Munster may never have been in danger of losing to Gloucester in a one-sided European affair at Pairc Ui Chaoimh but they were made work surprisingly hard before running out 31-3 victors.The English Premier club had fielded their reserve team, fifteen changes to the unit which won on their own patch last weekend.But having taken the strong wind in the first-half, the Cherry & Whites also took the lead thanks to full-back George Barton kicking a third minute penalty.Munster couldn't shake second gear, their first quarter marred by some dreadful passes in the line as the ball fell to the floor far too often.There was a home try midway through the half, Mike Haley making a break down the right, kicking on and regathering before being caught close to the line; the full-back was, however, able to offload to Dan Kelly who powered on and over.The close to 40,000 attendance was entitled to believe the home side was about to go nap but there was further stutter and lack of cohesion as despite Gloucster's tight-head Jamal Ford-Robinson picking up a yellow card for a high tackle Munster were unable to post a second score.The rain began to fall as the second-half opened with Gloucester, still only four points adrift, heartened by some early possession, before they finally buckled.Firstly the Reds ran the ball left-to-right and, on advantage and with Alex Nankivell off-loading out the back in the tackle to Haley, the full-back made it to the line. Jack Crowley missed the conversion but Munster were now nine points ahead.Gloucester hadn't the muscle to get out of their own half against the wind yet were hanging in there, defending two close-to-line rolling mauls successfully and winning a scrum penalty close to their own posts as they held it at 12-3 for almost 20 minutes.Ruadhan Quinn got Munster's third try from a penalty in the immediate aftermath of Rob Russell saving an almost certain try; there was a yellow card however and the penalty was tapped with Quinn taking possession and exploiting a gap.Tom Farrell crashed over for the bonus point score with seven minutes left on the clock before Tadhg Beirne followed up by taking a 'present' as Gloucester overthrew at a lineout close to their own line. Craig Casey picked up the Man of the Match award.
Munster coach Clayton McMillan was happy with the outcome although not overly happy with the performance, saying: "The numbers on the school board at the end are flattering but, yeah, we're happy to get the win and get some points on the board and Champions Cup.
"Those numbers showed the possession dominance, the territory dominance, the 22-metre entry conversions that we got and where we had ample opportunity. We just weren't clinical enough. We weren't more patient enough where we needed to be.
"We were really looking forward to playing here, obviously, above a crowd, 36,000 people. I think sometimes you will for something to go well becomes a reason it doesn't.
"And when we got inside their 22 we were trying so hard, maybe getting a little bit individualistic in our actions, or forcing things instead of feeling them, we just need to show a little bit more patience, respect for for the ball, for the opposition. Let those moments come to us."
It had been a slow start.
"I think we sort of felt our way into the game. We certainly played it at the right parts of the field and we got our fair share of contestables back, that was as an area that was a bit of a lottery for us last week.
"You know these are the conditions that we're likely to get, a bit of wind and a bit of rain, and that aerial battle as you're seeing across the game was pretty prevalent so you just got to be good at it.
"We had our first time this year of good moments around that today and there were lots of parts that were pleasing. The injection of some bench had a real impact and sort of got us the momentum that we were looking for.
"But so don't get me wrong, my disappointment isn't around that we didn't do some stuff well. I just know that in games where it becomes really tight that those small things become big things we need and we need to know those if we want to be there at the thick end of the season - we've all got a bit of work to do there."
Gloucester boss George Skivington was pleased with his side's performance, although he would have preferred not to have fallen off so noticeably at the end, a yellow card and two late tries.
"I don't think you'd ever 'take' it, because you've always got hope, haven't you, and I think we had hope coming into this game that you can always cause an upset.
"I think on balance and being really realistic about what we brought to Munster, the fighting spirit has to be there, and you've got to have that, and we had that.
"It would have been great to nick some points out before the (second) yellow card where we're in the sort of proximity of doing that.
"But, yeah, valuable lessons learned but tough to say you'd 'take' it when you when you have to walk off losing."
Munster: Mike Haley; Shane Daly, Dan Kelly, Alex Nankivell, Ben O'Connor; Jack Crowley, Craig Casey; Michael Milne, Niall Scannell, Michael Ala'alatoa, Jean Kleyn, Tadhg Beirne capt, Tom Ahern, Jack O'Donoghue, Gavin CoombesReplacements: Diarmuid Barron for Scannell 61, Josh Wycherley for Milne 61, Conor Bartley for Ala'alatoa 70, Edwin Edogbo for Kleyn 61, Ruadhan Quinn for O'Donoghue 61, Paddy Patterson for Casey 70, JJ Hanrahan for Haley 70, Tom Farrell for Kelly 53Gloucester: George Barton; Josh Hathaway, Will Knight, Max Knight, Rob Russell; Charlie Atkinson, Mike Austin; Dian Bleuler, Jack Innard, Jamal Ford-Robinson, Cam Jordan, Arthur Clark capt, Josh Basham, Harry Taylor, Jack ClementReplacements: Kealan Freeman Price for Innard 70, Ciaran Knight for Bleuler 50, Afolabi Fasogbon for Ford-Robinson 50, Danny Eite for Clement 63, Hugh Bokenham for Jordan 70, Caio James Jordan 63, Rhys Price for Austin 63, Jack Cotgreave
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