Munster secured a hard-earned 26-29 bonus-point win against Edinburgh to secure a home quarter-final with one game of the regular season to go.

It was a positive start from Munster with the ball sent wide to Calvin Nash before Jeremy Loughman threw a lovely offload to Jack Crowley to bring play deep into the Edinburgh 22. A knock-on stopped the dangerous attack however and Edinburgh cleared after a scrum.

It was Edinburgh’s turn to have good territory and their spell of possession led to a penalty which Ben Healy kicked to give the home side a 3-0 lead after six minutes.

Six minutes later, Edinburgh extended their lead with another penalty through the boot of Healy after Munster conceded a penalty at the scrum.

Approaching the midway point of the first half, Munster hit back with a lovely move as Alex Nankivell sent a swooping pass out to Antoine Frisch. With little space, Frisch chipped the ball ahead, collected and grounded in the corner to get Munster back into the game. Crowley’s conversion was narrowly wide with Edinburgh having a slender one-point lead.

A few minutes later, Mike Haley left the field of play as he was replaced by Rory Scannell. Healy added another three points for Edinburgh after Munster were penalised at the breakdown.

Edinburgh extended their lead after a mix up in the Munster defence saw Mark Bennett dot down which Healy converted to extend Edinburgh’s lead to 16-5.

Approaching half-time, Munster were camped on the Edinburgh line and the hard work paid off as Frisch ran a hard line against the grain to crash over for his second try. Crowley’s conversion ensured the lead was reduced to 16-12 going into the break.

Munster got off to a great start in the second half when Jack Crowley scored under the posts. From a scrum in the Edinburgh 22, the ball went to Rory Scannell who passed it out the back to Crowley who ran into the space created by Frisch’s dummy line. The out-half converted his own try to put Munster into a 16-19 lead.

The see-saw nature of the match continued when Munster were penalised for not rolling away with allowed Healy to level matters to 19-19.

Munster retook the lead when a 5m tap penalty saw Gavin Coombes power over for the bonus-point try. Crowley converted to put Munster into a 19-26 lead.

The next 10 minutes saw Edinburgh piling on the pressure and during this time Conor Murray was yellow carded for playing the ball off his feet. Edinburgh opted to scrum and after two resets due to both front-rows popping up, the hosts won a penalty.

They tapped quickly and after a few phases, the scored after a lengthy review. The conversion was good to level up the game with 13 minutes remaining.

Munster retook the lead with a penalty from the boot of Crowley and they saw out the remainder of the game in the Edinburgh half to secure a hard-earned bonus-point win.

Next up Munster face Ulster at Thomond Park on Saturday June 1st in this season’s last regular season game. Buy tickets here.

URC Round 17 Round-Up

Jack Crowley was awarded the BKT Player of the Match.

Munster move to the top of the URC table on Friday night ahead of the weekend’s remaining games.

Munster have now guaranteed a home quarter-final ahead of next weekend’s last regular season round against Ulster.

Munster have secured 39 points out of a possible 40 from their last eight URC fixtures.

Munster: Mike Haley (Scannell 21′); Calvin Nash, Antoine Frisch, Alex Nankivell (Murray 58′), Shane Daly; Jack Crowley, Craig Casey; Jeremy Loughman, Niall Scannell (66′), Oli Jager (Ryan 49′); Fineen Wycherley (Snyman 43′), Tadhg Beirne (C); Jack O’Donoghue, Alex Kendellen (Ahern 49′), Gavin Coombes.

Replacements: Eoghan Clarke, Mark Donnelly, John Ryan, RG Snyman, Tom Ahern, Conor Murray, Rory Scannell, Brian Gleeson.