O'Gara kicks Munster to victory
Fri, 10 Sep 2010 23:06
Munster match-winner Ronan O'Gara. (c) Getty
Edinburgh were outfought in a tense Murrayfield tussle with Munster, as replacement Ronan O'Gara's 67th-minute penalty steered the province to their first Magners League win outside of Ireland since last September.
A second-half try from Donncha O'Callaghan, converted by Ronan O'Gara, who later added a crucial penalty, set up the victory.
The Irish internationals, O'Gara and O'Callaghan, had been introduced as second half replacements at a time when Munster trailed 6-10 and their arrival - along with other notables from the bench - breathed renewed life into the Munster challenge.
Paul Warwick kicked off proceedings and Munster dominated the opening half, yet only took a three-point (6-3) lead into the break.
They were made rue their failure to turn that dominance into points, five minutes into the second half, when Tim Visser collected a Phil Godman crossfield kick to score a try that Chris Paterson converted.
Shortly after, Tony McGahan started to ring the changes with the introduction in the space of five minutes of John Hayes, Tomas O'Leary, Marcus Horan, O'Gara and O'Callaghan.
It had an immediate effect.
A 55th-minute touchfinder by O'Gara, 12 metres out, saw Munster being awarded a scrum from the ensuing maul. They took full advantage, when O'Leary put Dowling through and although stopped just short of the line, O'Callaghan was on hand to score the try - with O'Gara adding the conversion for a three-point lead.
That lead lasted all of five minutes, before Paterson landed a penalty - when Damien Varley was pinged for offside.
However, Munster responded with a penalty from O'Gara and ended the game attacking the Edinburgh line.
They'll be more than happy to have come away with four points and few could quibble with the merit of their victory.
Afterwards, McGahan expressed his satisfaction with the result saying.
"What pleased me most was to come here and win in what is a very difficult environment," the Munster coach said.
"We coughed up 10 points in the space of a few minutes at the end of the first and then the start of the second half, so to recover from that says a lot of the mentality of this squad."
The scorers:
For Edinburgh:
Try: Visser
Con: Paterson
Pens: Paterson 2
For Munster:
Try: O'Callaghan
Con: O'Gara
Pens: Warwick 2, O'Gara
The teams:
Edinburgh: 15 Chris Paterson (captain), 14 Mark Robertson, 13 Ben Cairns, 12 Alex Grove, 11 Tim Visser, 10 Phil Godman, 9 Mike Blair, 7 Ross Rennie, 8 Netani Talei, 6 Scott Newlands, 5 Scott MacLeod, 4 Esteban Lozada, 3 Geoff Cross, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Allan Jacobsen.
Replacements: 16 Andrew Kelly, 17 Kyle Traynor, 18 Jack Gilding, 19
Fraser McKenzie, 20 Stuart McInally, 21 Greig Laidlaw, 22 David Blair 23 John Houston.
Munster: 15 Felix Jones, 14 Doug Howlett, 13 Johne Murphy, 12 Sam Tuitupou, 11 Ian Dowling, 10 Paul Warwick, 9 Peter Stringer, 8 Denis Leamy (captain), 7 Niall Ronan, 6 Alan Quinlan, 5 Mick O'Driscoll, 4 Donncha Ryan, 3 Tony Buckley, 2 Damien Varley, 1 Wian du Preez.
Replacements: 16 Denis Fogarty, 17 Marcus Horan, 18 John Hayes, 19 Donncha O'Callaghan, 20 Peter O'Mahony, 21 Tomas O'Leary, 22 Ronan O'Gara, 23 Danny Barnes.
Referee: Leighton Hodges (Wales)
Assistant referees: Graham Knox (Scotland), Alan Forrest (Scotland)
TMO: Jim Yuille (Scotland)
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