To put their 19-12 victory over Edinburgh in context consider they hadn’t played in over six weeks, lost three players in the space of two minutes in the opening quarter and played twenty minutes of the second half with 14 players.

Out-half Paul Warwick, lock Donnacha Ryan and flanker Niall Ronan were all on the sideline through injury by the 14th minute and this contributed to an absence of cohesion for the opening half. Alan Quinlan received his marching orders in the 51st minute for a ruck infringement but it has to be wondered how assistant referee David Keane missed Scott MacLeod’s 33rd minute uppercut on the same player.

David Blair’s 12th minute drop goal gave Edinburgh a three point lead before Marcus Horan ended a period of Munster pressure with a try.

That lead lasted all of two minutes, Blair on the mark from close in before Deasy restored Munster’s advantage with his second penalty. Things might have got even better for the home side as they laid siege to the visitor’s line but Denis Fogarty – impressive in the loose throughout – lost the ball as he drove for the line and it was Blair who gave Edinburgh the advantage going into break after he landed a 39th minute penalty.

Munster were down to 14 and four points adrift after Quinlan’s dismissal but Deasy found the target in the 57th minute and shortly after scored a superb individual try when he raced through the gap, chipped ahead and won the race to get the touch down.

He missed the conversion but landed a 69th minute penalty to stretch Munster’s lead to seven (19-12) before Mafi got his marching for tackling a player without the ball. It forced Munster into some desperate defence in those closing minutes. Twice they had to survive Edinburgh five metre line-out, but survive they did with Horan,skipper O’Driscoll, James Coughlan, Tommy O’Donnell, Billy Holland, Quinlan and skipper Mick O’Driscoll all putting their bodies on the line. When the Scots went wide, replacement Tom Gleeson and Jean de Villiers put in the tackles while Peter Stringer’s performance throughout makes him a live contender to back up Tomas O’Leary in Twickenham.

Munster: D Hurley; D Howlett, L Mafi, J de Villiers, I Dowling (T Gleeson 70); P Warwick (S Deasy 14), P Stringer; M Horan, D Fogarty (M Sherry 72), T Buckley (J Brugnaut 57); D Ryan (B Holland 14), M O’Driscoll (capt); A Quinlan, N Ronan (T O’Donnell 15), J Coughlan. Yellow cards: Quinlan 52, Mafi 78

Edinburgh: B Cairns; M Robertson, N de Luca, J Houston, T Visser (S Webster 70); D Blair, G Laidlaw (capt); K Traynor (A Jacobsen 46), A Kelly, G Cross (R Grant 65); J Hamilton (C Hamilton 57), S MacLeod; A MacDonald, R Grant, D Callam.

Referee: (WRU).