Report | Hat-Trick For Earls Against Edinburgh

Munster secured a bonus-point victory over Edinburgh at a sold-out Irish Independent Park on Friday night to make it five wins in a row.

A first-half Keith Earls hat-trick, a brace each for Andrew Conway and Man of the Match Chris Farrell and one for Tyler Bleyendaal secured the victory as JJ Hanrahan landed two conversions.

Earls made it 50 tries for Munster in the clash and his hat-trick in 8 minutes 20 seconds was the fastest three tries scored by a Munster player in the professional era, beating Simon Zebo hat-trick in a 22 minute spell against Zebre in 2014.

Next up for Munster is the Champions Cup clash against Castres at Thomond Park next Sunday with tickets available here.

A brilliant Munster start saw the province race into a 17-0 lead after 18 minutes.

Farrell scored the first early on after a superbly timed Conor Murray pass nearly sent Billy Holland over with the big centre powering his way past three from close range.

A brilliant inside pass from Hanrahan set Conway over for his first try on 15 minutes with the winger scorching through the defence to score.

Conway was over for his second after 17 minutes after a slick backline move with Haley providing the scoring pass as Conway scored in the right corner.

Edinburgh hit back through Duhan van der Merwe as the powerful winger took advantage of some slack Munster defence to score in the right corner but Munster led 19-7 after 20 minutes.

It was the Earls show for the next 20 minutes as the winger scored a hat-trick of tries. The first came on the half hour as the Munster maul got to within three metres of the line and Arno Botha popped the ball out to Earls to score on the blindside.

Outstanding play from Farrell and Haley set Earls up for his second on 33 minutes as they both produced excellent offloads to send Earls over.

The winger was over for an eight-minute hat-trick when he scorched clear on the left wing before the break as Munster led 34-7 at the interval.

After an electric first half, Munster were unable to maintain that breakneck speed with Edinburgh growing into the game.

A skillful basketball-style flick from Academy man Gavin Coombes set Munster away down the left wing with Murray and Earls combining but the winger was denied a fourth try by the scrambling defence.

Munster weren’t to be denied however and Duncan Williams sent Tyler Bleyendaal in with the New Zealander finishing powerfully.

Van der Merwe was over for his second try in the left corner after 70 minutes to reduce the arrears but Man of the match Farrell had the last word as he powered over late on to put the gloss on another Munster win.

Guinness PRO14 Round 10 Round-Up

Keith Earls made it 50 tries for Munster in the clash and his hat-trick in 8 minutes 20 seconds was the fastest three tries scored by a Munster player in the professional era.

Andrew Conway was replaced after taking a knock to the knee and will be assessed by the medical team.

Munster: Mike Haley (Tyler Bleyendaal, h-t); Andrew Conway ((Duncan Williams, 63), Chris Farrell, Rory Scannell (Sammy Arnold, 58), Keith Earls; JJ Hanrahan, Conor Murray; Dave Kilcoyne (Jeremy Loughman, 65), Niall Scannell (Kevin O’Byrne, 60), John Ryan (Ciaran Parker, 65); Tadhg Beirne, Billy Holland (Fineen Wycherley, 58); Peter O’Mahony (C) (Gavin Coombes, 58), Chris Cloete, Arno Botha.

Edinburgh: Dougie Fife; Tom Brown, George Taylor, Juan Pablo Socino, Duhan van der Merwe; Jaco van der Walt, Nathan Fowles; Rory Sutherland, David Cherry, Murray McCallum; James Hodgson, Callum Hunter-Hill; Ally Miller, Lewis Wynne, Luke Hamilton (C).

Replacements: Ross Ford, Darryl Marfo, Pietro Ceccarelli, Callum Atkinson, Senitiki Nayalo, Sean Kennedy, Jason Baggott, Chris Dean.