Leinster v Munster essentially boiled down to a meeting of two Jonathans, with a bevy of teammates wrestling for position around them.
Johnny Sexton ended up on the winning side but 24-year-old Munster out-half Johnny Holland earned plenty of fans with a stellar display at 10 which has left many supporters believing that he deserves to start there over Ian Keatley for the rest of the season.
It was Holland who struck first with a straightforward penalty right in front of the posts but Sexton fired right back with a gift of his own.
Holland made no mistake with his second attempt from the tee but it was the hosts who struck first in terms of tries as Ireland’s first choice out-half broke the line and crashed over the line, with a little help from the post, and he picked himself up to convert just after Robin Copeland had been sent to the bin.
Corkman Johnny Holland touched down at the start of the second half in his second consecutive start for Munster, also converting.
But that was the last point of the game that Munster registered a score as Leinster moved to top of the Guinness Pro12 table with two successive penalties.
To be fair, Holland didn’t have the chance to further his tally as he was shipped off before 60 minutes and replaced by Keatley who missed a penalty of his own.
Pressure mounted on the Leinster line at the death after Cian Healy was shown yellow for this no-arms challenge on Dave Kilcoyne.
But Munster couldn’t take advantage as an ill-advised tap-and-go from Kilkoyne led to a knock-on that allowed Leinster to take a breath and get the ball out of play in a breathless exhibition of organised defence.
