The Magners League clash between Edinburgh and Munster at Murrayfield on Friday Oct 23, 2009.
Edinburgh moved back to the top of the Magners League with this gritty and hard-fought victory at Murrayfield, out-muscling the reigning champions with a performance of real determination. Little of what they did will ever find a place on the season's highlights reel, but they stuck to their tasks admirably, and gathered their points efficiently on an evening when opportunities were always likely to be scarce.
The capital side did ride their! luck at times, their win coming after Ronan O'Gara had missed three penalty attempts and the video referee had chalked off two touchdown claims by Munster. But their win was still well deserved, not least for the efforts of the tight five who stood up well to their star-studded and much vaunted opponents.
Edinburgh held a 9-0 lead at half-time, but the highlight of their first period was not the customary assurance of Chris Paterson, who had kicked three penalties, but Ross Ford's piledriver tackle on his Lions captain Paul O'Connell in the 30th minute. Munster had been building momentum at that point, and still trailed by just three points, but Ford's power lifted the siege and Edinburgh dominated the rest of the half.
Paterson had actually opened the scoring in only the second minute, but the early stages were stuffy for the players and frustrating for the supporters as the two sides tried to get ! a measure of each other. Edinburgh had slightly the better ! of the t erritory, but they lacked a cutting edge near the line. The Scots, then, were slightly flattered by their lead at the break, if only because the best try-scoring chance had fallen to David Wallace, who wrestled a way over the line only for the effort to be disallowed by the television match official.
To make matters worse for Munster, O'Gara not only sent his only first-half penalty effort wide, he also fell short with a more straightforward attempt in the 50th minute. Yet Munster had started to put their hosts under real pressure and came close to opening their account a few minutes later when they were denied a try when Ian Dowling knocked on in the act of touching down.
The Irish side finally found their way onto the scoreboard in the 52nd minute when Wallace powered over for a try after Edinburgh had failed to clear their lines from a defensive scrum a few moments earlier.
However, Paterson kicked his fourth ! penalty soon afterwards, and Edinburgh never looked seriously troubled from that point on.
Match details
Edinburgh: C Paterson; J Houston, B Cairns, N De Luca, T Visser; P Godman, M Blair (captain); K Traynor, R Ford, G Cross, S Turnbull, S MacLeod, A MacDonald, R Grant, S Newlands.
Subs: A Kelly for Ford (59), A Jacobsen for Traynor (40); A Hogg for Grant (59), G Laidlaw for Blair (70), A Turnbull for Cairns (79).
Penalties: Paterson (4).
Munster: P Warwick; I Dowling, J De Villiers, M Lifeimi, K Earls; R O'Gara, T O'Leary; D Hurley, D Fogarty, J Brugnaut, D O'Callaghan, P O'Connell (captain), D Leamy, N Ronan, D Wallace.
Subs: D Varley for Fogarty (50), S Archer for Hurley (59), M O'Driscoll for O'Callaghan (59), D Ryan for Leamy (45), P Stringer for O'Leary (50), D Hurley for O'Gara (67), F Jones for Do! wling (76)
Try: Wallace. Convers! ion: O'Gara.
Referee: G Morris (WRU).
