Munster momentum gathers with bonus point win at Edinburgh
BIG PERFORMANCE: Munster’s Joey Carbery scores their fifth try. Pic: INPHO/Craig Watson
Munster continued their recent impressive form with a win over an Edinburgh side that started strongly but which were made to look second best after Munster took control of the game to score 31 unanswered points on their way to a bonus point victory.
The result, however, was all about the Munster forwards gaining dominance and in turn allowing the skills of the backline to show through in style.
After a pre-match tribute to the late Doddie Weir, Edinburgh took only a couple of minutes to channel the emotion of the occasion into positive action. Flanker Luke Crosbie did the damage with a telling line-break before passing to the supporting Chris Dean for the centre to score under the posts leaving Blair Kinghorn with a simple conversion kick.
Edinburgh came close again with a darting close range run from Ben Vellacot but quick defensive engagement by Calvin Nash defused a dangerous situation.
Munster finally looked to have found their attacking rhythm only for a Joey Carbery pass to be plucked out of the air by Darcy Graham giving the Edinburgh flier another try to add to his considerable tally this season.
From the restart kick, taken by Nash, Munster put themselves into a position of mounting a siege on the Edinburgh line but a knock-on by the visitors spelled out a missed opportunity, allowing the home side to clear their line.
But it was only temporary respite for Edinburgh, who gave away two successive penalties allowing Munster to drive a penalty created line-out resulting in Craig Casey darting over for a try converted by Carbery.
Edinburgh then lost their top try scorer, Darcy Graham, with a leg injury but even without their star striker the home side still managed to score on the right flank, Dean and Kinghorn combining skilfully to put co-skipper Jamie Ritchie over in the corner for an unconverted try.
But just before the break Munster exploited an Edinburgh overthrow at the line-out to launch an attack, first through the forwards and then among the backs, ending with Rory Scannell racing in for the visitors’ second try, again converted by Carbery to leave the Irish province trailing by just three points at half time.
Edinburgh’s three-point advantage turned into a four points deficit three minutes into the second half after a try by Nash from soft hands by Carbery who then added the conversion.
It seemed to be a momentum turn in the match as Munster continued to dominate the third quarter, confirmation coming when the visitors turned forward pressure into a close range try for the bonus point by Gavin Coombes. Carberry converted and then added a penalty goal to hoist his tally of points for a 31-17 lead.
As Edinburgh’s cohesion unravelled Munster still had time to turn the knife and fittingly it was Carbery who nailed the final points of the match by converting his own try on 80 minutes for a personal points tally of 18.
Tries - Dean, Graham, Ritchie. Cons - Kinghorn.
Scorers for Munster: Tries - Casey, R Scannell, Nash, Coombes, Carbery. Cons - Carbery (5). Pen - Carbery.
W Goosen; D Graham (Van der Walt 26), M Bennett, C Dean (J Lang 44), D van der Merwe; B Kinghorn, B Vellacott (C Shiel ); P Schoeman (B Venter 40), P Harrison (T Cruse 49), L de Bruin (W Nel 40); J Hodgson (M Sykes 55), G Gilchrist (co-captain); J Ritchie (co-captain), L Crosbie, V Mata.
S Daly; C Nash, A Frisch, R Scannell (J Crowley 58), S Zebo (P Campbell 45); J Carbery, C Casey (P Patterson 51); J Loughman (J Wycherley 66), N Scannell (D Barron 50), J Ryan (R Salanoa 66); J Kleyn, T Beirne; P O’Mahony (Captain) (J O’Donoghue 62), J Hodnett, G Coombes (A Kindellen 58).
Mathieu Raynal (FFR).
