Donal Lenihan: This was Munster's moment... but they failed to turn up
Munster's Tadhg Beirne dejected after the game. Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan
Munster have endured a litany of disappointments on the domestic and European front over the last decade but this defeat, a third in the Guinness PRO14 final since 2015, will take a while to get over.
This was their moment but they failed to turn up. With success at Heineken Champions Cup level becoming ever more difficult to attain, Munster’s dominance over everyone else bar Leinster at domestic level suggested this final might just afford their best chance to end the silverware famine.
With a change in the format next season, when the new PRO16 will incorporate the top four South African provincial teams, winning this title is about to get a whole lot more difficult.
That’s why there was a feeling of “now or never” for this group of Munster players.
With the Irish provinces occupying the top two slots in both conferences this season (and the challenge from their counterparts in Scotland, Wales, and Italy practically non-existent), the tournament is badly in need of the best South Africa has to offer. If anything, their presence has the capacity to make Leinster even more competitive.
With so many Leinster players on active duty with Ireland over the last two months, one might have expected Munster to be a bit fresher coming into this final. That, allied to a manic desire to not only end a losing sequence that had seen Munster win just once in the last 10 outings against Leinster, but to finally experience the thrill of collecting something other than a runners-up medal.
No one was underestimating the quality Leinster would bring to this contest, the attacking threat they pose, the technical excellence of their set piece, their clinical edge when camped in the opposition ‘22’ and, on the other side of the ball, their ability to absorb pressure.
That latter strength was not tested on Saturday as Munster never enjoyed any semblance of control. They never enjoyed any period of territorial dominance and were forced to operate off scraps of possession. That is so unlike Munster who, if anything, have become programmed to operate off a surfeit of ball. The problem then becomes what they do with it. That was not an issue this time out.
What is difficult to understand is why Munster looked so flat, right from the outset. For a team chasing a fourth title in a row, Leinster’s hunger for success was voracious. The least one might have expected was for Munster to match them on that front.
One can understand the challenge faced by both management teams with their international contingent returning to their provincial set ups for the first time in two months last Monday morning and the issue that presented in hitting the ground running as a collective with just a handful of training sessions. Leo Cullen and Stuart Lancaster won that battle hands down.
Munster’s lack of accuracy, right from the kick-off, was surprising. Coming into this contest a key strategy would have been to deny Leinster any foothold in Munster’s ‘22’, given how clinical the men in blue are in converting territory into points.
From the moment a mix up in the calling between Jean Kleyn and Andrew Conway, under pressure from the chasing Dave Kearney, resulted in the failure to take ownership of the high hanging kick-off which yielded an attacking lineout to Leinster 15 metres from their line, Munster were on the back foot.
Leinster could well have scored a try from their first foray off that lineout. Munster’s defence held firm but not without conceding a penalty which Ross Byrne converted with ease. Munster were chasing the game and never looked comfortable.
Leinster’s lead was never threatened at any stage and but for uncharacteristic inaccuracies with their passing in the final third, would have been out of sight at the break, butchering at least three try-scoring chances in the first half alone.
Quite how the teams were locked together at the break was a mystery.
If Munster were offered a lifeline and the chance to regroup during the recess, they were incapable of taking it. Leinster took complete ownership of the third quarter, scored the all-important first try from the excellent Jack Conan off one of their minutely choreographed close in drives that are becoming impossible to defend. They never looked back.
The surprise was that it only took one try to finish the job but having the facility to spring the likes of Johnny Sexton, Tadhg Furlong, Ed Byrne, Ryan Baird, and Jamison Gibson-Park, all of whom featured in Ireland’s Six Nations campaign, meant Leinster were only getting stronger as the game progressed.
Remember Leinster were also without a quartet of outstanding young international forwards in James Ryan, Caelan Doris, Will Connors, and Dan Leavy due to injury. Consider an alternative back row made up of that latter three.
Then again they would do well to match the utter dominance enjoyed by the rampant trio of Conan, Rhys Ruddock, and Josh van Der Flier on Saturday. Very few clubs in Europe have a depth chart as deep as that. Bear in mind also, they are all homegrown talents.
That depth was the key to this final. To have any chance of competing, Johann van Graan felt he had no option but to start all of Ireland’s front liners whereas Cullen knew he could afford to mix and match.
Rewarding the likes of match day captain Luke McGrath, Devin Toner on the day he became Leinster’s most capped player of all time, Kearney, Scott Fardy, Rory O’Loughlin, James Tracy, and Ross Moloney with key roles only served to make it a real squad effort.
By way of contrast, CJ Stander looked drained after what for him must have proved a highly emotional last week in international camp. Tadhg Beirne, majestic for Ireland over the last two months, looked as if he was running on fumes while Peter O’Mahony was short on game time.
In the circumstances, it was no coincidence that Gavin Coombes, the only uncapped player to start the final, was by some distance Munster’s best performer. Working off mere scraps of possession, Munster struggled at half-back. After so long out of the game, perhaps too much was expected of Joey Carbery but, having to play on the back foot for the entire match did his cause no favours.
Leinster rock on with another trophy under their belt. Right now it looks as if the only threat to their domestic crown will come from the new South African cohort. Their arrival can’t come soon enough as this league is badly in need of a competitive injection.
No doubt Cullen will adjust his starting troops for the Heineken Champions Cup challenge posed by Toulon on Friday night as Leinster chase even more glory on the European front.
For Munster, Van Graan doesn’t have anything like the same scope in selection and with high flying Toulouse next up on Saturday, a lot of thought will have to go into Munster’s approach this week.
Otherwise, apart from chasing a superfluous crock of gold at the end of a hastily arranged Rainbow Cup, Munster’s season could be all but over.
