Edinburgh Rugby’s three match winning run came to an end at against Munster tonight as they lost four tries to three match at Thomond Park (34-17).
The hosts dominated large parts of first-half possession and territory but were well marshalled by the Edinburgh Rugby defence.
However, the prolonged defending ultimately yielded points as Ian Keatley notched three penalties the conversion of an early Danny Barnes try, to an unconverted effort from returning stand-off Phil Godman (13-5).
After the interval the visitors started brightly ,when Tom Brown scored his second in as many matches, but the visitor’s fight-back was tempered by yellow cards – the timeouts of Jack Gilding and Kyle Traynor overlapping mid-way through the half.
The scrum-5 offences yielded two tries, directly and indirectly, in the form of a penalty-try and a second when the man advantage was reduced to just one.
Credit is certainly due to the visitors who scored in kind through Tom Brown and Greig Laidlaw when the capital club was at a full complement either side of the infringements, with Keatley's accuracy with the boot the telling difference on the scoreboard before Luke O'Dea scored with five minutes remaining.
Keatley missed a first shot on goal after just two minutes but corrected his ways a minute later when inside-centre Danny Barnes crossed the try line.
- Match report -
Munster got off to the ideal start after some robust Munster driving in the middle of the park. The hosts made the hard yards and then spun the ball into space out wide, full-back Denis Hurley joined the line before putting away Barnes at the nearside touchline (7-0).
However It took just four minutes for Edinburgh to hit back through returning stand-off Phil Godman.
Prop Jack Gilding was the unlikely interceptor of a Munster pass before he passed to back-row Netani Talei who ran into open space before offloading to Godman to score the unconverted try at the corner flag (7-5).
Keatley then added another pair of penalties to edge the half (13-5).
HALF TIME: 13-5
Replacement centre Harry Leonard (on for the injured Jim Thompson) took over kicking duties and narrowly missed an early chance from long distance in difficult conditions before Tom Brown scored his second try in Edinburgh Rugby colours (13-10).
Godman missed the chance to convert before the yellow cards paved the way for the converted penalty try and Simon Zebo's score which catapulted the hosts into a healthy lead (27-10).
Just three minutes after Edinburgh were restored to a full complement Greig Laidlaw scored from short range and added the conversion to narrow the scoreline before O’Dea dove on a grubber-through to all but end the contest with five minutes remaining.
FINAL SCORE: 34-17
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MUNSTER: 15 Denis Hurley; 14 Luke O'Dea, 13 Will Chambers, 12 Danny Barnes, 11 Simon Zebo; 10 Ian Keatley, 9 Tomas O'Leary; 1 Marcus Horan, 2 Denis Fogarty, 3 Stephen Archer, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 5 Mick O'Driscoll CAPTAIN, 6 Billy Holland, 7 Tommy O'Donnell, 8 Paddy Butler
Substitutes: 16 Sean Henry, 17 John Ryan, 18 John Hayes, 19 Ian Nagle, 20 James Coughlan, 21 Duncan Williams, 22 Scott Deasy, 23 Tom Gleeson
EDINBURGH RUGBY: 15 Chris Paterson; 14 Sep Visser, 13 Jim Thompson, 12 James King, 11 Tom Brown; 10 Phil Godman, 9 Mike Blair; 1 Kyle Traynor, 2 Steven Lawrie CAPTAIN, 3 Jack Gilding, 4 Sean Cox, 5 Steven Turnbull, 6 Netani Talei, 7 Ross Rennie, 8 Stuart McInally
Substitutes: 16 Andrew Kelly, 17 Robin Hislop, 18 Lewis Niven, 19 Esteban Lozada, 20 Roddy Grant, 21 Greig Laidlaw, 22 Harry Leonard, 23 Gregor Hunter
