Munster back on track and now for Castres

Edinburgh 17 Munster 18

Allowing for the disruption caused by Friday’s withdrawal of skipper Anthony Foley and Marcus Horan and the loss through injury during the game of Jerry Flannery, John Hayes and John Kelly, there was much to admire in the Munster performance, although they continue to frustrate after failing to finish off a succession of superb moves.

Attack after attack rained down on the hosts, yet Munster had only a single try to show for all their supremacy in that opening half hour.

How to eliminate the handling errors and retain possession in the tackle and convert these opportunities is surely what will exercise the minds of Declan Kidney and his coaching staff over the coming five days.

And yet there were many good things from a game played before a miserable attendance of 2,200. Barry Murphy continues to show promise in the centre, Shaun Payne had another fine game at full-back and up front Paul O’Connell was man of the match, while David Wallace came in for special mention from Kidney.

This was Edinburgh’s first defeat of the season at Murrayfield and that stands to Munster’s credit. They are now four points ahead of the Scots with Leinster in third spot a further point back.

“Because we had lost two games recently, confidence wasn’t as high as we would like it to be and we lost one or two chances of tries in the first twenty minutes due to over anxiety more than anything else”, said Kidney.

“We let them back into it in the second half but right now I’d be looking at the positives rather than the negatives and that’s important because there has been a bit of negativity around lately. We have a bit of a battlefield in the dressing room and had we lost with that number of injuries, it would have been very difficult to pick the boys up, but hopefully with a win under your belt injuries heal up that little bit faster.”

Having just lost two of their own line-out throws, Munster might have been uneasy in the early stages, but a beautifully created try finished off by Trevor Halstead helped them settle. O’Gara tapped over the conversion and the picture brightened further for Munster when former All Black prop David Hewett was yellow carded when he prevented Stringer from taking a quick tap after a penalty award.

However, Munster failed for the second successive week to capitalise on their numerical advantage. Instead, the outcome was back in the melting pot two minutes into first-half stoppage time when Scotland second-row Scott Murray forced his way over for a try that Chris Paterson converted.

O’Gara’s second penalty on the stroke of half-time stretched the advantage to six points but it was impossible to avoid the feeling that it should have been a lot more.

Flannery’s departure with a back spasm eight minutes after the restart led to the introduction of Denis Fogarty and he had difficulty in finding O’Connell, Donncha O’Callaghan and Mick O’Driscoll and company with his throws.

Kidney apportioned a fair share of the blame to his “senior men in the pack” but it meant that Edinburgh were claiming a lion’s share of the possession as the second half progressed and this in turn meant a lot of defensive work for Munster, a task they carried out commendably well.

Furthermore, they remained capable of producing some sparkling attacks and on 57 minutes, they at last made it pay. A great run through the middle by John Kelly opened up the Edinburgh defence for the umpteenth time and it was only fitting that it was the winger himself who finished it off.

However, Munster relief was shortlived when a midfield pass by O’Gara was intercepted by Marcus DiRollo and he had an easy run home from 70 metres. Paterson tapped over the conversion and only four points separated the sides.

Then came what could have proved a seminal moment when a (Scottish) touch judge ruled that Freddie Pucciarello had deliberately tripped his fellow Argentinian Francisco Leonelli in a race for the ball in the Munster 22.

As a Scottish journalist observed: “I think Francisco reverted to his Latin roots.” In other words he had conned the officials, but Pucciarello was despatched to the bin, Paterson banged over the resultant penalty and there was only a single point between them. By then, John Hayes had limped off with an ankle injury to be replaced by Eugene McGovern and a decidedly inexperienced Munster forward pack was up against it.

Paterson had a late shot at goal from way out on the right but it came up short, leaving Munster more than a little relieved to escape by the narrowest of margins.

EDINBURGH GUNNERS: H. Southwell; C. Paterson capt, M. DiRollo, P. Jorgensen, F. Leonelli; P. Godman, M. Blair; D. Hewett, D. Hall, C. Smith, A. Kellock, S. Murray, A. Hogg, S. Taylor, S. Cross.

Replacements: A. Dickinson for Smith (blood) 3-16 mins; M. Dey for Jorgensen 45; A. MacDonald for Cross 64; Dickinson for Hewett 79; M. Pyke for Southwell 81.

MUNSTER: S. Payne; J. Kelly, B. Murphy, T. Halstead, I. Dowling; R. O’Gara, P. Stringer; F. Puccariello, J. Flannery, J. Hayes, D. O’Callaghan, P. O’Connell, S. Keogh, D. Wallace, M. O’Driscoll.

Replacements: D. Fogarty for Flannery 48 mins; E. McGovern for Hayes 67; T. Hogan for O’Driscoll 80; T. O’Leary for Kelly 82.

Referee: Hugh Watkins (WRU).