Tries from Mack Hansen, Finlay Bealham and Paul Boyle helped Connacht secure their first URC victory of the season, in a narrow 20-11 win over Munster this evening.

Connacht seemed to take a huge boost from a packed Sportsground as they dominated proceedings early on. Andy Friend’s side bullied Munster at the scrum early on, with Finlay Bealham causing Dave Kilkoyne trouble on a number of occasions.

With Connacht pressure starting to cause Munster trouble, they opened the scoring in the eighth minute. After possession inside the Munster 22, a quick ball out wide found the electric Mack Hansen who went over in the corner for the game’s opening score.

Jack Carty was denied by the post from his conversion attempt and their lead remained at five points.

Carty did have the chance to extend his side’s lead ten minutes later with a central penalty inside the Munster half. Yet again, Carty was denied by the upright and despite all of their dominance inside the opening quarter, they only had a five-point lead to show for it.

Munster did get back into the game in the 23^rd minute and in similar fashion to how Connacht found their try, Patrick Campbell finished superbly in the corner to level the scores.

Ben Healy missed the follow up conversion but did add a penalty on the stroke of half time to send Munster into the break with an 8-5 lead.

Just after the interval, Ben Healy kept his cool again from a penalty to extend Munster’s lead to six points.

Connacht kept themselves in the contest after a wonderful 50/22 kick from Conor Fitzgerald. From the resulting lineout, the hosts opted for a maul with Ireland international Finlay Bealham bouldering over the try line to bring his side to within a point of Munster.

Jack Carty’s poor form from the kicking tee remained as he missed the follow up conversion and Munster remained narrowly in control.

Connacht did take the lead for the first time since the first half from a penalty, with Conor Fitzgerald firing his attempt straight between the posts.

With less than two minutes remaining, Paul Boyle scored a third try for Connacht with a powerful drive over the line from close range. Conor Fitzgerald added the extras from the tee from an acute angle, sealing a huge win for Connacht.