Lethal Leinster back in the groove

Leinster 35 Munster 23

They defeated Munster at the RDSjust as comprehensively as the 35-23 scoreline indicates.

They can now fairly claim to be the top side in the country and are clearly beginning to believe in themselves.

Not only had the vast majority of the 14,135 fans at the RDS on Saturday witnessed their Leinster side outplay their fiercest rivals but had their cup of joy full to overflowing when a converted try by the inspired Felipe Contepomi gave them a well deserved bonus point.

On this evidence Leinster now look capable of qualifying for the knock-out stages of the Heineken European Cup. Munster’s prospects, on the other hand, look a lot more bleak after another lack-lustre display.

Whereas Munster were strangely lacking in fire up front and were familiarly off the pace behind, the Leinster pack was hungry for battle. They were yards faster and far more committed behind, defended superbly and emerged 12 point winners in spite of playing 20 minutes of the second half without the sinbinned Contepomi and Reggie Corrigan.

The closing minute highlighted Munster’s shortcomings.. Having somehow got themselves within five points of Leinster, they went in search of the converted try that would have given the kind a victory that would been in the ‘daylight robbery’ category. Initially, Barry Murphy had a possible try scoring pass to John Kelly blocked by Denis Hickie. From the resulting scrum, Munster mounted another attack but this time Murphy failed to hold a pass, Leinster counterattacked and the outstanding Contepomi scored in the corner and then rubbed salt in the wound by adding the points from the touchline.

“We were one minute away from a bonus point, the next we had conceded a bonus point,” commented a rueful Declan Kidney. The Munster coach admitted this result hurt himself and his team badly.

“Leinster played well, you must credit them for that”, he acknowledged. “They put on a lot of pressure and had a good day. We were trying stuff there at the end but spilled the ball and they are a top-class side at capitalising on errors like that. We know we didn’t perform as well as we would have liked but we shouldn’t take away from Leinster.”

There was always the likelihood of problems once the inexperienced Alistair McKay of Ballymena was appointed to referee a game at this level and he managed to infuriate both teams and looked badly out of his depth.

Munster will argue he should have dished out yellow cards much earlier than he did but equally they will accept the scoreline accurately reflected the game.

Leinster were helped by two huge decisions when it looked as if Munster might have taken a crucial lead playing into the strong, cold wind. And as skipper Anthony Foley pointed out: “Having got away with it, they then broke away and scored a converted try. We were wondering why we didn’t get a penalty try the time we were going for the pushover and every time we got good ball, they seemed to have a guy in there slowing it down. But you get those calls when you play at home and hopefully we’ll get them at Thomond and Musgrave.”

Nevertheless, no amount of spin will camouflage the Munster shortcomings and unless something radical happens quickly, then their season could be as good as over in another three weeks.

If Munster had good reason to feel hard done by Mr McKay’s early rulings, they could hardly complain at how he issued cards in the second half.

Significantly, though, it was during the absence of Contepomi and Corrigan that Leinster’s showed their mettle.

The scoreboard remained unaltered at 21-9 when Leinster were without their out-half and the margin remained at five points while the loose head prop was in the bin

Contepomi, scorer of two tries and a total 25 points, was head and shoulders above everybody else as his forwards provided a perfect platform. It was one of Malcolm O’Kelly’s finest hours and Keith Gleeson and Jamie Heaslip also contributed hugely.

The Leinster threequarters were way ahead in the areas of creativity and pace and Glasgow and Bath will be hard pressed to cope with Brian O’Driscoll, Gordon D’Arcy and Shane Horgan in forthcoming Heineken Cup matches.

LEINSTER: G. Dempsey; S. Horgan, B. O’Driscoll, G. D’Arcy, K. Lewis; F. Contepomi, G. Easterby; R. Corrigan, B. Blaney, W. Green, A. Byrnes, M. O’Kelly, C. Jowett, K. Gleeson, J. Heaslip. Replacements: B. Williams for Byrnes (53), R. McCormack for Corrigan (61), D. Hickie for O’Driscoll (74), E. Miller for Jowett 75.

MUNSTER: S. Payne; J. Kelly, B. Murphy, G. Connolly, A. Horgan; R. O’Gara, P. Stringer; M. Horan, J. Flannery, F. Pucciarello, M. O’Driscoll, P. O’Connell, D. Leamy, D. Wallace, A. Foley. Replacements: J. Hayes for Pucciarello (52), D. O’Callaghan and T. Halstead for O’Driscoll and Connolly (64), T. Hogan for O’Connell (80).

Referee: A. McKay (Ulster).