Munster eased their way past a tough and determined Northampton outfit in Pool 1 of the Heineken Cup on Saturday night thanks to a hat-trick of tries from Simon Zebo.
The game started at a blistering pace, with Northampton taking control from the early stages. The hosts were ahead with just five minutes on the clock thanks to a Ryan Lamb penalty and doubled their lead courtesy of another Lamb penalty, before Ronan O’Gara managed to get three points on the board for Munster courtesy of a converted penalty.
The Saints gave no quarter to Munster however, and were awarded a penalty try in the fifteenth minute, which Lamb converted, after Peter O’Mahony kicked the ball out of a Northampton scrum on his own try line.
Munster started to get themselves back into the game and managed to get another six points on the board through another two O’Gara penalties, but Lamb restored the Saints’ seven point lead with a drop goal almost immediately.
Munster were starting to get into their stride, and were rewarded with a try after BJ Botha powered his way through the Northampton defence. O’Gara converted and drew the scores level, and gave the visitors the lead three minutes from the interval with another penalty, but Lamb was also on hand to convert his third penalty of the game with the last kick of the half to see the sides level at the break.
The second half saw Munster take complete control of the game right from the start thanks to early an early try from Johne Murphy straight from the kick-off, which was converted by O’Gara. The visitors managed to get themselves another try a short time later after Simon Zebo completed a neat passing move down the wing to score his first try of the match, which O’Gara once again converted.
Northampton looked to rally themselves and were rewarded with another penalty try halfway through the second half, which was duly converted by Lamb. However, Munster took control again shortly afterwards thanks to two more penalties from O’Gara, along with two more tries from Zebo to complete his hat-trick, which were again converted by O’Gara.
Despite another penalty from Lamb and a late try from Saints substitute Scott Armstrong, Northampton never really got into the game as much as they did in the first half, allowing Munster to win the game quite comfortably in the end.