Rowntree's relief as Munster survive Scarlets fightback

Graham Rowntree cut a relieved figure as Munster survived an epic Scarlets comeback to hold on for a 49-42 win at Musgrave Park.

The sides shared 13 tries across a chaotic 80 minutes, with Munster leading by 28 points on two separate occasions during the game, before an incredible comeback from the visitors saw them pick up two deserved bonus-points.

It had been a difficult in the province after the passing of Shannon stalwart Brian O'Brien, as well as former scrum-half Tom Tierney, who had been working with the province as a national talent coach, and had a major role in the development of Patrick Campbell, who pointed to the sky in memory of Tierney when he scored the opening try of the game.

And Rowntree admits he was relieved to get away from Musgrave Park with maximum points after what had been an emotional week.

"Glad, glad to get out of that game with a bonus-point, and a bonus-point win," the head coach said.

"We had a challenging week as a club for multiple reasons. The game freed up a bit in that third quarter, we didn't help ourselves, and we had quite a few changes, including people playing out of position.

"We're learning about people as well, youngsters, there's a few guys there who haven't played a lot of rugby, who are learning."

And while Rowntree says his side were architects of their own downfall at times, he was full of praise for the Welsh side, who scored five second half tries.

"Let's not take it away from Scarlets, they can play.

"We previewed all week their form and how dangerous they are if you kick poorly to them, or kick loosely to them, how dangerous they can be on the edge of the field, and they have a couple of big, rangy forwards who can carry the ball and offload, and that's what we saw in that 50