Munster 23-13 Edinburgh
MUNSTER returned to winning ways in the Magners League with a hard fought victory over Edinburgh at Thomond Park tonight.
Two trys from Doug Howlett and a first half try from the departing Tony Buckley gave Munster a 23-13 over the Scots.
The Red Army have now opened up a lead of nine points over rivals Leinster at the top of the Magners League.
A man of the match performance form James Coughlan and great carrying from Lifeimi Mafi, whose pivotal breaks in each half led to both Howlett trys, earned Munster a well deserved victory.
Marcus Horan received a warm welcome on his return from a lengthy injury as he replaced Wian Du Preez.
Chris Patterson and Ronan O’Gara traded kicks in the first five minutes to make it 3-3 but Munster soon got a grip on the game.
Their possession was rewarded on 14 minutes when the departing Tony Buckley touched down in the corner.
Stringer flung it out to Buckley on the line who lunged for the corner and his try was confirmed by the video referee to the delight of the Thomond Park fans.
O’Gara failed to with the conversion and Patterson soon tightened the margin with an easy kick in front of the posts to make it 8-6 after 20 minutes.
Just after the half-hour Munster’s defensive line was all at sea when Edinburgh winger Tim Visser kick and chased.
The home defense crumbled under pressure and Edinburgh no 3 Geoff Cross went in next to the post.
Munster found themselves under the kosh again after the restart when Edinburgh broke after regaining possesion.
Edinburgh would have touched down again if not for a bounce evading Edinburgh’s Lee Jones in one corner and poor pass from Fraser McKenzie failing to find Visser in the other corner.
Munster were lucky to go in level at half-time after the Edinburgh’s Andrew Kelly delayed a line-out to hand Munster a penalty at the halfway line.
Munster moved the ball quickly across field and Lafemi Mafi made a fantastic break then found Doug Howlett with an offload he slid stylishly into the corner to make it level at the break 13-13.
An O’Gara kick put Munster 16-13 in front early in the second half.
The Munster outhalf then opened up the Edinburgh defence midway through the second half with a cross kick to Denis Hurley.
This was followed almost immediately by a chip through to Johne Murphy which he was unlucky to knock on.
Fortunately Mafi made another superb break on 66 mins – passed it out to Johne Murphy, who played it back into Doug Howlett to finish some stunning play from the Munster backline.
O’Gara converted and Munster threatened to get a bonus point in the final minutes but it wasn’t to be and it finished 23-13.
