'Outstanding' Munster second half pleases Ian Costello

Munster interim head coach Ian Costello says his side got what they deserved after they shook off a "rusty" first half to record a dominant win at home to the Scarlets.

The province made it back-to-back bonus-point wins against Welsh opposition as they ran out easy 29-8 winners against a Scarlets side who barely laid a glove on the province over the course of the 80 minutes.

Munster had to make just 53 tackles across the 80 minutes, where they enjoyed 75% possession and 86% territory, although they had to wait for the second half to make their dominance count.

After Shay McCarthy's first half try gave them a 7-3 lead at the break, they looked a different team in the second 40, with Gavin Coombes crossing for two tries, and Alex Kendellen and Tom Farrell also getting on the scoresheet.

"We had 14 turnovers in the first half and there's two way of looking at that," Costello said.

"We were rusty – we hadn’t played in three weeks, you could probably see that, even though we trained really well.

"But we took a moment as coaches – we sort our messages before we go and speak to the players. Staying calm and staying positive was important, because we’d dominated possession and territory.

"It was one of those games you’d regret if you didn’t get the third quarter right, so we reinforced the positives. We said we need to look after the ball, probably move a little quicker, just be a bit smarter close to the line, rather than forcing the pass when we didn’t need to."

Full-time: Munster 29-8 Scarlets
Gavin Coombes dived over from close range to seal a bonus-point win for the hosts #URC pic.twitter.com/WmPeN3oyXM

Munster looked a new side in the second half, scoring two tries within 13 minutes of the restart to effectively kill off the game.

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