Mon of the Match: Conor Murray
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Munster cruised to their first win in the Heineken Cup this season with a 33-0 bonus-point victory over Edinburgh at Thomond Park on Sunday.
Munster dominated the first period but led just 6-0 at the interval.
However second-half tries from Conor Murray, Peter O'Mahony, Sean Dougall and a last-minute score from Damien Varley sealed a full house of points for the hosts.
Remarkably, last season's semi-finalists Edinburgh have yet to score a point in this season's competition, after losing 45-0 at home to Saracens last weekend.
The victory will is welcome result for Munster, who were under pressure after tasting defeat in the opening week to Racing Metro.
An uneventful first half did little to suggest that Munster would run away with the contest, with two penalties from the boot of Ian Keatley the only points on the board at the break.
But the second half was a very different story, with any hopes Edinburgh harboured of pulling off a shock extinguished in thirty second-half minutes.
Pressure from Munster had initially mounted to nothing, but the dam broke on 51 minutes, when Murray capitalised on good work from Paul O'Connell to speed over. The conversion made it 13-0 and a Keatley penalty five minutes later put further daylight between the teams.
At 16-0 with more than 20 minutes left, hope remained for Edinburgh, but Munster continued to dominate, and when O'Mahoney crashed over from a maul, the game was as good as settled.
Keatley's conversion made it 23-0 and the hosts rubbed more salt in to the wounds in the final minutes of the match.
On 74 minutes Paddy Butler broke from half-way and, though the move was halted by some desperate cover defence, Dougall was able to convert the attack into five points just moments later.
Munster now had the bonus point in their sights and their attacking enterprise was duly rewarded in the final minute, when Varley crashed over for the game's fourth try following more dominant forward play.
The scorers:
For Munster:
Tries: Murray, O'Mahony, Dougall, Varley
Cons: Keatley 2
Pens: Keatley 3
Munster: 15 Denis Hurley, 14 Doug Howlett (capt), 13 Casey Laulala, 12 James Downey, 11 Simon Zebo, 10 Ian Keatley, 9 Conor Murray, 8 Peter O'Mahony, 7 Sean Dougall, 6 Donnacha Ryan, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 BJ Botha, 2 Mick Sherry, 1 Dave Kilcoyne.
Replacements: 16 Damien Varley, 17 Marcus Horan, 18 Stephen Archer, 19 Billy Holland, 20 Paddy Butler, 21 Duncan Williams, 22 JJ Hanrahan, 23 Felix Jones.
Edinburgh:15 Greig Tonks, 14 Lee Jones, 13 Nick De Luca, 12 Ben Atiga, 11 Tom Brown, 10 Gregor Hunter, 9 Richie Rees, 8 Netani Talei, 7 Stuart McInally, 6 David Denton, 5 Sean Cox, 4 Grant Gilchrist, 3 Geoff Cross, 2 Ross Ford, 1 John Yapp.
Replacements: 16 Andy Titterrell, 17 Robin Hislop, 18 Willem Nel, 19 Rob McAlpine, 20 Dimitri Basilaia, 21 Chris Leck, 22 Matt Scott, 23 Dougie Fife.
Referee: Wayne Barnes
Comments
kybone says...
Nilled two weeks in a row. Great effort. Yet more proof, if it were needed, that the HEC qualification criteria in the Pro12 is all wrong. How is it that a team as bad as this deserve to be part of Europes flagship club competition?
Posted 21:36 21st October 2012
black47 says...
Munster only won the game when they went back to their traditional forward strenghs. This Penney tactic of spreading the ball wide before have softening up the opposition up front will be the serious undoing of munster this season. Having POC and DOC out on the wing is plain stupid and won't work when they come up against stronger opposition. Murray had a good game after acting the idiot last week. DK in the crowd which means he'll undeservedly retain his irish place for the nov internationals. Big mistake. Mike Phillips he aint
Posted 18:42 21st October 2012
melkdave says...
@Qkram79
Dont get me wrong i didnt say Munster where grea tlol,and i like you feel they have along way to go atm.But they did improve on last weeks performance ?? or maybe Edinburgh where just so bad it gave that impression .Myself giving Munster the benifit of the dought
@jimkins
Yeah its a subtle thing ,and many i expect have missed it LOL
Posted 16:32 21st October 2012
Qkram79 says...
@MelkDave it's funny how our opinions differ. I think Munster were atrocious. They destroyed them in every area but could not convert anything. As a Munster supporter I was very frustrated. I agree that Edinburgh are absolutely sh@t. Murrays try was given because the ref was asked "is there any reason I cannot award the try". Which based in the video there wasnt.
Posted 16:08 21st October 2012
jtimkins says...
@melkdave. . . . To be fair he was over the line, and if he hadn't crossed it, the ref wouldn't have blown the whistle.
PS Really love the name! I suspect many of the readers won't get the joke!
Posted 16:04 21st October 2012
melkdave says...
A good performance from Munster,but my god Edinburgh are just dreadfull in the extreame,in all departments.Penatration non exsistent,defence again non exsistent scrum weak as mud,lineout crap.Certinally looks like their finishing league position of last season was right.No way do they deserve to be in this competion ,like the Zebres they are just easy meat,and just embarressing themselves.Also have to say i think the TMO gotC.Murreys try wrong aswell.To me it looked like he was just short,of the try line,,and no camera angle showed he was or the ballwas over,so inconclusive ,and like Streelle against Wales a try cant be given ,but then a bit of irish luck i guess LOL.That said you can only play against whats infront of you and Munster did the job ,so congratulations
Posted 14:48 21st October 2012