A depleted Ulster side suffered a record defeat as Munster ran in nine tries in Limerick tonight.

Darren Cave scored a consolation try during a purple patch for Ulster but it proved just a blip as five Munster tries followed.

Munster made a good start through Dan Goggin. A kick was charged down but the ball fell fortunately for Goggin and step saw the outside centre beat Ulster’s last man of defence, Pete Nelson. Joey Carbery converted and it wasn’t long before he was called back into action as stepped up to convert Tommy O’Donnell three minutes later. While the first try was unlucky, poor defence allowed O’Donnell an easy run in from Ulster’s 22m line.

Carbery added a penalty to give Munster the lead after 17 minutes. With 20 minutes gone, Ulster had their first period of pressure in the Munster half which resulted in a penalty. Due to being 17 points down, a kick at goal was turned down in favour of the lineout which was lost. Ulster came again but were unable to make any headway into the Munster defence and the move was over when the ball was knocked on in midfield.

A monstrous scrum from Munster won a penalty seven metres from the Ulster line. Electing for the lineout, Tommy O’Donnell scored his second try. The bonus point was wrapped up three minutes before the break when Goggin crossed after relentless pressure on the Ulster line. Angus Kernohan came close at the end of the half but Ulster were unable to recycle the ball cleanly.

Ulster started the second half strongly and after good ball retention Darren Cave made the break for the try. Munster responded again through their captain Peter O’Mahony who crossed in the corner.

The away side had several promising periods of play in the match and looked dangerous when they made linebreaks and were able to utilize their offloading game. However these proved fruitless with the ball being knocked on more often than not. Nevertheless, Munster came again thanks to great handling from Alex Wootton to allow Joey Carbery to score his first try at Thomond Park.

A seventh try followed when former Ulster boy Sam Arnold gathered a chip through from Alex Wootton before Keith Earls got in on the act with his side’s eighth try. Wootton completed the scoring with a ninth Munster try leaving the final score 64-7 in the hosts’ favour.