Darcy dazzles in a near miss
Inspirational display can’t save capital side as Irish scrape home
SO near yet so far for Edinburgh and their man of the match Darcy Graham. No wonder he slumped to the turf at the final whistle in exhaustion and disappointment.
He had given his all in an inspirational performance but was left frustrated as it counted for nothing in the end.
The full-back, who started at No 15 rather than in his usual position of the wing, had every reason to be gutted. He had made hard yards from deep, made some great runs that had the home fans in the 36,358 crowd on their feet, and been brave under the high ball.
The 21-year-old Scotland international had been the main man in an Edinburgh side that played well, but not well enough, against a streetwise and defensively-sound Munster side.
Two key moments illustrated perfectly Munster’s big-match experience and the naivety that Edinburgh still suffer from under pressure at the highest level.
In the first half, Conor Murray appeared to body-slam Henry Pyrgos into the ground but was clever enough to do it behind the back of referee Pascal Gauzere.
Edinburgh’s defence was distracted by the incident and Keith Earls took a quick tap penalty to score. The crowd booed but the official, being unaware of the offence, didn’t refer it to the TMO.
The other, even more important passage of play, came when Pierre Schoeman lost his discipline and retaliated for a late hit on Jaco van der Walt by Tadhg Beirne with 10 minutes left. Edinburgh were going to get the penalty but Schoeman stupidly took out Beirne right in front of the referee.
The decision was reversed, Munster kicked the penalty to the corner and, less than a minute later, Earls went on to score his second try.
The only time Edinburgh passed the whitewash was when Chris Dean scored in the first half. One score was a poor return from all the pressure and territory they had.
In a way, it wasn’t surprising they didn’t get more points in open play because they relied too much on Graham’s exciting running from deep to create chances. From the set-piece, the Edinburgh backs had to be content with some painfully slow ball from Pyrgos. Their decision-making was questionable from the start as they passed up two kickable penalties to put the ball in the corner in an attempt to get an early try. All their efforts came to nothing, with CJ Stander stealing the ball at the breakdown to relieve the pressure on his team on both occasions. With 10 minutes on the clock, John Barclay’s kick and chase put pressure on the Irish outfit. They were so much under the cosh that Beirne cynically killed the ball near his own line and was yellow-carded. With the extraman advantage, captain Stuart McInally was held up just short and the Munster defence then won a penalty on their own line that saved the day.
The visitors took the lead after 18 minutes when Edinburgh were caught napping. Pyrgos had knocked on but was thrown to the ground by Murray behind the back of the referee as he tried to get up to defend. As that happened, Earls took a quick tap penalty to score. Joey Carberry put over the extras. It was a massive moment in the match as it was the only score for either side when Beirne was in the sin-bin.
In 26 minutes, Edinburgh got on the scoreboard after some great work by Graham to set up the attack. The ball was recycled by Barclay and then Pyrgos, who played in centre Dean to crash over. Van der Walt put over the conversion.
Andrew Conway was lucky not to be yellow-carded when he took out Graham as both challenged for the ball in the air in a clash that was won by the Edinburgh man.
Five minutes from the break, Van der Merwe put over a penalty to give the home side the lead. Then the influential Carberry, who had been struggling with a hamstring problem before the game, went off injured, replaced by Tyler Bleyendaal.
It was Graham who had the home fans out of their seats when he ran from his own line and kicked ahead in a move that pinned the Irish outfit back in their own 22 in the last action of a pulsating first half.
Five minutes after the break, Bleyendaal levelled things with a penalty after a high tackle from Viliame Mata. Scores were tied for just another five minutes before van der Walt put over a penalty.
Edinburgh made two bad errors in a row as Pyrgos kicked directly into touch, then Schoeman gave away a penalty at the line-out. From the attack, Stander almost went over.
Winger Duhan van der Merwe nearly put in Graham for a try in the corner before play was pulled back for a penalty to Edinburgh. Rather than go for the three points they went for the try from the scrum, with Damien Hoyland going close before being pushed into touch.
Ten minutes from time, Munster went ahead in a rare attack triggered after a moment of madness from Schoeman.
Edinburgh were going to be given a penalty before the prop made a late tackle on Beirne.
Munster kicked to the corner and, in the build-up to their try, Hamish Watson went down injured. As he lay on the ground, the ball was played back to Murray who linked with Rory Scannell to play Earls in. Bleyendaal put over the extras.
Jamie Ritchie, on for Watson and Magnus Bradbury on for Barclay, did their best to spark a late fight back but could not find a way through.
With four minutes left, Munster stole a line-out from a poor throw-in from Ross Ford at a crucial moment. As the clock ticked, on the Irish showed all their experience to slow the game down and see it out.