Munster 28 Edinburgh 14
Conor Murray’s brace of tries helped Munster emerge as 28-14 bonus-point winners over Edinburgh at Thomond Park.
It was Rassie Erasmus’s first Guinness Pro 12 fixture at the Limerick venue, where they are unbeaten since last December.
Two close-range scores from Murray had the hosts leading 14-7 at half-time, replying to Chris Dean’s 23rd-minute effort from his own half.
Munster replacement Conor Oliver marked his 21st birthday in midweek with a first Pro 12 try, and fellow flanker Dave O'Callaghan made sure of the bonus point in the 56th minute.
With blindside Magnus Bradbury in man-of-the-match form, Edinburgh had the better of the final quarter and lively replacement John Hardie claimed a deserved consolation try.
Such was Munster's early scrum dominance that converted prop Kevin Bryce was replaced in the fifth minute, after Tyler Bleyendaal had knocked a penalty narrowly wide.
Lock Fraser McKenzie’s shoulder charge on Jack O’Donoghue at a midfield ruck left Edinburgh temporarily down to 14 men, but the Scots proved much sharper at the breakdown in the first half.
Duncan Weir missed a long-range penalty before adding a superb touchline conversion to Dean’s opportunist try. The ball squirted free from a Munster ruck and the 22-year-old winger gleefully sprinted clear from his own 10-metre line.
Munster were level within four minutes, though, as CJ Stander controlled at the back of an advancing scrum and the waiting Murray had a simple finish, with Bleyendaal converting.
Munster's execution in open play was poor but their forwards pressed again at scrum time, driving the visitors back on their own ball and a knock-on from Sam Hidalgo-Clyne allowed his opposite number Murray to score off a Niall Scannell pass.
Oliver, who was O’Donoghue’s injury replacement, added to Munster’s lead inside 90 seconds of the restart. Bleyendaal’s inviting pass out of a tackle put the young academy backrower jinking past a flat-footed Weir for a very well-taken seven-pointer.
A series of scrum penalties resulted in Edinburgh tighthead Allan Dell being sin-binned. Weir and Cornell du Preez combined to hold up Stander off a maul, and the Munster number eight then knocked on in a second try-scoring situation.
However, a flat pass from Bleyendaal sent the powerful O’Callaghan through to score from the Edinburgh 22-metre line.
Hardie responded in the 66th minute, muscling over from a Hamish Watson pass, but Munster were out of reach.
MUNSTER: I Keatley; D Sweetnam, K Earls, C Bohane, R O'Mahony; T Bleyendaal, C Murray; D Kilcoyne, N Scannell, J Ryan; J Kleyn, B Holland; D O'Callaghan, J O'Donoghue, CJ Stander.
Replacements: C Oliver for O'Donoghue (13 mins), D O'Shea for O'Shea (44 mins), J Cronin for Kilcoyne (57 mins), D Casey for Scannell (59 mins), D Williams for Murray (59 mins), A Wootton for Bleyendaal (59 mins), S Archer for O'Callaghan (69 mins).
EDINBURGH: G Bryce; D Hoyland, M Allen, C Dean, T Brown; D Weir, S Hidalgo-Clyne; R Sutherland, S McInally, K Bryce; F McKenzie, B Toolis; M Bradbury, H Watson, C Du Preez.
Replacements: A Dell for K Bryce (6 mins), J Hardie for Watson (25-34 mins), J Cosgrove for Du Preez (52-59 mins), B Kinghorn for Weir (52 mins), N Cochrane for McInally (59 mins), Hardie for Du Preez (59 mins), S Kennedy for Hidalgo-Clyne (59 mins), L Carmichael for McKenzie (69 mins), R Scholes for Allen (72 mins).
Referee: Ben Whitehouse (WRU).
