A poor Ospreys outing against a merciless Munster resulted in a record 58-3 defeat for Toby Booth's men in their United Rugby Championship clash on Friday night.
It was a record league defeat for an off-colour Ospreys side, with the Welsh side outplayed in all areas at Thomond Park.
Munster dominated from start to finish and raced into a 27-3 lead by half-time, scoring nine tries in all with a hat-trick for player of the match Gavin Coombes, who returned from Ireland's Six Nations camp to start at No. 8 for Munster.
In contrast, the visitors' only points on the scoreboard came from a successful penalty kick from fly-half Stephen Myler in the third minute. The Ospreys were held tryless for the first time this season.
The hosts dominated a first half which saw each team have a player sin-binned, with Coombes, Malakai Fekitoa, Antoine Frisch and Joey Carbery all scoring tries to put Munster 27-3 up. Paddy Patterson, Coombes (2), Simon Zebo and Shane Daly completed a nine-try annihilation, while Carbery kicked a penalty and five conversions to finish with 18 points.
Huw Sutton's interception and charging run had quickly sparked Ospreys into life. Shane Daly saw yellow for a cynical infringement and allowed Myler to open the scoring. A Morgan Morris turnover kept Munster scoreless until Carbery kicked them level in the 12th minute.
Ospreys then fell 10-3 behind, lock Bradley Davies catching Roman Salanoa with a high tackle for a yellow card before Jean Kleyn's inside pass put Coombes galloping over for a converted score. That was followed by Fekitoa's first try in Munster colours as he finished off some fine work from centre partner Frisch. The pair combined again in the 29th minute, Fekitoa's return pass - out of a double tackle - putting Frisch over to widen the margin to 17 points.
Despite losing skipper Jack O'Donoghue to injury, Munster continued to dominate and a dummying Carbery darted over in the 36th minute. John Hodnett poached possession from Iestyn Hopkins to prevent Ospreys from responding.
Barely 40 seconds into the second half, Hodnett bounced off a tackle and fed Patterson to run in his fourth try in five games.
Apart from getting some joy at scrum time, Ospreys continued to struggle. No. 8 Coombes swatted away a tackle to double his tally from close range.
Zebo got in on the act in the 62nd minute, fending off Morris after Daly's inside pass. The latter cruised in behind the posts just six minutes later, having linked with replacement Diarmuid Barron. Coombes spun around through contact for his third of the night, with Ospreys' lacklustre performance doing little to distract from talk of a potential player strike in Wales.
Booth's side were without all of their Wales internationals, with 14 players remaining in Wales camp after Warren Gatland decided to retain all Wales-based players for the weekend.
Munster: Shane Daly; Liam Coombes, Antoine Frisch, Malakai Fekitoa, Simon Zebo; Joey Carbery, Paddy Patterson; Josh Wycherley, Niall Scannell, Roman Salanoa; Jean Kleyn, Fineen Wycherley; Jack O’Donoghue (capt), John Hodnett, Gavin Coombes.
Replacements: Diarmuid Barron, Mark Donnelly, Stephen Archer, Jack O’Sullivan, Alex Kendellen, Ethan Coughlan, Ben Healy, Rory Scannell.
Ospreys: Max Nagy; Luke Morgan, Michael Collins, Owen Watkin, Keelan Giles; Stephen Myler, Reuben Morgan-Williams; Nicky Smith (capt), Elvis Taione, Tom Botha, Bradley Davies, Huw Sutton, Jack Regan, Ethan Roots, Morgan Morris.
Replacements: Tom Cowan-Dickie, Garyn Phillips, Rhys Henry, James Fender, Harri Deaves, Matthew Aubrey, Jack Walsh, Iestyn Hopkins.
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