THE old saying claims that a dreadful dress rehearsal is a good sign for a hit on the big night.
Edinburgh must be hoping it is true, as they were outmuscled in an error-strewn performance by a Munster side with their sights set on the play-offs. The Irish province now move to second, still behind Glasgow.
For many of the Irish stars, it must have reminded them of their last visit to Murrayfield when they hammered Scotland to clinch the Six Nations, such was the ease with which they held the home attack at bay.
Even before the game, there was no doubt which side looked stronger. Munster were as close to full strength as they could be, without any significant injuries, while Edinburgh not only had the likes of Matt Scott and Grant Gilchrist sitting in the stands, but they lost Sam Hidalgo-Clyne just before kick off after the inspirational scrum-half failed to recover from a shoulder injury he had picked up last week.
Nathan Fowles came in for his first start to fill the position while Tom Heathcote took over the kicking duties, mis-hitting his only shot at goal but happy to see it scrape over the bar anyway to give the Scots the early advantage, though they were weakened further when David Denton, their Scotland No8, was taken off after a bang on the head.
The calls-offs were what Alan Solomons, the Edinburgh head coach, identified as the big difference between the teams. "We had six players out and they were at full strength, and then we lost David Denton after 12 minutes," he said.
"That makes a massive difference. We have a much smaller budget than Munster, but having said that take nothing away from them. They played really well but when Denton went off it made a massive difference to us."
There were ominous signs as Edinburgh were stripped of the ball in their first attacking maul and found themselves conceding three points to an Ian Keatley penalty at the other end of the field and they had a couple of close shaves with a charged-down kick in their 22 forcing them to scramble and then Fowles just getting back to beat Simon Zebo, the Munster wing, to a chip over the goal line.
They held out beyond the half-hour mark, but it could not last as a series of maul penalties gave Munster the chance for a trademark drive for the line, with Duncan Casey, the hooker, credited with the score.
All that tackling had to take its toll, however, though the decisive weapon for the Irish remained the maul. Munster turned to it after every line out and broke the home resistance when CJ Stander, the No8, was at the back to touch down from one and exploited it again for Conor Murray, the scrum-half, to claim the third try.
Having done the damage through sheer grunt, they turned to finesse to complete the job. With Edinburgh down to 14 men after Tim Visser had been sin-binned, two low kicks exploited the space. Simon Zebo was awarded the first touchdown before Keith Earls got the second.
With the result sealed, the game petered out with both sides making mistakes.
Edinburgh: G Tonks (T Brown, 68); D Fife, P Burleigh (S Beard, 55), A Strauss, T Visser (sin bin: 55-65); T Heathcote, N Fowles (G Hart, 55); A Dickinson (G Shiells, 72), R Ford (C) (S McInally, 62), W Nel (J Andress, 72), A Bresler (F Mckenzie, 51), B Toolis, R Grant, H Watson, D Denton (T Leonardi, 12).
Munster: F Jones; K Earls (R O'Mahony, 66), A Smith, D Hurley, S Zebo (D Williams, 73); I Keatley (JJ Hanrahan, 74), C Murray; D Kilcoyne (J Cronin, 51), D Casey (E Guinazu, 60), BJ Botha (S Archer, 60), B Holland, P O'Connell, P O'Mahony (C) (D Ryan, 52), T O'Donnell, CJ Stander.
Referee: I Davies (Wales)
Attendance: 4,818
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