Earls And Farrell To The Fore As Munster Hit Edinburgh With Eight Tries

An electric eight-minute hat-trick from Keith Earls helped Munster on their way to a thumping 44-14 GUINNESS PRO14 win over Edinburgh at Irish Independent Park.

Returning from international duty, winger Keith Earls crossed after 29, 33 and 37 minutes as Munster cruised to a 34-7 interval lead, their six-try haul dwarfing South African winger Duhan van der Merwe’s effort for under-strength Edinburgh midway through the first half.

A full house of 8,008 watched Tyler Bleyendaal and Chris Farrell sandwich van der Merwe’s second try in the 68th minute, as the pair added Earls’ trio of scores and earlier touchdowns from Farrell himself and Andrew Conway (2).

It was Munster’s third successive bonus point victory, putting them within three points of Glasgow Warriors at the top of Conference A, and the watching Joe Schmidt will have certainly taken note of Farrell’s man-of-the-match display and the performances of a number of other players as the Six Nations looms on the horizon.

While Edinburgh’s selection was curtailed by injuries and Scotland internationals being rested, Munster welcomed back captain Peter O’Mahony and fit-again duo Conor Murray and Farrell made their first starts of the season. Murray went close to putting O’Mahony away with a cross-field kick early on.

Big centre Farrell showed his strength to muscle over for an opening fourth-minute try, after Billy Holland had almost scored from a superb Murray pass. Six days on from his hat-trick for Ireland against the USA, Conway used JJ Hanrahan’s inside pass to dart through midfield and touch down from 40 metres out.

Hanrahan converted and Conway completed his brace in the 18th minute, with Chris Cloete joining Tadhg Beirne in securing turnover ball in the build-up. However, powerful winger van der Merwe had a quick-fire response with a cracking try from 30 metres out – his third of the campaign. Jaco van der Walt landed the conversion for a 19-7 scoreline.

Munster’s forwards soon laid the platform for Earls’ first try of the night, with the Moyross man collecting the scoring pass off the back of a lineout maul. With the bonus point in the bag, the hosts’ back-line did the damage for the next score as Farrell’s brilliant break and offload set up fizzing full-back Mike Haley who laid off for Earls to cross again.

Conway’s clever work on a kick return then sent Haley haring over halfway, and with the Scots struggling to reset, nice hands out to the left put Earls dashing over from the 22-metre line to put 27 points between the teams. The visitors were the better side in the third quarter, benefiting from their improved ball retention and a scrum that now included Italian international Pietro Ceccarelli.

Jason Baggott and Senitiki Nayalo joined centre George Taylor in making their competitive debuts for Edinburgh, but the combined efforts of Gavin Coombes and Earls soon had Munster back on the prowl. They were held up over the line before replacement Duncan Williams used the five-metre scrum to send Bleyendaal over in the corner.

Those five points were cancelled out when van der Merwe once more showed his finishing skills out wide. Baggott added the extras but fittingly it was Farrell who had the final say, claiming Munster’s eighth try three minutes from time and swatting away Juan Pablo Socino in the process.