Munster edge Edinburgh to book semi-final spot

Munster became the first team to advance to the semi-finals of the Champions Cup when they defeated Edinburgh 17-13 at Murrayfield on Saturday.

As the scoreline suggests, this was a tightly contested affair and momentum between the sides ebbed and flowed but Munster finished stronger and held on for the victory despite a late onslaught from the home side in the game’s closing stages.

Despite losing their chief playmaker, Joey Carbery, to injury late in the first half, Munster did not panic and eventually outscored their hosts by two tries to one with Keith Earls scoring both his side’s tries.

The match started at a frenetic pace with Edinburgh dominating the opening exchanges and they spent most of the opening quarter camped inside Munster’s half.

And Edinburgh received a shot in the arm in the 11th minute after the Irish province were reduced to 14 men when Tadhg Beirne was yellow carded for slowing the ball down cynically at a ruck close to his try-line.

But despite that setback, Munster did well to repel several attacks from the home side and they soon found themselves on the attack inside Edinburgh’s half.

And in the 19th minute, Earls caught Edinburgh’s defence napping when he played quickly, after his side were awarded a penalty, and barged over for the opening try from close quarters.

Beirne soon returned to the fray which meant Munster did well not to concede any points during his spell on the sidelines, but shortly after his return Chris Dean ran a superb line before crashing over the whitewash with Jaco van der Walt succeeding with the place-kick to draw his side level at 7-7.

That try seemed to reinvigorate Edinburgh and they took the lead in the 36th minute when Van der Walt slotted his second penalty.

The visitors suffered a double blow when Carbery was forced off the field due to a leg injury immediately after Van de Walt’s kick with Tyler Bleyendaal coming on as his replacement.

Although they were down 10-7 at half-time, Munster were still in this game and they drew level shortly after the restart when Bleyendaal added a penalty, but Edinburgh regained the lead when Van der Walt slotted his second three-pointer off the kicking tee soon afterwards.

The next 20 minutes was an arm wrestle as the sides battled to gain the ascendancy and both teams came agonisingly close to scoring tries again.

In the 57th minute, Edinburgh’s forwards put in a huge shove at a scrum on their five-metre line and they were rewarded with a penalty when their opponents capitulated under the pressure at the set-piece.

Five minutes later, Edinburgh found themselves on the attack deep inside Munster territory but the visitors did well to bundle Damien Hoyland into touch close to the right-hand corner flag.

After eventually clearing their line, Munster soon found themselves on the attack inside Edinburgh’s half and they were rewarded in the 71st minute when Andrew Conway joined the line at pace before offloading to Earls, who outsprinted the cover defence before diving over in the right-hand corner.

Bleyendaal held his nerve to slot the conversion from close to touchline which meant Munster were now leading 17-13.

With time running out on the clock, Edinburgh launched several attacks in a bid to steal the win but it was not to be as Munter kept them at bay with a superb defensive effort.

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The scorers:

For Edinburgh:
Try: Dean
Con: Van der Walt
Pens: Van der Walt 2

For Munster:
Tries: Earls 2
Cons: Carbery, Bleyendaal
Pen: Bleyendaal
Yellow Card: Beirne

Edinburgh: 15 Darcy Graham, 14 Damien Hoyland, 13 James Johnstone, 12 Chris Dean, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Jaco van der Walt, 9 Henry Pyrgos, 8 Viliame Mata, 7 Hamish Watson, 6 John Barclay, 5 Grant Gilchrist, 4 Ben Toolis, 3 WP Nel, 2 Stuart McInally (c), 1 Pierre Schoeman
Replacements: 16 Ross Ford, 17 Allan Dell, 18 Simon Berghan, 19 Magnus Bradbury, 20 Jamie Ritchie, 21 Charlie Shiel, 22 Simon Hickey, 23 Mark Bennett

Munster: 15 Andrew Conway, 14 Darren Sweetnam, 13 Chris Farrell, 12 Rory Scannell, 11 Keith Earls, 10 Joey Carbery, 9 Conor Murray, 8 CJ Stander, 7 Jack O’Donoghue, 6 Peter O’Mahony (c), 5 Tadhg Beirne, 4 Jean Kleyn, 3 John Ryan, 2 Niall Scannell, 1 Dave Kilcoyne
Replacements: 16 Rhys Marshall, 17 Jeremy Loughman, 18 Stephen Archer, 19 Billy Holland, 20 Arno Botha, 21 Alby Mathewson, 22 Tyler Bleyendaal, 23 Dan Goggin

Referee: Pascal Gaüzère (France)
Assistant referees: Ludovic Cayre (France), Jonathan Dufort (France)
Television match official: Eric Gauzins (France)