Gavin Coombes scored four tries as Munster finished the campaign on a high with a facile win in Parma.

Coombes took his try haul to 15 in 17 starts this season on a night when Billy Holland brought the curtain down on his superb career when he came off the bench to make his 247th appearance.

Johann van Graan’s men had the game wrapped up by the interval when they went in leading 28-6 after a brace of tries from both Gavin Coombes and Craig Casey, with Joey Carbery converting all four.

A crowd of 1,000 supporters in 26 degrees heat at Stadio Lanfranchi saw Zebre respond well to the opening try from a tapped penalty in the left corner by Coombes after ten minutes, with two penalties from Carlo Canna cutting the gap to 7-6 after 25 minutes.

But with the Munster maul dominant, Munster created the opportunities and wrapped up the tie in the second quarter with Casey getting his opening try after Andrew Conway was stopped short.

Coombes got his second try after another good lineout and a neat chip from Joey Carbery put Chris Farrell through and when he was stopped short, Casey was on his shoulder to score under the posts for his fourth try of the season.

Munster turned over a Zebre scrum and went to the corner seven minutes after the restart for Niall Scannell to drive over from the resultant lineout for their fifth try. Carbery converted from the left.

Federico Mori finished a good Zebre move on the hour to score in the right corner but shortly after his clearance chip was intercepted by Liam Coombes who got in on the scoring act with his cousin to race through and score.

His cousin duly completed his hat-trick eleven minutes from time when a pass from replacement scrum-half Nick McCarthy, another making his final Munster appearance, deflected well off a defender and Gavin Coombes raced through from 30 metres to complete his second hat-trick of the season.

He scored his fourth deep into stoppage with Holland's last act as a professional rugby player being a conversion attempt from the right touchline which he pulled across goal.

SCORERS –

Zebre: F Mori try; C Canna 2 pens.

Munster: G Coombes (4), C Casey (2), N Scannell, L Coombes tries; J Carbery (6), J Flannery cons.

TEAMS:

Zebre: J Trulla (M Biondelli 1-11, F Di Marco 53); G D’Onofrio, F Mori, E Lucchin, P Bruno (Biondelli 41); C Canna, M Violi (N Casilio 36); A Lovotti (D Rimpelli 49), L Bigi (M Manfredi 47), M Nocera (N D’Amico 58); D Sisi, L Krumov (S Ortis 41); I Bianchi, P Leavasa (G Licata 47), R Giammarioli.

Munster: M Gallagher; A Conway, C Farrell, R Scannell, L Coombes; J Carbery (J Flannery 62), C Casey (N McCarthy 69); D Kilcoyne (L O’Connor 53), N Scannell (K O’Byrne 53), J Ryan (R Salanoa 53); J Kleyn (T Ahern 63), F Wycherley (B Holland 69); P O'Mahony, J O'Donoghue (C Cloete 63), G Coombes.

Ref- A Piardi (Italy).