Sunday 2 September 2018 09:59, UK
Munster, Ulster, Benetton and Glasgow all recorded wins in round one of the new PRO14 season as they saw off the Cheetahs, Scarlets and Ulster respectively.
Ireland international Joey Carbery made his Munster debut off the bench as the province kicked off their Guinness PRO14 campaign with an impressive 38-0 bonus point victory over Cheetahs at Thomond Park.
Following his much-talked-about summer move from Leinster, Carbery saw 27 minutes of second half action during which Tommy O'Donnell, JJ Hanrahan, Dave O'Callaghan and man-of-the-match Darren Sweetnam all touched down in front of a 12,265 crowd.
Earlier tries from Rory Scannell (15 minutes) and Dave Kilcoyne (30) had the men in red 12-0 ahead at the break as the new-look Cheetahs, now coached by Franco Smith, failed to convert their early pressure into points and suffered a big blow with captain Oupa Mohoje's injury-enforced withdrawal.
Glasgow Warriors outlasted Connacht in a gripping Guinness PRO14 opener at the Sportsground where Stuart Hogg's 73rd-minute drop goal handed them a 27-26 bonus-point win.
Connacht's replacement fly-half Craig Ronaldson had a last-gasp chance to pinch the result but his long-range penalty agonisingly bounced wide off the left post.
A hectic attack-driven first half, which began with Tommy Seymour's try after only 62 seconds, finished 23-17 in Connacht's favour.
Jack Carty kicked 13 points to add to tries from Cian Kelleher and Finlay Bealham, while George Turner and co-captain Ryan Wilson took Glasgow's try tally to three.
Carty's third successful penalty edged Connacht closer to a winning start under new head coach Andy Friend, but the visitors bounced back from recent Scotland debutant Adam Hastings' sin-binning to bag their fourth try through replacement Adam Ashe and Hogg coolly supplied the match-winning kick.
A last-minute penalty from scrum-half John Cooney secured Ulster a hard-fought 15-13 win over the Scarlets on the opening round of action in the PRO14 at the Kingspan Stadium.
The Ireland international nailed the vital kick after being tackled without the ball by Scarlets' second row David Bulbring with the lock then shown a yellow card by referee Marius Mitrea.
New Ulster head coach Dan McFarland's first competitive game in charge was nip and tuck all the way with Cooney scoring all the Irish province's 15 points from his boot.
The only try of the game was scored by Scarlets' Rhys Patchell in the first half, with their other points coming from Patchell's conversion and second-half penalties by his replacement Dan Jones.
Benetton started the Guinness PRO14 campaign with an impressive win on the road after overpowering the Dragons 21-17 at Rodney Parade.
The Italians had a superb 2017/18 campaign featuring 11 wins from 21 games and they signalled their intent with a fine triumph in Newport.
Tries by lock Alessandro Zanni (2) and flanker Braam Steyn earned the win after the Dragons, who had hoped to start the season with a bang after winning just twice last year, came flying out of the blocks.
The Welsh region made a dream start when wing Dafydd Howells, a summer signing from the Ospreys, picked off a Benetton pass to race over from 30 metres after just 69 seconds.
