Munster tries beat Paterson's boot
Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:46
Chris Paterson marked his competitive return for Edinburgh by kicking five penalties, but it was not enough to prevent Munster from making a winning start to their Magners League campaign.
Both Keith Earls and David Wallace crossed the Murrayfield whitewash on Friday, as the Irish visitors scored a 20-15 win.
A late Paterson penalty ensured a nervy end to the game, but ultimately it were those tries that triumphed over the Scottish international's boot.
Munster led 17-9 at half-time, thanks to tries from Earls and Wallace - both converted by Ronan O'Gara, who also added a penalty.
The Irish team was almost in for a third try at the start of the second half, when Ian Dowling's good break ended just short of the Edinburgh line.
Paterson might have further reduced the deficit with his 49th minute penalty effort, just after Horan returned to the fray, his kick drifting narrowly wide.
However, from the restart - when Edinburgh were penalised - O'Gara made no mistake with his effort from the Edinburgh 10-metre line.
Paterson kicked his fourth penalty in the 55th minute and O'Gara was wide two minutes later, but Munster continued to enjoy territorial advantage forcing the penalty in the 63rd minute that Munster opted for touch rather than go for goal.
They won the line-out through a superb Paul O'Connell take, but coughed up possession allowing the home side to lift the siege.
From then until the end it was a case of Munster dominance forcing Edinburgh to try counter from deep.
With five minutes left David Callam burst through, but was hauled down five metres out.
From the resultant scrum Munster were penalised and Paterson's penalty made it a one score game at 20-15.
Turnover ball had Munster in trouble on halfway and Edinburgh kicked their way to five metres from the Munster line, but the Munster defence held firm for Tony McGahan's side to claim a deserved win
The scorers:
For Edinburgh:
Pens: Paterson 5
For Munster:
Tries: Earls, Dowling
Cons: O'Gara 2
Pens: O'Gara 2
Yellow card: Marcus Horan (Munster, 36)
Teams:
Edinburgh: 15 Hugo Southwell, 14 Chris Paterson, 13 Calum MacRae, 12 Nick De Luca, 11 Simon Webster, 10 Phil Godman, 9 Mike Blair (captain), 8 Allister Hogg, 7 Alan MacDonald, 6 Matt Mustchin, 5 Ben Gissing, 4 Craig Hamilton, 3 Geoff Cross, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Allan Jacobsen.
Replacements: 16 Andrew Kelly, 17 Gavin Kerr, 18 Scott Newlands, 19 David Callam, 20 Greig Laidlaw, 21 Mark Robertson, 22 Andrew Turnbull.
Munster: 15 Doug Howlett, 14 Keith Earls, 13 Lifeimi Mafi, 12 Rua Tipoki, 11 Ian Dowling, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Tomas O'Leary, 8 David Wallace, 7 John O'Sullivan, 6
Donnacha Ryan, 5 Paul O'Connell (captain), 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 Fédérico Pucciariello, 2 Jerry Flannery, 1 Marcus Horan.
Replacements: 16 Frankie Sheahan, 17 Tony Buckley, 18 Mick O'Driscoll, 19 Justin Melck, 20 Peter Stringer, 21 Paul Warwick, 22 Barry Murphy.
Referee: James Jones (Wales)
Touch judges: Rob Dickson (Scotland), Alan Forrest (Scotland)
TMO: Ian Ramage (Scotland)
