Henderson injury mars Munster’s hard victory

Leinster 8, Munster 15

The severity of Henderson's arm injury a suspected torn bicep was not immediately clear, but it is should to cause anxiety for the player and the Irish management team.

One of the individual high points of the game was the successful return of Frankie Sheahan who, although not exactly excelling with his line out accuracy, lasted the full 80 plus minutes of the game his first in almost four months.

Given the huge rivalry between the sides, and Munster's lacklustre first-half display, coach Alan Gaffney was well pleased at the end result.

"We didn't play well in that first 40 but we were disrupted with the injuries to Hendo and Jason Holland. In the circumstances I have to give Killian Keane huge praise for the way he played.

"Killian retired at the end of last season but came back this week to help us out and made a huge contribution in my opinion.

"We're delighted to come away with the points. Leinster put it up to us in the first half and also towards the end but it was great to hold our line when we were down to 14 players."

Leinster scored the only try of the match, a source of disappointment for the Australian coach.

"We could have done with a try but that's the way it goes. Donnybrook is a difficult place to win games and we'll take the points no matter how we won them."

Leinster enjoyed a superb start with a try of high quality after seven minutes. Brendan Burke provided the finishing touches to the sequence of play that involved a long pass from Matthew Leek to Des Dillon. The big number eight flicked the pass on with one hand over his head to Keith Gleeson and the captain's ground breaking run was enough to see Burke home for a try which Leek failed to convert.

Still, Leinster continued to dictate the pace of the game as Munster were guilty of some poor handling and decision-making. Neither was it a source of encouragement when Jeremy Staunton missed a simple penalty attempt at the very time that Jason Holland and Rob Henderson retired injured. He missed another after 30 minutes and, all in all, it was not a very auspicious start to the affair by Munster.

But the visitors finally got on the score sheet when Staunton found the target nine minutes from the break. But they were never able to ease themselves into the comfort zone against a Leinster side that won most of the quality possession, much of it from the lineout.

Munster, were lucky to be so close at the interval, especially after referee Paul Adams chose to ignore pleas for a late body-check on try scorer Burke in the last minute of the half.

The tables appeared to turn in the early stages of the second half when Gordon D'Arcy badly mistimed a penalty attempt and then Munster got their noses in front when Staunton made no mistake when given a chance all after a magnificent 40 yard break by Eoin Reddan.

After Leek missed another penalty for Leinster, Staunton knocked over his third when Leinster were penalised for stamping on Donnacha O'Callaghan. Leo Cullen will know how lucky he was to avoid yellow.

Staunton added to his tally with a long-range penalty. That put some daylight between the sides and Leinster didn't help by conceding two more penalties immediately from the re-start.

Staunton and D'Arcy exchanged kicks in the last few minutes and D'Arcy's effort set up a grand-slam finish with Munster down to 14 players Simon Kerr was sin binned for deliberate offside.

Champions Munster though, kept the home side at bay in a grandstand finish.

LEINSTER: C. Warner, G. D'Arcy, K. Lewis, D. Quinlan, B. Burke, M. Leek, B. O'Meara, J. Lyne, G. Hickie, E. Byrne, L. Cullen, B. Gissing, A. McCullen, D. Dillon, K. Gleeson (captain).

Replacements. N. Treston for Byrne (half time), J. McWeeney for Leek (68), S. Jennings for Gissing (78). Temporary sub. D. Blaney for G. Hickie (41-47)

MUNSTER: J. Staunton, S. Payne, M. Mullins, R. Henderson, M. Lawlor, J. Holland, E. Reddan, S. Kerr, F. Sheahan, M. Cahill, D. O'Callaghan, E. Halvey, J. Williams (captain), A. Foley, A. Quinlan.

Replacements. J. Jones-Hughes for Henderson, K. Keane for Holland (both injured, 17), T. Hogan for Halvey (65), J. Danaher for Cahill (67), D. Leamy for Williams (76). Yellow card S. Kerr 78

Referee. P. Adams (Wales)