Leamy takes the positives

TWO years.

That is just how long – give or take a day – that Leinster will have held the bragging rights over Munster by the time the sides meet again, in Thomond Park at the start of April.

For a rivalry like theirs, it must seem like an eternity.

Six months of rugby demand our attention before then and, grating though that statistic will be for Tony McGahan’s men, there is nothing they can do about it now. Other business awaits, starting with London Irish next weekend. “It does hurt,” said captain Denis Leamy after the province’s first defeat of the season. “What can we do? We can’t dwell on it. We’ve had a decent start and we came here to win and that didn’t happen. Leinster probably deserved it. We move on.

“We had opportunities in the first-half, certainly, where we could have gotten points. Leinster are a quality side and we needed to take our chances when we were down in their half. Possibly that didn’t happen.

“There is a big game next week and another the week after so there is work to be done but it is not all bad.”

It certainly isn’t but the fact remains that Munster travelled to Dublin to face a Leinster side unsure of themselves and struggling in numerous departments but left the capital having helped bolster their rivals’ self-esteem no end. Joe Schmidt’s men had been leaking tries in the season’s first month and yet kept a clean sheet against Munster – for the fifth straight occasion – at the weekend. Worse still, their line was barely threatened.

Another interesting subplot was the lineout, an area in which Leinster had also struggled but one which improved leaps and bounds thanks in no small part to Devin Toner’s majestic performance in that department.

Leamy accepted that the forwards didn’t help Damien Varley with their movement off the ground and Leinster’s hooker was able to look back on his evening’s work from the sideline with satisfaction.

“Personally, it was a concern before the game,” said Richardt Strauss. “I knew they would try to kick us into the corner and then force the errors. We did a lot of work on our videos and Devin Toner did a great job running the lineouts and getting the options right. It worked out well for us.”

For Strauss, it was the first taste of the mother of Irish rugby’s derbies and the 24-year old compared it favourably to the local disputes he had contested in South Africa against Northern Transvaal and the Bulls.

It could hardly have come at a more opportune time. Gone is the introspection of the first four weeks. In its place now is a Leinster side more comfortable in its skin as they face up to Racing Metro in the RDS on Saturday.

“It was really important for us to get a performance like that we can play off,” said the former Cheetahs forward. “We just have to go back to training now, work hard and do what we can for the next few weeks.”

The question is where was the intensity, that commitment in the defeats against Glasgow, Benetton Treviso and Edinburgh? One explanation would be the arrival onto the pitch of Eoin Reddan and Jonathan Sexton, who took over out-half duties from Isa Nacewa, after which the home side began to discover its groove with ball in hand.

“It is difficult to say,” said Strauss. “Isa and Jonny both play brilliant rugby. It is difficult for Isa to come in from wing to fly-half at the weekend and he is doing a great job out there. It is just awesome to have two players of that calibre capable of playing there.”