Coach points to positives

Munster head coach Rob Penney was happy to still be in the hunt for European qualification as his side beat Edinburgh for its first Heineken Cup away win of the campaign.

Missing out on a bonus point by scoring just two tries was not part of the plan but Penney was keen to stress the positives of going into Sunday’s final round home game with Racing Metro still in the hunt to make the quarter-finals of the tournament.

“It was always going to be a tough ask just to get the win,” Penney insisted after the 26-17 victory. “You’ve got to remember this time last year Edinburgh were flying high in this competition and doing a great job. They are a quality side and they’ve got a lot of pride. I’m really wrapped we got ourselves into a good, strong position and were able to be a bit more expansive on the back of that.”

Losing loosehead prop Dave Kilcoyne to the sin-bin early in the second-half had added to the workload of the remaining 14 players on the pitch and although Munster won a penalty try in his absence and then saw scrum-half Conor Murray touch down shortly after, Penney felt that short-handed 10 minutes eventually took their toll as Dougie Fife notched Edinburgh’s first two tries of the tournament for last season’s semi-finalists.

“It was just disappointing we weren’t able to capitalise on some opportunities which we created and then the guys that gave it their all and emptied the tank, ran out of fuel with 10 minutes to go.

“We got sloppy with a few things. All in all we can take a pretty positive view of the whole situation. Given we had to come here and play at 12.45, it was always going to be a bit of a challenge.

“There’s always repercussions (from a yellow card) because the tanks get drained quickly. All of a sudden, people are going to run into the odd hole, the legs are gone.

“It always has repercussions somewhere.”