Edinburgh win again at fortress Murrayfield

Adam Kyriacou

Edinburgh picked up another crucial victory in the PRO14 on Friday as they overcame Conference B rivals Connacht 41-14 at Murrayfield.

The result keeps Richard Cockerill’s men at the top of that table and on track for a play-off spot.

The hosts recorded penalty tries and touchdowns by Simon Berghan, Pierre Schoeman and Duhan van der Merwe, plus three conversions and two penalties from Simon Hickey. For the visitors, Tiernan O’Halloran bagged a double and Jack Carty added both conversions.

A couple of spillages in the opening few minutes offered an insight into the problems created by tricky overhead conditions and the slow start to proceedings continued with a lengthy interruption while Connacht prop Finlay Bealham received treatment before leaving the field.

On the resumption, Edinburgh were handed the first scoring opportunity with a 35-metre penalty, Hickey banging over the kick to open the scoring. A scrum offence 10 minutes later offered the home side a chance to extend the lead and, with the wind at his back, Hickey drilled his effort between the sticks to double the tally.

Connacht had a chance to build some pressure with a penalty that was dispatched into touch close to the home line. However, they failed to secure the subsequent throw and allowed Edinburgh to regain the initiative.

Matt Scott broke from deep and beat five men on his way to the line. There was some doubt over the grounding and the television match official confirmed that the Edinburgh centre had failed to touch down. However, he had been thwarted illegally by Carty and the referee awarded a penalty try, sending the Connacht man to the sin bin.

With Carty preparing to return, Edinburgh finally took advantage of their numerical advantage. A penalty booted into touch five metres shy of the whitewash created the platform for a multi-phase attack that ended with Berghan crashing over and Hickey converting.

Connacht finished the half strongly and opted for the scrum from a close-range penalty. Edinburgh managed to repel a series of pick and drive efforts before O’Halloran found a way over, and Carty converted to complete the first-half scoring.

The visitors came close to bagging a second try when Shane Delahunt charged down a clearance kick and was pipped in the race to the line by Damien Hoyland.

The score was delayed only briefly and another close-range scrum led to an assault on the Edinburgh line that ended with O’Halloran blasting his way over for a second time and Carty again adding the extras to haul Connacht to within a converted try.

However, the hosts responded with a fresh offensive and gave themselves some breathing space when Schoeman forced his way over between the posts and Hickey again added the extras.

That sparked a chase for a bonus-point try and it came with 14 minutes to play. From a lineout in the Connacht 22, Edinburgh mounted a sustained attack that stretched the visitors’ defence, allowing Hickey to fire out a long pass to Van der Merwe who went in at the corner.

Hickey maintained his flawless kicking record when he slotted the conversion but posted his first miss shortly afterwards when he slipped on the run-up to a penalty.

Home wing Eroni Sau was yellow carded for a dangerous tackle and he was joined on the sidelines by his team-mate Nick Haining and Connacht’s Eoghan Masterson after they had traded blows. The visitors were then also reduced to 13 after Conor Fitzgerald tripped Charlie Shiel.

However, that had no impact on the final outcome as, by then, Edinburgh had wrapped up the win in style with a second penalty try of the evening.

In the other games Munster took advantage of an early red card for Zebre’s Pierre Bruno to secure a 28-0 win at Stadio Giovanni Mari.

Bruno was banished in the ninth minute for leading with the forearm in tackling Munster flanker Chris Cloete, with Munster’s tries coming from Calvin Nash, JJ Hanrahan, Rory Scannell and Darren Sweetnam. Hanrahan added four conversions in a solid bonus-point win on the road.

Elsehwere, Leinster maintained their unbeaten start to the season with a 21-13 victory over Ospreys at the Gnoll in Neath.

Leo Cullen’s side are now 19 points clear of second placed Ulster at the top of Conference A of the PRO14 while the Ospreys are rooted to the bottom on 13 points.

Tries from Tommy O’Brien, Josh Murphy and Cian Kelleher and the boot of Ciaran Frawley was enough to get Leinster over the winning line. All the Ospreys could muster was a Luke Morgan try and eight points from the boot of Luke Price.

Connacht