Latest
Overview
Season so far
Tournament record
Head coach Rob Penney believes Edinburgh are now an even greater threat than when they defeated his Munster team in the opening round of the Heineken Cup. - 17/01/2014 23:24
Head coach Rob Penney believes Edinburgh are now an even greater threat than when they defeated his Munster team in the opening round of the Heineken Cup.
Matt Scott and Tim Visser scored the tries that secured a 29-23 victory in Alan Solomons’ first Heineken Cup in charge of the Scottish club. That proved a spark for Edinburgh’s season, following a poor start, and paved the way for European wins over Gloucester and Perpignan to leave Munster coach Penney warning his players to take nothing for granted at Thomond Park.
Two-time champions Munster have already claimed top spot in Pool 6 but they would love a bonus-point victory to give them the best chance of earning a home quarter-final draw.
“Edinburgh are certainly a different bunch than they were four months ago,” said Penney. “They’ve developed a unity and a toughness that makes them very tough for teams to play against. We’ve seen Leinster go down to them, Perpignan, Gloucester away. They should have beaten Glasgow.
“They’re now a legitimate side. Over the last couple of years they may not have been seen as a big threat, although they did reach the semi-finals two years ago in the Heineken. They’ve got a little recipe going on there.
“They’ve developed something that’s starting to become a bit special. It’s a bit nerve-wracking when you’re seeing it unfolding and from this perspective we could probably do without that now.”
Munster will be without Donnacha Ryan through injury but Simon Zebo has been handed another week to force his way into Ireland’s Six Nations squad. And in Keith Earls, the Munstermen possess one of the most effective attackers in this season’s tournament.
However if anyone can stop the fleet-footed Earls, who has already made 320 metres, it is Edinburgh, who have hopes of progressing to the Amlin Challenge Cup as pool runners-up and weren’t out of the Heineken Cup running at the start of the round, either.
They are the most efficient defence and in Cornell Du Preez, Grant Gilchrist and Roddy Grant have three of the leading tacklers in the competition.
Uncapped wing Dougie Fife was this week called up to Scotland’s Six Nations training squad but said: “My first thought when I got the call was that we have a big game against Munster this weekend – we still have a chance to qualify in Europe and I need to keep the focus on that.”
Match facts
This will be the fourth Heineken Cup meeting between the clubs. Munster won both games in 2012/13, but Edinburgh beat the former champions 29-23 in October.
In that Round 1 victory, Edinburgh missed just four tackles.
Cornell du Preez is top of the tackle charts after five rounds with 71 tackles in his 400 minutes of action.
Edinburgh have the best tackle success rate (91%) of any side this season.
Munster produced a five-star performance against Edinburgh at a rocking Thomond Park to clinch home advantage in the prestigious quarter-finals on the first weekend of April. - 19/01/2014 14:56
Munster produced a five-star performance against Edinburgh at a rocking Thomond Park to clinch home advantage in the prestigious quarter-finals on the first weekend of April.
Munster were already safely through to the money-spinning knock-out stages for a record 15th time in the 19 years of European club rugby’s premier tournament but their six try haul took them up to 23 match points and that priceless home tie in the last eight.
Munster, the European champions in 2006 and 2008, gained full revenge for their 29-23 defeat in Edinburgh in Round 1 as the 2012 semi-finalists did not help themselves by having two of their players yellow carded and Munster punishing them on the scoreboard.
Greg Laidlaw was presented with the first real scoring chance with a second minute penalty but pulled his effort wide and although he made amends with a similar effort minutes later, Munster’s response was with the ball in hand.
They reclaimed the restart through the inspirational Paul O’Connell and No 8 James Coughlan darted through but Ian Keatley failing to add the extra points when his conversion attempt hit an upright.
Munster spurned points through potential penalty goals and turned up the heat at a succession of scrums close to the Edinburgh line and that enterprise paid dividends.
Although it was not Munster's best scrum when the ball bobbled out Johne Murphy took the pass from Conor Murray and cut back inside the Edinburgh cover, avoiding two tackles to touch down under the posts.
It was the simplest of conversions for Keatley but Munster then lost Keith Earls with a left leg injury, replaced by Simon Zebo, before Laidlaw added a second penalty when Munster failed to release.
O’Connell and Zebo then joined forces to keep Laidlaw out as Edinburgh came again but they will start the second half a mad down after Cornell du Preez was yellow carded by top English referee Wayne Barnes.
And 14-man Edinburgh conceded a third try just three minutes after the restart with Murray finishing off excellent work Tommy O'Donnell, Felix Jones, Keatley and Tommy O'Donnell.
Keatley’s conversion opened up a 13-points advantage and captain Peter O’Mahony claimed try No 4 and the priceless bonus point with 24 minutes to spare.
Zebo was next to get in on the try scoring act as Munster gave their army of fans plenty to sing about and with Edinburgh again reduced to 14 with Geoff Cross sin binned Felix Jones got the sixth to hammer home their advantage in real style.
LIVE - TEST - Commentary