Seven up Sexton makes Munster pay

ANOTHER packed house, another tight finish. It never disappoints, does it?

Slowish to start, it blossomed into a more symphonic tussle after the interval and, if the result was just about right, there was something for both sides to cling to as well as fret over ahead of next week’s ventures into Europe.

Leinster dominated for large tracts and yet clung on at the end, much of it with 14 men after Jamie Heaslip’s yellow card and on an evening when their scrum came under more and more pressure as the clock ticked down.

For Munster, the bonus point, a positive last quarter and a scrum that even earned a penalty try near the end, but against all that an eighth yellow card in as many PRO12 games and the knowledge that they were bested in more general terms for long spells.

Neither side will be happy with their indiscipline at the breakdown.

The first act was an unfortunate one. Keith Earls gathered Sexton’s kick-off, went into contact and failed to arise when the ball was recycled. That was his lot, helped off with what appears to be knee ligament problems and replaced by Danny Barnes.

Munster didn’t let it affect them. The visitors banked a solid scrum and snaffled a Leinster lineout before O’Gara got the scoreboard ticking over with the first of a glut of penalty kicks five minutes in, and so began the tit-for-tat in front of the posts.

Jonathan Sexton would end the game with seven successful kicks from seven, O’Gara with a slightly less healthy four from five but the Munster out-halve’s kicking was arguably the more impressive given the angles and distances involved.

Even so, Sexton’s display was enough to earn him the man-of-the-match award on TV but neither man did enough to suggest that we won’t enter next year’s Six Nations with their head-to-head dominating the debate on personnel.

The expectation was that rustiness would mar this game given the lack of domestic action seen by the two tens and the rest of the returning internationals but there was precious little in the way of spilled balls or misplaced passes.

Instead, it was that indiscipline earning both sides the black marks. That and a puzzling inability by either to claim a clean kickout.

But there was little else to stir the senses in the opening half an hour of shadow boxing. Sean O’Brien and Conor Murray did engage in a bout of handbags halfway through the period. So too, did Sexton and Doug Howlett ten minutes later but the real hits were being made by the defences which were rebuffing any and all attacking waves.

It took 27 minutes for the first line break of any significance, when Cian Healy’s burst through the gut of Munster’s rearguard produced quick ball for an overlap of three players to his left and mere metres out from the visitors’ try line.

Unfortunately, the first receiver was Mike Ross who ignored his more fleet of foot colleagues further out and only to see his big moment ruined by a thumping double-tackle from Lifeimi Mafi and Denis Leamy.

Leinster still came away from the red zone with three points after another infringement at a subsequent ruck to leave it 12-6 and the growing gap reflected the trend of events which saw the hosts beginning to dominate territory and possession.

Two more penalties left it 15-9 at the break but the second-half produced a more open and entertaining flow. Munster made the initial move, puncturing a hole through the Leinster line courtesy of Mafi and Niall Ronan.

Like Leinster earlier, they got close enough to smell the chalk before being halted. Still, they only left the vicinity after O’Gara landed his fourth kick but their sails were emptied for the next 15 minutes by an impressive Leinster response.

Camped in Munster’s half and with an abundance of possession, Joe Schmidt’s side tacked on two more penalties and a drop goal from Rob Kearney and only a triumvirate of last-gasp tackles prevented Isa Nacewa from claiming a try in the corner.

With Leamy sinbinned prior to the second of those Sexton kicks, Leinster 24-12 to the good and 20 minutes to play, Munster were behind the black ball and all the more so when O’Gara missed another kick at the posts with his fifth attempt.

This being Munster, they were never deterred.

Heaslip’s subsequent yellow was evidence of the growing pressure on the Leinster line from there to the finish and the French referee awarded a penalty try three minutes from the end after Leinster’s scrum was pulverised from five metres out.

LEINSTER: R Kearney; I Nacewa, F McFadden, G D’Arcy, L Fitzgerald; J Sexton, I Boss; C Healy, R Strauss, M Ross; L Cullen, D Toner; S O’Brien, S Jennings, J Heaslip.

Replacements: H van der Merwe for Healy (55); E Reddan for Boss (58); R Ruddock for Jennings (64); J Hagan for Ross (73); K McLaughlin for Toner (73); E O’Malley for D’Arcy (73).

MUNSTER: J Murphy; D Howlett, W Chambers, L Mafi, K Earls; R O’Gara, C Murray; W du Reez, D Varley, BJ Botha; D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell; D Ryan, N Ronan, D Leamy.

Replacements: D Barnes for Earls (2); J Coughlan for O’Callaghan (52); P O’Mahony for Ronan (52); T O’Leary for Murray (64); M Horan for du Preez (73); I Keatley for Murphy (75); J Hayes for Botha (79).

Referee: P Gauzere (FFR).