Edinburgh blown away by Munster
DuHAN van der Merwe scored two tries for Edinburgh, but Richard Cockerill’s side were totally outclassed by eight-try Munster at Musgrave Park.
The home side ran in six tries before the interval, including an eight-minute Keith Earls hat-trick, before easing up in the second half.
A week out from their return to European rugby, Cockerill will welcome back his big names, but his fringe players were devoured in Cork.
Considering Edinburgh started this game without 18 players due to injury and rest following the international window, there was little expectation of a first away victory of the season.
The head coach made nine changes from last week’s defeat to the Dragons and, on his first start for the side, Lewis Wynne made an immediate impact with a brilliant poach at the breakdown after just 50 seconds.
But the sweet notes were scarce for Edinburgh in the opening period. The concession of a lineout penalty handed Munster an easy exit and, a few minutes later, the home side struck.
There were powerful carries from three internationals — Arno Botha, Niall Scannell and Billy Holland — which brought Munster close to the try-line, and Chris Farrell barged over for the first try in the fifth minute.
After the poor start, Edinburgh appeared to have settled into the game as they put together a few bright phases of play but, for the second time in ten minutes, Munster scored off a lineout.
Again the Irishmen dummied to set a maul, but played wide off Chris Cloete, while JJ Hanrahan’s inside pass sent Andrew Conway through a gap to score.
To be fair, Edinburgh were down a player as they defended that try and Nathan Fowles was replaced by Sean Kennedy moments later for a head injury assessment.
But there was no excuse for the defending of the third Munster try that arrived in the 18th minute. Farrell managed to suck in three defenders with a clever pass out the back, and Conway easily finished in the corner for a 19-0 lead.
Three tries down, it looked worrying for Edinburgh, but they hauled themselves back into the game by the 21st minute.
Argentinian centre Juan Pablo Socino broke open the Munster cover with a strong carry up the middle, while debutant George Taylor freed Van der Merwe and he charged through to finish brilliantly. Jaco van der Walt converted from wide on the left to reduce the arrears to 12 points.
But that was just a brief interlude to Munster’s dominance and their bonus-point try arrived after just half an hour.
This time, their pack elected to maul, with Botha in charge at the back. But when it was stopped just short of the line, Conor Murray fired a rapid pass to Earls who scored in the left corner.
Earls had to wait only four minutes to score his second try and it was Munster’s best effort so far.
Farrell showed great footwork and power to break through the defence, he passed to Mike Haley and, with the tackles closing in, he looped a ball to the Ireland winger for another easy finish.
Munster were already 29-7 ahead and the only downside was Hanrahan’s four missed conversions. But Earls completed his wonderful eight-minute hat-trick two minutes before the interval when he scored after some more heroics from Conway and Haley.
Hanrahan missed again but Munster were 34-7 ahead at half-time.
The Scottish side managed to stem the tide in the early stages of the second half. With Socino impressive in the midfield, there was plenty of endeavour shown by Cockerill’s men, but too often they failed to make the most of their attacks and couldn’t retain the ball at the crucial moment.
One example came after some brilliant work from Luke Hamilton, who forced the turnover when his side refused to engage the Munster maul. In the Munster 22, Edinburgh rolled through the phases only for a knock-on to scupper all their good work.
There was a debut for Fijian back row Senitiki Nayalo after an hour as Cockerill looked to his bench.
But the seventh Munster try arrived 16 minutes from time, and it was scored by replacement fly-half Tyler Bleyendaal, who scored down the blind side of a dominant Munster scrum to make it 39-7.
There was time for one more Edinburgh highlight when Socino and Jason Baggott combined to send Van der Merwe in for a try 11 minutes from time, but that was as good as it got for the Scottish outfit and Farrell added insult to injury with an eighth Irish try in the dying moments.