Munster took the honours in the inter-pro clash. Here’s how
There was a 10-minute spell just after CJ Stander’s try for Munster in the 17th minute when Leinster looked like they’d woken up. They pinned Munster back into their own half, and hit phase after phase of good, tough rugby, Ian Madigan eventually knocking over three points to leave the scores at 8-6 with half an hour gone.
It looked like Leinster were back in it, but straight from the kickoff Jordi Murphy carelessly lay over the ball in front of the posts. Owens gave the penalty, Keatley restored the five-point lead, and 10 minutes of Leinster momentum was dead.
From there on there was only one side in it, and you could argue that the 15-point margin of victory (28-13) flattered Leinster, whose late consolation try put a degree of respectability on the scoreline.
Munster completely outplayted their rivals, and we’ve picked out three key areas that were crucial to Munster’s dominance.
1. The high ball
It wasn’t so much the kicking of the garryowens themselves, but the attitude in the chase.
Ian Keatley dropped high-ball after high-ball down on the Leinster back three in the opening minutes, and they never looked comfortable with the windy conditions.
Felix Jones in particular was superb in the air, attacking the ball with incredible ferocity. Darragh Fanning completely misjudged the flight of an early contestable, and Zane Kirchner and Dave Kearney’s lack of communication allowed a simple ball drop between them in the early stages of the game.
There was one perfect example towards the end of the first half that summed up the differences in attitude between the sides. Duncan Williams sent a great box-kick up the touchline, and the Munster support charged up.
It looked to be too far for Andrew Conway, but the former Leinster man sent himself flying through the air in search of the ball, while Leinster’s Dave Kearney stood on the ground with his hands out, turning his face away as Conway jumped to try retain the box-kick.
Ultimately, Conway knocked on, but the difference in attitudes under the same high-ball was virtually a metaphor for the whole game. Munster were willing to throw their bodies at everything, and Leinster couldn’t cope with it.
2. Variation
Ian Keatley played a really smart game.
In the opening stages, he doused the Leinster back three in garryowens and the occasional grubber to the touchline, and for quite a while it looked like he’d be aiming for the gods for 80 minutes.
But as the game wore on, Keatley changed it up. He started to run at the Leinster defence, taking hard lines and sending passes outside when the opposition were expecting it to go in.
His superb break and offload to Felix Jones was one of the highlights of the game, and had it not been for the cavalry infringing, Munster looked for all the world to be getting another try.
In the second half with the wind behind their backs, Keatley actually kicked less than in the first, and it proved to be through line breaks up the middle that Munster exposed the gaps.
3. Defence
I’m stating the bleedin’ obvious here, considering Leinster conceded three tries to one (which was scored when the game was dead), but the difference in coordination between the sides in defence was really staggering.
Gordon D’Arcy has built a reputation as a fantastic defender, but this was a day that he’ll hope to forget.
For both Andrew Conway and Dave O’Callaghan’s tries, D’Arcy will look back on the tape and know he has to do better.
In the case of Conway’s touchdown, D’Arcy shot straight out of the line when it really wasn’t needed, creating a chasm for Conway to attack. The former Leinster winger had to do very well and hold off a number of tackles, but it was an avoidable situation had D’Arcy shown more of the patience and concentration we’d expect from him.
He again had a part to play for Dave O’Callaghan’s try, but had Kane Douglas not made such a hames of the initial attempt at a tackle, the situation could have been avoided.
D’Arcy left far too big a gap between his pillars and himself, meaning that when O’Callaghan did skip the first tackle, all he could do was watch the Munster man go over the line for a try.
The lack of coordination in defence was also clear for Munster’s opening try.
Munster had a number of possible receivers off the base of the ruck, and when the ball was played out to Stander, there was no cohesion between the charge of Jordi Murphy and Luke Fitzgerald.
Murphy was fooled and attacked the inside runner at speed, while Fitzgerald held back, giving himself far too much to do, and the lack of communication eventually gave the jersey-less CJ Stander a fine big hole to run into and get Munster’s three-try haul up and running.
Leinster could have been badly punished at other stages in the second half, most notably when Paddy Butler charged freely through the centre, before his grubber to the wing had just too much zip on it for Ronan O’Mahony.
Butler attacked the centre when he saw that Leinster’s midfield was being protected by props Michael Bent and Tadhg Furlong, resulting in a bit of a mismatch as he glided through without either player laying a finger on him.
JJ Hanrahan’s poor attempt at a tackle in the lead up to Shane Jennings’ try will surely be dealt with by Munster, but defensively, they played a very clever game, leaving very few gaps in defence, while their discipline at the breakdown will be a real boost for Anthony Foley.
Matt O’Connor, on the other hand, has a hell of a lot to do, going by yesterday’s showing, but while his gameplan may fairly be brought into question, a better strategy was never going to win that game when individual performances were that poor.
