Celtic League/Munster 19 Edinburgh 16:Ronan O'Gara's man-of-the-match performance on Saturday night brightened a dark November evening in Cork as Munster finally returned to winning ways in the Magners Celtic League.
In his first competitive outing on a rugby field since Ireland's disaster of a World Cup campaign, the Corkman turned in a performance full of energy, purpose and skill and in doing so earned the appreciation of the crowd, the praise of his coach and four league points for his side.
O'Gara had a hand and a foot in all Munster's scores on the night, kicking four penalties and a conversion and launching a typical diagonal punt for the diving Denis Leamy to gather and touch down. It was vintage O'Gara and Munster were delighted to have him back.
"I wouldn't be surprised by that (O'Gara's performance)," said coach Declan Kidney. "He's a top-class player and he gave us good direction there this evening as well as slotting the kicks.
"It's always difficult when you're reintegrating up to 12 guys back in the side but we have six of the last eight points now and that's a good-enough return."
O'Gara swapped penalties with Edinburgh's David Blair in the opening 22 minutes and the sides were level at 6-6 when Leamy grabbed the game's opening try.
Spotting his number eight lurking with intent wide on the left wing, the outhalf executed a lovely crossfield kick that Leamy took brilliantly before flopping over the Edinburgh line. O'Gara converted and Munster seemed to be cruising at 13-6 ahead.
Edinburgh, however, fought back gamely and Allan Jacobsen plunged over the Munster line off the back of a ruck after 34 minutes following a period of sustained pressure. Blair converted and the sides turned over all square.
After the resumption, surprisingly, it was Edinburgh who took the lead, with another David Blair penalty on 63 minutes, and Munster were in trouble as the game entered the final 10 minutes.
But O'Gara was not to be outshone on his homecoming; two impeccably struck penalties on 74 and 78 minutes secured the win.
"With 10 minutes to go and three points down you'd always be happy with the composure the lads showed to come through," added Kidney.
"In this game you can be overly hard on yourself or overly easy; there's nobody in any doubt that there are things we can work on but there always are.
"This was a match that this time last year we lost so you can either look at the part of the glass that's full or look at the part that's empty and we'll look at the part that's full now and we'll try and add to that for next week."
Munster face London Wasps away in their opening Heineken European Cup outing next weekend.
MUNSTER: D Hurley; B Carney, K Lewis, L Mafi, I Dowling; R O'Gara, P Stringer capt; F Pucciariello, J Flannery, J Hayes; D O'Callaghan, M O'Driscoll; A Quinlan, D Wallace, D Leamy. Replacements: K Earls for Carney (30 mins), T Buckley for Pucciariello (48 mins), F Sheahan for Flannery (70 mins), Pucciariello for Hayes (75 mins).
EDINBURGH: H Southwell; A Turnbull, B Cairns, N De Luca, A Maxwell; David Blair, M Blair; A Jacobsen, R Ford, G Kerr; C Hamilton, B Gissing; A Hogg (capt), R Rennie, S Cross. Replacements: A Allori for Kerr (56 mins), B Meyers for M Blair, M Mustchin for Cross (both 73 mins).
Referee: Tim Hayes (Wales).
HowTheyStand
P W D L F A B Pts Cardiff 6 5 0 1 157 107 3 23
Llanelli 6 4 0 2 171 107 4 20
Leinster 6 3 1 2 138 125 2 16
Munster 6 3 1 2 102 94 1 ... 15
Glasgow 6 3 1 2 112 118 0 14
Ospreys 6 2 1 3 106 87 3 13
Dragons 6 3 0 3 116 135 0 12
Edinburgh 6 1 2 3 88 98 2 10
Connacht 6 1 1 4 87 130 1 7
Ulster 6 1 1 4 68 144 0 6
