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Charlie O'Shea marked his first Munster start with two tries, an assist and three conversions in a 26-22 win over the Bulls at Thomond Park. Ciarán Frawley also enjoyed a dream Connacht debut in a 22-19 win at Benetton.
Charlie O'Shea marked his first Munster start with a stunning two-try, man-of-the-match display as Munster beat the Bulls 26-22 at Thomond Park on Saturday. O'Shea, a 20-year-old academy out-half from Cork, also supplied a sublime assist and kicked three conversions in just his second cap for the province.
The bonus-point win came in front of a relatively low attendance, but it was a timely shot in the arm following the positivity generated by Munster's rebooted coaching ticket. It was dream stuff from a 20-year-old making his first start for the province, and he left the Thomond Park pitch to a standing ovation after an outstanding 69-minute display.
He was a constant threat throughout, and his performance was the standout moment on an encouraging weekend for the Irish provinces in the United Rugby Championship. O'Shea said: It was just unbelievable. I probably got lucky there with one of the tries but the fans were great. It's the loudest crowd I have played in front of and they really gave us energy there to kick on and get the win.
Munster head coach Clayton McMillan said: Yeah, phenomenal. You don't want to blow too much smoke up his backside. It's the early days, but he's had a couple of runs now and he's taken to it like a duck to water. A lot of confidence for a young man but it comes from doing the homework during the week and getting over what he knows the team needs him to do, and he's done that with aplomb.
But also it was good to see JJ Hanrahan come on, who's at the other end of his career and I think he put in two or three kicks that were pretty vital to put them on their back fence. They had to work their way out of the game late, so those things were pleasing. Scrum-half Craig Casey returned for his first appearance of the season, captaining the side.
Casey said of the young out-half: So composed in fairness all week. As an older statesman now I was kind of toying with do I try and take a bit over, but I said during the week, Just play your game, Charlie and I'll feed off that, find your voice. And my God he found his voice, all week to be fair.
He's a great kid, like Donk said, works very hard and so diligent and just feeds confidence to the rest of the group so hats off to him. I thought he was awesome and he has been for the last six, seven weeks in pre-season as well. He's a very impressive kid. It was a real team performance as well.
That was perhaps the most pleasing aspect of the bonus-point win. While O'Shea led the way, this was a strong team performance where a number of young players stood up and delivered. Last week, McMillan spoke about trying to rebuild the connection with Munster supporters after the challenges of last season. The 10,000-strong home support clearly appreciated what they saw on the pitch.
McMillan said: I hope so. There was lots to like about last week's game against Glasgow, but it wasn't good enough to get us over the line. Tonight was another massive test and we didn't get it all perfect tonight either. The areas that I thought were significantly better were our setpiece, our scrum was strong, for the most part our lineout was good.
Kieran Brookesy at makeshift hooker probably had a couple he'd take back but that's the position we're in. It says a lot about him that he was prepared to jump in and fill that role. Lots of younger guys got a run, Gordy Wood came onto the bench late, Evan O'Connell has had his third 80 minutes in a row. Seán Edogbo played his first game at Thomond Park.
There are lots of young guys who we've been talking about as having potential and it speaks well for the future of Munster Rugby. But we're far from the finished product. It was put to McMillan that his side had to dog it out against the South African side. He said: It's interesting you use those words because we had Jerry Flannery come in yesterday, present the boys jerseys at our captain's run.
The words he used were dig in, just dig in. Dig in in the good times, dig in in the bad times, dig in when you're tired. I thought that was pretty apt today.
Connacht Edge Benetton In Treviso
Meanwhile, Connacht welcomed back six of their seven-strong summer tour contingent and beat Benetton 22-19 in Treviso for a bonus-point win. It was Connacht's first victory at Stadio Monigo since April 2022. Billy Bohan and Sam Illo locked a key scrum as Benetton pushed for a two-score lead entering the last 10 minutes. But then a second try for Ciarán Frawley, on his debut for the province, secured the win.
Head coach Stuart Lancaster said: I've never come here at any point in my career and had an easy game. We had so many players playing the first game for a long time, and we had a lot of combinations not having played together, Ciarán obviously being one at 10. There's always going to be that element of clunkiness and rustiness. But we dug in there, we got the win and I'm delighted for the lads.
Lancaster said of Frawley: It's a dream start for him. He managed the game really well. He saw space in the backfield early on. As a 10 he put in a really accomplished performance.
But it wasn't just that, it's his involvement and his enthusiasm off the field, how he's conducted himself and integrated with the lads, how he's trained. So, it's been a huge bonus for us. It allows me to mix and match with Josh Ioane. He made a big impact at 15, which is obviously a great change up for us, and Sam Gilbert went to 13.
We've got Harry West and Byron Ralston injured, but Bundee Aki will be around next week. Italy last week, Scotland next week, added Lancaster before a long trek home to Galway. Connacht face a trip away to Glasgow next Friday.
Leinster And Ulster Results
Meanwhile, Leinster picked up a third bonus point from their early-season trek to South Africa, two more than last season, after a 26-20 loss to the Sharks in Durban. Ulster drew with Glasgow in a high-scoring URC thriller. Leinster will welcome back a tranche of Ireland frontliners for next Saturday's first competitive outing at the redeveloped Laya Arena in more than two years when hosting Cardiff at 7.45pm.
Ireland's summer tourists were still on the sidelines for much of the weekend, but their gradual return sparked a more encouraging second round of the United Rugby Championship, with just one province suffering a loss. The quartet remain in the bottom half of the table, but each could take positives from their latest outings.
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IrishTimes:This story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
Charlie O'shea Munster Rugby Lions Thomond Park Debut Tries Assist Clayton Mcmillan Craig Casey Bonus Point Munster Vs Bulls URC Ciarán Frawley Connacht
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