Poite in line of fire

Leinster head coach Matt O’Connor buried his head in his hands in the wake of defeat to Munster but it was referee Romain Poite’s performance rather than his team’s which left him most frustrated at Thomond Park.

O’Connor, five games in to his reign since leaving Leicester Tigers and succeeding Joe Schmidt as Leinster boss, acknowledged his players had been second best in the 19-15 RaboDirect Pro12 loss to Munster but his body language betrayed his efforts to keep a lid on his bemusement at the French official’s handling of the scrum and breakdown in the interprovincial derby.

The Australian did not even have a complaint about his fly-half Ian Madigan’s sin-binning on the half-hour, leading to the penalty which produced the only try of the game for Munster’s Keith Earls. But when the subject of the breakdown arose during his post-match press conference, O’Connor’s non response told a story in itself.