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Edinburgh fall to defeat but they do Doddie proud

ROB ROBERTSON Rugby Correspondent at the DAM Health Stadium

ON an emotional evening with the memory of Doddie Weir everywhere, it was Munster that took the spoils in a match the great man would have enjoyed.

It was a fast and furious affair that the visitors won with five tries on a perfect night for rugby. Although the home side got three of their own through Chris Dean, Darcy Graham and Jamie Ritchie they couldn’t match the Irish outfit for sheer physicality.

Munster captain Peter O’Mahony was immense for the 65 minutes he was on the park, making sure his team were relentless from the first whistle. Fly-half Joey Carbery had an excellent night, scoring a late try and keeping the scoreboard ticking over with the boot. Edinburgh weren’t helped by a first-half injury to try scorer Graham but were toothless in attack. Blair Kinghorn, who put over one out of three conversions, did his best to spark his team but he seemed to be on a different wavelength to his back division.

Next up for the capital club is a tough away fixture against Saracens in the European Cup next Sunday and they will have to improve a lot to have any chance of winning that one.

Before kick-off there was a video shown on the big screen of Weir that led to a spontaneous standing ovation for the great man. Edinburgh captain Grant Gilchrist and Munster skipper O’Mahony then laid a No 5 jersey from their respective clubs in front of the main stand in his honour. There were cheers mixed in with the minute’s applause for Weir from the fans, many of whom had turned up wearing Doddie tartan headbands, scarves and bobble hats that were sold in aid of MND research.

Edinburgh made the perfect start with a try from Dean in the second minute that was converted by Kinghorn.

They increased their lead 12 minutes later when an attempted pass from Carbery near the halfway line was picked off with ease by Graham. In a foot race to the line, there was always going to be just one winner.

Munster got their first score from a forwards drive that ended with scrum-half Craig Casey going over. Carbery put over the conversion.

The home side were dealt a major blow with 26 minutes on the clock when try scorer Graham left the field with a leg injury.

Once they had regrouped, Edinburgh went further ahead following a touchdown in the corner from Ritchie. The last try of an exciting first half came from the visitors as centre Rory Scannell went over, Carbery putting over the extras.

Two minutes into the second half, Munster winger Calvin Nash went under the posts which left Carbery an easy conversion. The visitors increased their lead 11 minutes later through Gavin Coombes, who crashed through two tackles to score. Carbery kept up his 100-per-cent record with the boot.

Mike Blair’s men were struggling to find a spark in attack without Graham, while Duhan van der

Merwe was starved of the ball on the other wing.

Carbery’s penalty stretched the lead to 14 points.

It was only in the last ten minutes that the home side started to put together a series of attacking moves but the Munster defence held solid. The visitors were experienced enough to take the sting out of game when it mattered near the end.

Edinburgh were getting desperate, with Kinghorn throwing some wild passes to try and find a way through the Munster defence. They even had time for a breakaway try from Carberry that he converted.

It was a deserved win for the Irish outfit but the one thing everybody will take away from the game was the emotional atmosphere in honour of Doddie.

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2022-12-03T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-12-03T08:00:00.0000000Z

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