Edinburgh seal rare away win over Munster
Yesterday at 06:42 AM
Edinburgh arrived in Cork on the back of an extremely disappointing home loss to Zebre, with few giving them any chance of winning against a Munster team notoriously hard to beat on their own patch and an Edinburgh team that had not won away from home all season in the URC.
Both teams were shorn of many of their international players for the Six Nations although Edinburgh were able to field a strong pack including returning squad members Sam Skinner and Ewan Ashman as well as Magnus Bradbury, Luke Crosbie and Hamish Watson.
Crosbie had to be replaced by Watson almost immediately and after Ross Thompson had landed a penalty it looked like Edinburgh's old defensive frailties would return to haunt them as Alex Nankivell crashed through some weak tackles to make the score 10-7 with conversion.
What happened thereafter can only be described as the most scintillating first half of rugby that Edinburgh have produced in recent memory with a bonus point achieved before half time.
Ben Muncaster hit a short line and fended off tacklers to put Thompson under the posts. A dominant scrum and intelligent kick from Velacott ended up giving Matt Currie an easy touch down after a mix up in the Munster defence.
Currie being played out of position on the right wing, might ask to play there more often and grabbed his second try on 34 minutes after Thomson picked him out with a lovely miss pass: Currie cutting in and powering his way over.
The final try of the half was a fine piece of first phase attack from set piece as Ashman peeled round the line out and found Currie tearing through the inside, he in turn fed the ball to Bradbury who capped a fine first half with a try. Clinical attacking rugby that was so badly missing last week, was in abundance in the first half from Edinburgh.
Munster had been left scratching their heads with a 7-29 deficit at half time but as expected came out firing and responded with Nankivell again powering through Thompson to score his second.
Edinburgh put themselves out of sight on fifty seven minutes after Munster failed to deal with an up and under from Thompson and Matt Currie sniping in again to get his hat-trick.
The game then became slightly scrappy as Edinburgh failed to convert pressure into points and Munster gave the score line a respectable look with tries from O'Connor and O'Brien after Harrison had received a yellow card. The final score Munster 28 Edinburgh 34, giving the Capital side a tremendous away victory.
The foundations in the win were laid by the forwards and a dominant set piece performance. Munster conceded penalty after penalty at scrum time as they were driven backwards and consistently penalised for standing up.
Edinburgh organised well at the breakdown and defended strongly around the fringes against Munster's powerful ball carriers.
The back row of Muncaster, Watson and Bradbury were superb in all aspects of defence and attack.
Muncaster is a great prospect at only 23 years old and has an all action game that suits the high tempo style of Edinburgh and Scotland. Hamish Watson – rumoured for a Japanese payday next season – produced a performance of old as he carried close to the ruck, beating defenders and working like a Trojan in defence.
Magnus Bradbury also turned in a season best performance carrying well in the wide channels, smashing through tackles and imposing his physicality with choke tackle turnovers.
Scotland have been criticised recently for a lack of power and ball carrying in the games against Ireland and England. All three players must have given Gregor Townsend food for thought, if he was watching.
A superb performance and welcome win on the road in a tough arena pushed Edinburgh up into seventh in the URC table and Sean Everitt will be hoping they can replicate this level every week to propel them further up the table.
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