ran in a try for a losing bonus point.
Connacht went on the rampage with Cathal Forde, Shane Jennings, man of the match Dave Heffernan and Oísin Dowling all getting over the whitewash to the delight of the enthusiastic Western following.
Connacht: S Cordero; M Hansen, P O'Conor, C Forde, S Jennings; J Ioane, B Murphy; D Buckley, D Heffernan, F Bealham; N Murray, D O'Connor; J Murphy, C Oliver, C Prendergast (capt) Replacements: D Tierney-Martin, P Dooley, S Illo, O Dowling, S Hurley-Langton, C Blade, D Hawkshaw, P Boyle.
Red faces in Munster over Zebre shock
Zebre 42; Munster 33
There were red faces to go with the red jerseys as Munster suffered their first defeat at the hands of Italian side Zebre in Parma.
Former Munster, Ireland and Lions lock Donncha O'Callaghan described the province’s performance as "totally unacceptable" after Saturday's loss in the United Rugby Championship encounter.
Speaking on RTÉ Sport, he said: “You don't want to take away from the fact that Zebre were full quality for it but it was totally unacceptable from Munster. Their performance, as individuals, as a team, to go on the road, we know what Zebre are. They were bottom of the league last year.
O'Callaghan added: “The amount of errors, the amount of poor performances, the amount of individual sloppy mistakes was just totally unacceptable. It is great for our league, it is brilliant to see Zebre coming on but Munster will look back on that and they should be embarrassed with that performance."
Munster looked to be on their way to another routine victory when leading by 13 points at the interval thanks to tries from Gavin Coombes, Mike Haley and Bryan Fitzgerald, who was making his debut at this level.
Tony Butler added the conversions to put his side 28-15 ahead.
Zebre though were a totally different animal on the resumption as they hit 24 points without reply to take control. Replacement Shay McCarthy finally got Munster a late try but it was too little, too late. Yes, they were about to within a converted try but Zebre had the last say via a Giacomo Da Re penalty which denied the traveling party a bonus point.
Munster: M Haley; C Nash, S Daly, T Farrell, T Abrahams; T Butler, C Casey; J Wycherley, D Barron (capt), O Jager; J Kleyn, F Wycherley; R Quinn, J Hodnett, G Coombes Replacements: N Scannell, J Loughman, J Ryan, J Daly, J O'Donoghue, C Murray, B Fitzgerald, S McCarthy.
