{"id":300658,"date":"2026-01-24T04:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T04:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/300658\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T04:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T04:05:08","slug":"debutant-sean-edogbo-shines-in-munster-fightback-to-beat-dragons-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/300658\/","title":{"rendered":"Debutant Se\u00e1n Edogbo shines in Munster fightback to beat Dragons \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

URC: Munster 22 Dragons 20<\/p>\n

Se\u00e1n Edogbo crowned a special week for his family when he produced a superb display on his debut to help Munster<\/a> prevent a shock loss to the Dragons.<\/p>\n

Looking for a response after a fourth defeat in a row last weekend, the loss to Castres seeing them crash out of the Champions Cup<\/a>, Munster had to come from behind in the final quarter.<\/p>\n

Gavin Coombes, left out of Ireland\u2019s Six Nations squad this week, saved their blushes when he came off the bench to score two tries and prevent a loss to a Dragons side who had lost all of their 13 previous visits to Cork.<\/p>\n

But with Edogbo producing a superb debut at the end of a week where his older brother Edwin was included in Andy Farrell<\/a>\u2019s squad, Munster just about did enough to prevent a fifth loss in succession.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a very special week,\u201d said 21-year-old Edogbo. \u201cIt was great for Eddie to get selected in the Irish squad, and then for me to make my debut here in Cork. It was very special.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Munster'sMunster’s Gavin Coombes is tackled by Dragons’ Ben Carter and Harry Beddall. Photograph: James Crombie\/Inpho <\/p>\n

His performance was one of the few highlights for Munster as the province struggled to control the game against Dragons, who had stitched together a four-match winning run. <\/p>\n

Having opted to play against the wind and rain, Clayton McMillan\u2019s side trailed 13-7 at the break and were lucky not to be further behind after Dragons made the most of what they created.<\/p>\n

The hosts fell behind after 10 minutes when Dragons fullback Angus O\u2019Brien landed a penalty from 40 metres. The Welsh side pushed on from there and while Munster defended a couple of penalties to the right corner well, Dragons kept pounding and were rewarded when hooker Brodie Coghlan got over, O\u2019Brien making the conversions for 10-0 after 17 minutes.<\/p>\n

The visitors suffered a blow on the restart when flanker Harri Beddall was binned for taking out Thaakir Abrahams in the air, but Munster failed to make anything of the penalty to the corner, nor did they manage to put any points on the board while a man up.<\/p>\n

Indeed Dragons increased their lead as Beddall returned before O\u2019Brien added a penalty after 29 minutes.<\/p>\n

\"Dragons'Dragons’ Che Hope scores a try that was later disallowed. Photograph: Tom O\u2019Hanlon\/Inpho <\/p>\n

But there was a reprieve for Munster three minutes later when a try from scrumhalf Che Hope was chalked off after an earlier infringement was spotted in midfield.<\/p>\n

Munster made the most of the let-off to dominate proceedings before the break and with Edogbo winning good lineout ball, they forced the penalties and got off the mark when Brian Gleeson squeezed over after a tapped effort. Tony Butler, a late starter in place of JJ Hanrahan, added the conversion to cut the gap to six points for the interval.<\/p>\n

Munster again failed to yield anything from a couple of penalties to the left corner after the resumption, winning the ball cleanly but losing possession in the maul.<\/p>\n

And Dragons made them pay after 53 minutes when outhalf Tinus de Beer raced 40 metres to collect his own kick before sending winger David Richards away to score under the posts. O\u2019Brien\u2019s conversion made it 20-7, leaving Munster with a mountain to climb to prevent a shock defeat.<\/p>\n

They got back in the game after a superb 50:22 from scrumhalf Ethan Coughlan after another clean lineout take from Edogbo. Coombes, just on the field after Jean Kleyn was taken off for a HIA, managed to squeeze over to cut the gap to eight with Butler failing to add the extras.<\/p>\n

\"MikeMike Haley makes a break for Munster. Photograph: Tom O\u2019Hanlon\/Inpho <\/p>\n

But Munster pushed on. A penalty to the corner gave Edogbo a shot at another lineout take and the province held their nerve, going phase after phase before Coombes sniffed an opening and grounded the ball. This time Butler measured the conversion to leave them one point down with 13 minutes remaining.<\/p>\n

Munster finally hit the front five minutes from time, wisely going for the posts to allow 23-year-old Butler to slot over the penalty for 22-20.<\/p>\n

But the hosts were forced to endure a nervous finish when the 23-year-old, kicked dead a turnover penalty on the 10-metre line going for the left corner.<\/p>\n

Munster had one more chance to seal the bonus point when Shane Daly delivered a relieving kick but they were unable to capitalise. In the end they were just relieved to get back to winning ways.<\/p>\n

SCORING SEQUENCE \u2013 11 MINS: <\/b>O\u2019Brien pen 0-3; 17:<\/b> Coghlan try, O\u2019Brien con 0-10; 30:<\/b> O\u2019Brien pen 0-13; 39:<\/b> Gleeson try, Butler con 7-13; Half-time 7-13<\/b>; 53:<\/b> Richards try, O\u2019Brien con 7-20; 57:<\/b> Coombes try 12-20; 65:<\/b> Coombes try, Butler con 19-20; 75:<\/b> Butler pen 22-20<\/p>\n

MUNSTER:<\/b> M Haley; T Abrahams, D Kelly, A Nankivell, S Daly; T Butler, E Coughlan; J Loughman, D Barron, M Ala\u2019alatoa; J Kleyn, F Wycherley; S Edogbo, R Quinn, B Gleeson.<\/p>\n

Replacements:<\/b> D Kilgallen for Nankivell (43 mins), E O\u2019Connell for Wycherley, J Wycherley for Loughman, O Jager for Ala\u2019alatoa (all 50), G Coombes for Kleyn (56), J O\u2019Donoghue for Quinn (61), P Patterson for Coughlan (71), L Barron for D Barron (76).<\/p>\n

DRAGONS: <\/b>A O\u2019Brien; D Richards, F Inisi, A Owen, R Dyer; T de Beer, C Hope; R Martinez, B Coghlan, R Hunt; L Douglas, B Carter; H Keddie, H Beddall, A Wainwright.<\/p>\n

Replacements:<\/b> S Davies for Douglas (50 mins), C Evans for de Beer (58), S Lewis-Hughes for Keddie (61), O Burrows for Coghlan (66), R Williams for Hope (67), J Morris for Martinez (75), C Dlamini for Hunt (76), H Ackerman for Beddall (80).<\/p>\n

Yellow card:<\/b> Beedall (19 mins).<\/p>\n

Referee:<\/b> H Davidson (SCO).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"URC: Munster 22 Dragons 20 Se\u00e1n Edogbo crowned a special week for his family when he produced a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,19,17,12311,132,42271],"class_list":{"0":"post-300658","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-munster-rugby","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-rugby-championship"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115948101532351323","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}