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Munster secure home quarterfinal

Buoyed by their bonus-point win over Leicester Tigers in Round Five, last season's Champions Cup finalists and reigning French champions turned the final game of their campaign into anything but a cakewalk for the home side.

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While there was little other than pride to play for in the Racing ranks, Munster were looking to bag a home draw in the quarterfinals the week after clinching their ticket into the last eight. They eventually reached their target, just edging out Champions Cup holders Saracens for the No.2 ranking, but they were made to fight all the way for a 22-10 victory.

Maxime Machenaud got the first chance to set the scoreboard moving after 12 minutes, but he pulled his penalty attempt. In the end, it took 36 minutes of ding-dong action before Simon Zebo crashed over for the first of three Munster tries.

That came moments after Benjamin Dambielle was sent to the sin-bin for stopping Conor Murray getting the ball at the base of a ruck on the Racing line. A score seemed inevitable and Zebo came up with his sixth try in four games against the French side.

Tyler Bleyendaal added the conversion, but Machenaud knocked over a penalty on the stroke of half-time to make it 7-3 at the break. The opening 10 minutes of the second half saw Munster put their foot on the accelerator as Bleyendaal kicked a penalty and then converted a try wide out on the left by Ronan O'Mahony.

It looked as though that might be the launch-pad for a push for more points from the home side, but Racing had other ideas. They stayed in the game, worked Henry Chavancy over for a try that Machenaud improved and had the Munster faithful moving onto the edge of their seats with the scoreboard showing 17-10 with 20 minutes to go.

It stayed that way for the next 10 minutes until Ian Keatley made an immediate impact after replacing Zebo by taking an inside pas from Andre Conway to dive over for the vital third try. Bleyendaal couldn't convert, but that was job done as far as Munster were concerned.

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They will be back at Thomond Park in the quarterfinals for the ninth time in their history.

The scorers:

For Munster:

Tries: Zebo, O'Mahony, Keatley

Cons: Bleyendaal 2

Pen: Bleyendaal

For Racing:

Try: Chavancy

Con: Machenaud

Pen: Machenaud

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Yellow card: Benjamin Dambielle (Racing, 29)

Teams:

Munster: 15 Simon Zebo, 14 Andrew Conway, 13 Jaco Taute, 12 Rory Scannell, 11 Ronan O’Mahony, 10 Tyler Bleyendaal, 9 Conor Murray, 8 CJ Stander, 7 Tommy O’Donnell, 6 Peter O’Mahony (captain), 5 Donnacha Ryan, 4 Jean Kleyn, 3 John Ryan, 2 Niall Scannell, 1 James Cronin.

Replacements: 16 Rhys Marshall, 17 Dave Kilcoyne, 18 Thomas du Toit, 19 Billy Holland, 20 Jack O’Donoghue, 21 Duncan Williams, 22 Ian Keatley, 23 Francis Saili.

Racing 92: 15 Brice Dulin, 14 Teddy Thomas, 13 Henry Chavancy, 12 Etienne Dussartre, 11 Marc Andreu, 10 Benjamin Dambielle, 9 Maxime Machenaud, 8 So'otala Fa'aso'o, 7 Matthieu Voisin, 6 Yannick Nyanga, 5 Leone Nakarawa, 4 Manuel Carizza, 3 Ben Tameifuna, 2 Camille Chat, 1 Eddy Ben Arous.

Replacements: 16 Virgile Lacombe, 17 Julien Brugnaut, 18 Cedate Gomes Sa, 19 Ali Williams, 20 Chris Masoe, 21 James Hart, 22 Franck Pourteau, 23 Albert Vulivuli.

Referee: Marius Mitrea (Italy)

Assistant referees: Matteo Liperini (Italy), Simone Boaretto (Italy)

TMO: Alan Falzone (Italy)

Source: @ChampionsCup

Munster secure home quarterfinal

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