Red alert as Munster on mission to scratch a seven-year-itch

Across a season of 31 competitive games, Leinster registered 23 wins, a single draw and only seven defeats, writes Donal Lenihan. 

Yet, in the words of their vanquished captain Isa Nacewa in the aftermath of his team’s loss to Scarlets at the RDS last Friday night, “it’s going to be a long summer”.

Defeats at this time of the year tend to linger, especially when, after the grind and toil of a long campaign, they come in the knockout phase and all of a sudden your season is over with nothing tangible to show for all that effort.