Munster secured their first win of the United Rugby Championship season by defeating Zebre 21-5 at Musgrave Park.

Ben Healy converted all three tries as Munster took victory after suffering losses away to Cardiff and Dragons.

Zebre's early second-half touchdown came from replacement Lorenzo Pani but they remain without a win from three.

Pani's opportunist 44th-minute effort got the Italians off the mark, but a sloppy closing half an hour saw Munster miss out on the bonus point.

The visitors suffered a couple of injury blows and had lock Gabriele Venditti sin-binned.

Munster's superior maul proved instrumental in delivering their maiden success after a drab encounter.

There was some doubt about the grounding of hooker Scannell's eighth-minute opener, but a lengthy TMO review went Munster's way and Healy added the conversion.

It came from a well-driven lineout maul and good initial work before that from Patrick Campbell, on a kick chase, and Tadhg Beirne at the breakdown.

Zebre captain Enrico Lucchin and Pierre Bruno provided the running threat before prop Juan Pittinari knocked on in a try-scoring position.

Zebre's lineout also misfired badly, with Giampietro Ribaldi guilty of two crooked throws and they had nine lost lineouts before the break. Munster's execution was much cleaner.

Prop Knox was unstoppable from a few metres out, doubling the hosts' lead to 14 points in the 17th minute.

Jack O'Donoghue had a subsequent score ruled out, for 'clear separation' on this occasion, but Zebre lost Venditti to the bin for a cynical offside.

Scannell crashed over from the resulting lineout drive in the 24th minute, with the visitors having to reshuffle their back-line due to injuries picked up by centres Erich Cronje and Lucchin.

Fabio Roselli's men sparked into life early in the second half, Jacopo Trulla's chip kick grounded by onrushing youngster Pani with the bounce having beaten Healy.

The final 40 minutes were littered with mistakes, however, as even Ireland duo Conor Murray and Joey Carbery, who were both sprung from the bench, could not get Munster firing again.

A muddled Munster lineout summed up a game that had disintegrated as a spectacle, the biggest cheer coming when 18-year-old back-rower Ruadhan Quinn came on to become Munster's youngster player of the professional era.

Munster: Haley; Phillips, Fekitoa, Goggin, Campbell, Healy, Casey, Kilcoyne, N. Scannell, Knox, F. Wycherley, Beirne, O'Donoghue, O'Mahony, O'Sullivan.

Replacements: Buckley, Loughman, Archer, Edogbo, Quinn, Murray, Carbery, R. Scannell.

Zebre: Kriel, Bruno, Cronje, Lucchin, Trulla, Eden, Fusco, Pitinari, Ribaldi, Neculai, G. Venditti, Krumov, Ruggeri, Pelser, Fox-Matamua.

Replacements: Bigi, Rizzoli, Nocera, Furno, Bianchi, Casilio, Smith, Pani.

Referee: AJ Jacobs (South Africa).