The key of Leinster vs. Munster games has been getting lower and lower.
Leinster say 40,000 tickets have been sold for their inter-pro date with their old rivals [over a century but about 16 years since we all really cared]. The number of bums on seats should be less than 40k but it won’t be far away.
It’s a healthy attendance. Given the hack of both teams this season, it is a great attendance.
Leinster are in better health but it would be a stretch to call it rude.
Between them, Irish rugby’s heavyweights have 28 wins and 20 defeats in Guinness PRO12 and Champions Cup action. However, take Treviso and Zebre out of the equation [they are worse than usual this season] and the record suffers significantly.
WIN/LOSS WITHOUT ITALIAN SIDES
- Leinster 10W, 9L
- Munster 8W, 10L
18 wins and 19 defeats is rough going. The giants are fearing no-one at the moment. Even Newport Gwent Dragons have beaten each province this season and they are a ramshackle outfit. Keen as mustard. Talented as mustard.
Last Saturday’s game between Leinster and Connacht was supposed to set records straight. Leinster brought back a heap of internationals and, for some Player Welfare Programme related reason, left another flock on the bench.
Connacht’s 7-0 lead was chipped away to a slender point. Jack McGrath, Mike Ross, Devin Toner, Eoin Reddan and Jamie Heaslip were brought on. Connacht were handling the ball like it was an offensive bar of soap; trying to run the ball out of their 22.
A Leinster win looked inevitable. They camped on the Connacht line and talked a healthy amount of trash. Then they were turned over. They couldn’t win back the pill and they lost.
All their cups and caps came to nothing. Connacht were not cowed.
It is a lesson Munster learned, at Thomond Park, in late November. Bundee Aki and Tiernan O’Halloran were the heroes but Eoin McKeon and young James Connolly tackled anyone in red that dared move.
In hindsight, it was not a surprise. At the time, four short months ago, it seemed seismic.
Anthony Foley’s men had won seven of their opening eight fixtures. They made hay during the World Cup and kept it up when their Irish stars filtered back. Since they fell 18-12 to Connacht, they have been facile. Out-foxed and out-boxed.
Four more losses followed before Ulster – not for the first time – coughed one up. That and a home win over Stade Francais have been the high water marks in a campaign swirling near the drain since December.
Saturday is not necessarily a must-win, from a top four perspective. Both sides would still back themselves to make the last four.
This game is a must-win, though, for the player that wants to look himself in the mirror on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday… morning.
Few fear the current Leinster side. No-one fears Munster.
There has never been a better reason to win, to make a statement and, to emphasis the point, to win.
