Rabo PRO12: Humbling defeats for all three Irish provinces

It was a difficult night in the RaboDirect PRO 12 League for the Irish provinces as Munster, Ulster and Connacht all tasted defeat.

Results:

Edinburgh 29-14 Munster

Dragons 22-9 Ulster

Ospreys 26-21 Connacht

Munster’s 14-game winning streak in domestic competition came to an end at Murrayfield last night as Edinburgh knocked them off the top of the tale with a comprehensive defeat.

After falling 16-0 behind early on to a Matthew Scott try and three Scott Laidlaw penalties, Munster responded well with three Ian Keatley penalties to reduce the deficit to seven points at the break.

Michael Bradley’s side immediately reasserted themselves at the start of the second half and after a Steven Lawrie try and five points from the boot of Laidlaw, they established a comfortable 17-point lead with half an hour left.

Munster rallied and managed to force a try through Danny Barnes towards the finish but the hosts were always in control and another Laidlaw penalty late on hammered home their advantage.

Ulster fell to their second comprehensive defeat to a Welsh side within a week when going down by 13 points to the Dragons at Rodney Parade.

The home side looked in control from the off and had built up an ominous 19-6 lead at half-time with Tom Riley scoring a try to complement 14 points from the boot of Jason Tovey, with Paddy Jackson hitting two penalties in response for the Ulster men.

Brian McLaughlin’s side had it all to do in the second half and despite game efforts from Ian Whitten and Paddy Jackson to get over the line, that all important try remained elusive and Dragons prevailed comfortably in the end.

At the Liberty Stadium, Connacht came away with a bonus point after a narrow loss to new table-toppers the Ospreys.

Dan Biggar was the star man for the hosts with 16 points from the boot, but Connacht were competitive throughout and remained in touch thanks to two tries from captain Gavin Duffy.

Duffy crossed for his first touch down after 24 minutes to cancel out an earlier effort from Barry Davies, but Ospreys retained their advantage with another try from Hanno Dirksen shortly before half-time.

Duffy put Connacht within five points midway through the second half with his second try of the night, but Biggar kept the Welsh side ticking over with penalties and when Niall O’Connor landed a penalty on the stroke of full-time, it was merely to secure bonus point for the Westerners, which was the least they deserved.