A second half try from Donncha O’Callaghan, converted by Ronan O’Gara who later added a crucial penalty, helped Munster to a 16-13 win over Edinburgh in Murrayfield this evening.
O'Gara and O'Callaghan had been introduced as second half replacements at a time when Munster trailed 10-6 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 3 point lead (6-3) 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 O’Gara’s touchfind from a half-way penalty found touch 12 metres out and if Munster were fortunate to be awarded the 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 lead lasted all of five minutes before Paterson landed a penalty when Damien Varley was pinged for offside but 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. We coughed up ten 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.”
Munster: F Jones; D Howlett, J Murphy, S Tuitupou, I Dowling; P Warwick (R O'Gara 52 mmin)), P Stringer (T O'Leary 50 mins); W du Preez (M Horan 53), D Varley (D Fogarty (62 mins), T Buckley (J Hayes 47 mins); D Ryan, M O'Driscoll (D O'Callaghan 55 mins); A Quinlan (P O'Mahony 72 mins), N Ronan, D Leamy capt.
Edinburgh: C Paterson; M Robertson, B Cairns, A Grove, T Visser; P Godman, M Blair; A Jacobsen, R Ford, G Cross; E Lozada (F McKenzie 28 mins), S MacLeod; S Newland, R Rennie, N Talei.
Referee: James Jones (WRU)