Munster well and truly take Edinburgh to the cleaners
Munster scored an emphatic 34-3 win at BT Murrayfield on Saturday to put the home side back to eighth in the table and leaving them with an outside chance of European Champions Cup rugby next season.
Edinburgh started well and put the visitors’ defence under pressure from the off. They were rewarded with a Tom Heathcote penalty in the fourth minute to take a 3-0 lead.
However, that was to be about the last time in the match – using the term in its widest sense – they troubled the Munster half, let alone their line. The Irish team came back in the 18th minute with a penalty from Ian Keatley following a period of sustained pressure and they followed up in the 33rd minute with Duncan Casey coming up with the ball from the depths of a rolling maul. Keatley scored the conversion to put Munster 10-3 ahead, a lead they maintained until the break.
Edinburgh survived an early 5 metre scrum for carrying back, but the superiority of the Munster pack soon told as they heaved another maul over the line for C. J. Stander to score the second try for a 15-3 lead.
Constant ruck infringements lead to Tim Visser being carded which only added to Edinburgh’s woes as the resultant kick to touch lead to a further penalty, the aftermath of which saw Connor Murray squeeze up the line to score for the third Munster try. A difficult conversion from Keatley then put the score out to 22-3.
Then came the ‘try that probably wasn’t’ in the 63rd minute. With Edinburgh struggling to defend, Simon Zebo grubbered the ball through and chased his own kick, diving on the ball short of the line to ‘touch down’. The ref went to the TMO and, despite the big screen showing that the touchdown appeared to be short, the try was awarded. Zebo, for his part, at least had the decency to look fairly surprised with the decision. Keatley then failed to add the extras for a 27-3 lead to the visitors.
Just to prove it wasn’t a fluke, less than three minutes later, Munster scored their fifth. Keatley sailed a deft kick over the defence for Keith Earls to run onto and the Irish winger collected the ball and went over for the try. Keatley made no mistakes this time and the resultant 34-3 proved to be the final score.
Despite their early pressure and a few good moves in the first half, Edinburgh never looked like winning – or scoring, eventually – and played the match as if they had one eye on next Friday’s ERCC Semi-final against the Dragons. If they did, then they had better go out and win it.
Images from the match may appear here over the next few days
