Edinburgh v Munster, RaboDirect PRO12, 1 September 2012
Just over 4,000 turned out on Saturday night to see Edinburgh take on Munster in their opening match of the RaboDirect PRO12 league. Three tries from Tim Visser on the night couldn’t prevent the visitors from taking the spoils in what was a fairly even match.
Edinburgh took the lead after 15 minutes of play with Visser’s first try from just inside the visitors half. Full back, Greig Tonks, beat his man just inside the Munster half and with only one defender between Edinburgh and the line, passed the ball out to Visser, who had an easy run in to score in the corner. Greg Laidlaw failed to score the conversion on, what was probably, his worst night with the boot for a long time. Edinburgh 5, Munster 0.
Munster hit back a few minutes later with penalty to take the score to 5-3 before the try of the match, to Man-of-the-Match, Tim Visser. With possession secured from a turn-over by Ross Rennie under the Edinburgh posts, Stuart McInally shrugged off tackle after tackle to release Visser from 60 metres out. With just the Munster 10 to beat, a firm hand-off saw the ‘Scottish’ International score his second try in the same corner. Again, Laidlaw failed to ‘net’ the conversion. 10-3 to Edinburgh.
Just before the end of the half, Munster went on their own foray and following a kick over the defence from Doug Howlett, the ball bounced backwards into the hands of Luke O’Dea who burst through to score. With a successful conversion, the half time score stood at 10 points each.
A swift penalty exchange after the break saw the score at 13-13 before another Munster try after 17 minutes had them pull the score out to 20-13. Edinburgh came close a couple of times, but the visitors held out metres from their line to maintain the points difference, and then went further ahead with another successful penalty. With 10 minutes to go, the hosts threw everything at the Munster line and were rewarded on the 74 minute mark with Visser’s third try of the match in the equivalent left-hand corner. Laidlaw missed this kick as well, and with Edinburgh still beating on the door of the Munster defence the final whistle blew to leave the score at 23-18 to Munster.
A good try scoring performance from the home side, which was lacking a little last year in the league, still couldn’t secure the win. The odd daft penalty and turn-over, never mind the ‘fact’ the Laidlaw must have left last year’s boots in his kit bag didn’t do Edinburgh any favours in a match they could have (should have?) won.
Report and Photo – John Preece
Web – http://www.photoboxgallery.com/jlp-photography
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
as a commited Munster fan i was delighted with the performance of my team against edinburgh. Yes it might be true to say that Edinburgh could have won but it was wonderful to see such spirit from a young team under new managment. Edinburgh proved again as they did last season what a good team they are and I look forward to many more battles with them this season.
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