Munster 16
Edinburgh 18
MUNSTER HAD TO be satisfied with a losing bonus point as an under-strength side went down to a fully loaded Edinburgh side in Cork.
Munster recovered from 10-0 down in the opening half to hit the front after the break but Richard Cockerill’s men did enough in the final quarter to secure victory.
Munster, with only captain Jack O’Donoghue surviving from the starting team against Racing 92, endured a dreadful start when they conceded a converted try after less than three minutes.
A mix-up between half-backs Nick McCarthy and Ben Healy, making his first competitive start, conceded a five-metre scrum and centre Matt Scott made it count when he burst through to score, with Jaco van der Walt adding the extras.
Van der Walt added a penalty to extend the lead to 10-0 after 22 minutes before Healy, who suffered a bloody nose in the warm-up, got himself and Munster off the mark with a penalty from 25 metres two minutes later.
That score settled them and they were back on level terms four minutes from the break when a 23-phase move — which saw the post-pads lifted a couple of times — ended with Tommy O’Donnell squeezing over and Healy converted to make it 10-10 at the interval.
Munster hit the front two minutes after the restart when Healy landed a superb penalty from 40 metres with a confident kick which was always on target for the former Glenstal Abbey winning captain.
It took a superb tackle from Jack O’Donoghue and Calvin Nash to deny South African prop Pierre Schoeman at the other end as the game developed into a cracking contest.
Healy pushed the gap out to six after 53 minutes with another penalty but this was cancelled directly afterwards when Simon Hickey tapped over one shortly after coming on.
Edinburgh went back in front after 63 minutes when Fijian winger Eroni Sau scored in the right corner after a crosskick from Blair Kinghorn, but Hickey was unsuccessful with the difficult conversion as the Scots took an 18-16 lead into the closing stages.
Munster scorers:
Try: Tommy O’Donnell
Conversion: Ben Healy [1/1]
Penalties: Healy [3/3]
Edinburgh scorers:
Tries: Matt Scott, Eroni Sau
Conversions: Jaco van der Walt [1/1], Simon Hickey [0/1]
Penalties: van der Walt [1/1], Hickey [1/1]
MUNSTER: Shane Daly; Calvin Nash, Sammy Arnold (Rory Scannell ‘60), Dan Goggin, Alex Wootton; Ben Healy (JJ Hanrahan ‘60), Nick McCarthy (Neil Cronin ‘71); Liam O’Connor (James Cronin ‘64), Rhys Marshall (Kevin O’Byrne ’69), Stephen Archer (Keynan Knox ‘64); Fineen Wycherley, Darren O’Shea (Jed Holloway ‘60); Jack O’Donoghue, Tommy O’Donnell (Conor Oliver ‘65), Arno Botha.
EDINBURGH: Blair Kinghorn; Eroni Sau, Mark Bennett, Matt Scott (George Taylor ‘64), Duhan van der Merwe; Jaco van der Walt (Simon Hickey ‘53), Henry Pyrgos; Pierre Schoeman (Rory Sutherland ‘71), Stuart McInally (Michael Willemse ‘64), Pietro Ceccarelli (Simon Berghan ‘53); Ben Toolis, Grant Gilchrist; Magnus Bradbury, Hamish Watson, Villiame Mata.
Referee: Marius Mitrea (Italy).
Bernard Jackman and Murray Kinsella join Gavan Casey to discuss eye-gouging, Munster’s scrum-half situation, and the rest of the provincial news.
The42 Rugby Weekly / SoundCloud
