Munster In Come From Behind Euro Win

Munster were forced to come from 10 points behind against Italian champions Benetton Treviso before five second half tries took them to the top of the Heineken Cup's Pool 1 with a 41-10 victory.

The Italians gave Munster an early shock at with two tries in the opening 25 minutes to stun the Thomond Park faithful as they showed signs of maintaining the momentum they built-up in their stunning opening day victory over French champions Perpignan.

But after that bright start, which included tries from Brendan Williams and Andrew Vilk, the Italian champions came under increasing pressure as the two-times champions slowly, but surely, worked their way back into the contest.

By half-time the home side had edged their noses in front, 12-10, thanks to a try from man of the match Paul Warwick and another from replacement wing Ian Dowling. Ronan O'Gara converted the first, but was off target with the second.

In the second half the Munster forwards got on a roll and there were five more tries as they picked up the bonus point to move to the top of the Pool. If it wasn't the most fluent of performances, it was certainly the perfect response after the narrow defeat at Northampton on the opening weekend.

No 8 Denis Leamy led the second half charge with a try after only two minutes and the bonus point try came in the left corner from hooker Denis Fogarty. O'Gara's conversion attempt drifted wide - his fourth missed kick of the afternoon - but was back on target when David Wallace grabbed the fifth try.

Dowling then skipped away for his second try before Springbok centre Jean de Villiers notched his first Heineken Cup try with four minutes to go as he rounded off a move started by O'Gara and carried on by Leamy.

The only problem in the end for Munster was the hamstring injury suffered by Doug Howlett in the first-half as he chased back to deal with a kick ahead.