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Bleyendaal kicks Munster into Pro12 lead
By Iain Strachan
Munster edged a tight match away to Edinburgh 10-9 on Friday to move top of the Pro12, thanks to Ronan O'Mahony's try and five points from the boot of Tyler Bleyendaal.
Having only lost once since October, Munster came into the match in great form, but it was the struggling hosts who struck first at their new Myreside home, Jason Tovey sending over a penalty earned after a scrum near Munster's 22.
The away side responded by opting for a scrum rather than a penalty and were rewarded by moving the ball along the line for O'Mahony to cross in the 16th minute, Bleyendaal fittingly adding the extras, having supplied the final pass to set up his team-mate's try.
Munster's cause was not helped when Duncan Williams was sinbinned for kicking the ball out of Sean Kennedy's hands at the breakdown in the 25th minute. Edinburgh took advantage, as Tovey struck two penalties in the space of 10 minutes to regain the lead going into half-time.
But handling in the ruck cost Edinburgh in a tense second half, Bleyendaal putting his side back in front with 13 minutes to go, before Blair Kinghorn's hopeful long-range penalty attempt fell short for the hosts late on.
Munster are now top by one point from Ospreys, with Edinburgh a distant ninth.
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Latest Comments
England conceded three tries. There defence was poor. And they only scored one (intercept) try. So their much lauded attack was also poor.
England are worse than they were last year.
Go to commentsThat's what you get with Smith! He's still a player who is more likely to provide a moment of brilliance than a well structured attack.
Meanwhile Ford is someone who will give you brilliant phase play throughout a test match, but he's not fast enough to properly take advantage of a tired defence in the last 20 minutes.
Picking Smith to start and Ford off the bench, rather than the other way around, or giving either one of them the full 80, is a baffling decision.
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