Munster's Sam Tuitupou takes on Scott Newlands during the Irish side's win in Edinburgh © PA Photos

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Tournaments/Tours: Magners League

Teams: Aironi | Benetton Treviso | Cardiff Blues | Connacht | Dragons | Edinburgh | Glasgow | Ireland | Italy | Leinster | Munster | Ospreys | Scarlets | Scotland | Ulster | Wales

Munster maintained their winning start to the new Magners League campaign with a narrow 16-13 victory over Edinburgh at Murrayfield on Friday night.

The Scottish team were under the cosh from the outset against a powerful Munster outfit which piled on the pressure and were denied a try in the opening 40 minutes by a solid home defence. Two penalties from Paul Warwick to one by Chris Paterson on the stroke of half-time saw Munster lead 6-3 at the interval. Tim Visser's converted try five minutes after the break moved the hosts into a 10-6 lead only for lock Donncha O'Callaghan to cross for the visitors' only try, which was converted by Ronan O'Gara. A Paterson penalty tied the score but O'Gara replied in kind to make sure of the away win.

Visser's try was a fine poacher's effort - the Dutch wing plucking a Phil Godman kick out of Doug Howlett's arms before sprinting 40 yards for the finish. Paterson added the extras but from there on Munster's power ensured that they were on the front foot. Ian Dowling scorched in off his wing following Tomas O'Leary's 56th-minute break and was hauled down a metre short but O'Callaghan, who had been on the pitch for around 60 seconds, powered over.

Ulster remain on the heels of their Irish rivals having made it two wins from two in with a hard-fought 22-15 victory over Aironi at the Stadio Luigi Zaffanella in Viadana. Just as they had done against Munster on the opening weekend, tournament newcomers Aironi turned in another fiercely competitive display. Indeed, the Italians dealt impressively with the sin-binning of Nick Williams on 32 minutes to reach the interval just three points in arrears, with Ulster fly-half Niall O'Connor having outscored his opposite number Ludovic Mercier by three penalties to two.

Mercier then put the hosts into the lead with a drop goal and another penalty but their ill-discipline ultimately proved their undoing. Gabriel Piazarro was sent to the sin bin on 58 minutes and Ulster, who beat the Ospreys last weekend, ruthlessly exploited their numerical advantage this time around, racking up ten points in the space of three minutes through an O'Connor penalty and a converted Robbie Diack try. Mercier and O'Connor then traded penalties once more and although Ulster's Pedrie Wannenburg was yellow carded in the closing stages, Aironi were unable to earn themselves a share of the spoils.

Elsewhere on Saturday, a last-gasp try from Sean Lamont saw the Scarlets claim a dramatic 35-33 victory over Connacht in an absorbing encounter in Llanelli in the afternoon kick-off. The two sides were locked at 30 points apiece when Ian Keatley landed a penalty to edge the Westerners ahead with just five minutes remaining. However, Connacht's Ronan Loughney saw yellow with just under 60 seconds of normal time remaining. The Scarlets battered away at the Connacht line before finally, in the seventh minute of injury time, Lamont found a way through to score, leaving the visitors heartbroken.

It was hard not to have some sympathy for Eric Elwood's men, and particularly Fionn Carr, who bagged a hat-trick. However, all of that was of little concern to the Scarlets, who came away with five points, with Lamont's late heroics having been preceded by a brace tries from Jonathan Davies and one for Regan King.

On Friday, the Ospreys registered their first win of the season by defeating Benetton Treviso 32-16 in Swansea. The visitors arrived on a high after an opening round win over the Scarlets, but shipped five tries in atrocious conditions. The win helped the Ospreys make a remarkable leap from bottom place in the standings up towards the top in only a matter of hours. After starting the day on -3 points, the Welsh region finished it on +6.

First they had their four-point deduction for this season overturned after an independent Celtic Rugby disciplinary appeal. That penalty was imposed after the Welsh region failed to fulfil their Magners fixture in Ulster in March. And the appeal victory was followed by a comfortable bonus win with tries for Lee Byrne, Nikki Walker, Andrew Bishop, Jonathan Thomas and Shane Williams. Benetton scored a late converted try from fullback Brendan Williams with scrum-half Tobie Botes providing 11 points with the boot.

Two tries in the final ten minutes saw Leinster claim a 34-23 victory over Cardiff Blues at the RDS on Saturday. Leinster, no doubt still hurting after their last-gasp defeat in Glasgow on the opening weekend, made a storming start in Dublin, with Shane Jennings and Isa Nacewa both crossing inside a hectic opening ten minutes. The latter converted both scores to leave Cardiff in dire straits. Dan Parks, fresh from his man of the match-winning display against Edinburgh in round one, stroked over two penalties to settle the Blues but Nacewa responded with a pair of his own to send the home side in 20-6 ahead at the interval.

However, Cardiff were level by the hour thanks to converted tries from Bradley Davies and Richie Rees during a third quarter which they dominated. The Blues then went ahead for the first time in the game when Parks slotted a penalty on 63 minutes but Leinster were not done and Fergus McFadden touched down with nine minutes to go before Ian Madigan crossed in the dying seconds to secure a valuable bonus-point win for the province.

On Sunday, the Newport Gwent Dragons bounced back from last weekend's shock capitulation at the hands of Connacht by claiming a 23-11 victory over Glasgow Warriors and Rodney Parade. Jason Tovey opened the scoring with an early penalty before being forced injured just eight minutes in. Matthew Jones came on in the fly-half's place and, after Ruaridh Jackson had levelled matters, he opened his account with a penalty on 15 minutes.

Jones was then on hand to convert after Robin Sowden-Taylor touched down just after the midway point of the first half. Glasgow's Tom Ryder was yellow carded moments later and the Dragons capitalised, adding another try through Aled Brew as they went in 20 points to the good at the break.

Richie Gray lifted the Warriors' spirits when he dotted five minutes into the second half but and the visitors sensed they might at least claim a losing bonus point when Jackson stroked over a penalty towards the end of the third quarter. However, a sin-binning for Dth van der Merwe in the 67th minute put paid to those hopes and the Dragons held on quite comfortable to pick up their first points of the new season.