Munster's fine start continues as Foley's men hold out for win in Edinburgh

It was far from pretty but Munster got the job done at Murrayfield.

Edinburgh 14

Munster 16

MUNSTER MOVED TO within a point of the Guinness Pro12 summit with a hard-fought victory in Edinburgh this evening.

The visitors withstood a late rally from Edinburgh and after a sustained period of territory, Sam Hidalgo-Clyne’s attempted drop goal was blocked by a Munster body as the clock struck red.

It was an exciting, and dramatic, end to an otherwise dull affair at a deserted Murrayfield. Both sides welcomed back a handful of internationals but the game failed to ignite despite Munster racing into an early lead.

The province had won five of their six Pro12 outings before tonight, losing only to Scarlets, and they came flying out of the blocks to race into an early lead in the Scottish capital.

John Ryan marked his first start of the campaign by touching down under the posts with Ian Keatley adding the extras.

Gerhard van den Heever was sent to the sin-bin in the 11th minute as Hidalgo-Clyne and Keatley exchanged penalties before the former reduced the deficit to four points just before the interval.

Edinburgh caught their guests cold after the restart as Viliami Helu showed great strength to cross in the corner.

When Hidalgo-Clyne added a penalty shortly before the hour mark, Munster found themselves four points down with centre Francis Saili also in the bin.

But Keatley showed great composure from the tee to kick Munster into the narrowest of leads and despite a late scare, they held on to move into second place behind Connacht.

Edinburgh: Blair Kinghorn, Damien Hoyland, Will Helu, Matt Scott, Tom Brown, Greig Tonks, Sam Hidalgo-Clyne; Alasdair Dickinson, Ross Ford, WP Nel, Anton Bresler, Alex Toolis, Mike Coman (captain), Hamish Watson, Cornell Du Preez.

Munster: Simon Zebo, Gerhard van den Heever, Keith Earls, Francis Saili, Ronan O’Mahony, Ian Keatley, Conor Murray; Dave Kilcoyne, Duncan Casey, John Ryan, Donnacha Ryan, Dave Foley, Dave O’Callaghan, Jack O’Donoghue, CJ Stander (captain).

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Saili