Leinster ‘out-cute’ Munster as French tests loom large
Leinster and Munster have equally testing challenges ahead against French opposition. Matt O’Connor’s superior victors in this league battle face a daunting trip to European champions Toulon on Sunday, while Rob Penney’s under-cooked Munster players welcome Toulouse to Limerick.
Of course there was significance in the outcome at the Aviva Stadium, with Leinster now five points clear of Munster at the top of the RaboDirect Pro12 with four games before the play-offs, but both coaches will have appreciated the tune-up this battle for domestic bragging rights provided.
As compelling as this inter-provincial fare was, O’Connor and Penney, unburdened by the deeper emotions of this family squabble, will use it as a launch-pad for their bids for higher standards, greater intensity and sharper execution at European level next weekend.
With third-placed Ulster doing Munster a favour and losing at Cardiff Blues to leave them with a three-point cushion in second place, Penney could afford to concentrate even more on the positives.
Following a lacklustre return to action against Treviso the week before, he had lit the fire underneath his team and watched them burn with resentment at the suggestion they had lost out on Test places to their Leinster rivals during the Six Nations campaign.
That his point had hit home was evident by the way Munster began the evening, Ireland captain Paul O’Connell landing a shuddering tackle on his national vice-captain Jamie Heaslip, Simon Zebo equally committed on Fergus McFadden and Keith Earls rocking Eoin Reddan back on his heels, all during the opening skirmishes.
James Coughlan and Dave Foley bristled with intent in everything they did and loosehead prop Dave Kilcoyne set the tone for a right old ding-dong at scrum time opposite tighthead Mike Ross, their first coming together ending in a dust-up and a penalty to Munster.
The visitors’ aggression, even without late withdrawal Peter O’Mahony, paid dividends with two early penalties for Ian Keatley — on a night he would kick all his team’s points with six penalties from six attempts — and a pack that exerted dominance at the set-piece.
It was 25 minutes before Leinster were up and running as Munster began to run foul of referee Rolland at the breakdown; Ian Madigan grabbing two penalties but missing a third on the stroke of half-time to leave the home side trailing 12-6.
If Leinster had been sloppy in their handling and execution in that first half, Munster’s rustiness told after the break.
Felix Jones’s path was blocked by team-mate CJ Stander and at the resulting scrum, Conor Murray was caught napping as opposite number Reddan struck down the blindside.
The sequence led to another breakdown penalty while one more had allowed Madigan to level the scores at 12-12 after 51 minutes.
Munster’s advantage had been wiped from the ledger by their own hand, their failure to put Leinster away punished when Dave Kilcoyne tried Rolland’s patience at the breakdown once too often and earned a yellow card.
During the ensuing power play Shane Jennings breached a stretched defence and delivered a lovely offload for Brian O’Driscoll to skip through the gap for a try that proved the difference.
Keatley gave Munster hope with his sixth penalty of the night to make it a one-point game but the lack of game-time came back to haunt the Reds once more as JJ Hanrahan crossed with a static O’Donnell trying to run the ball out of his 22. Madigan accepted the gift off the tee.
Needless to say, Penney will be looking for a step up over the next week.
“Certainly we got a bit of a lesson in a few certain areas,” he said. “We’ve got some good lads here. They just haven’t had the time to settle in with that intensity. It will be very beneficial for us going into next week because they will know the step up that is required. And they’ll have to step up even higher again with Toulouse being the quality outfit that they are.
“Our scrummaging was excellent. Our lineout was fine, we just didn’t get enough opportunity from it. Our breakdown work was fine but it fluctuated a little bit.
“They out-cuted us. They held us in the breakdowns out the back, got a couple of penalties through that. We didn’t get the rewards out of the scrum that we could have got.
“They’re little bits of learnings that we take into next week, we’ll review and there will be images that we can latch on to.
“Our attack didn’t function as well as we would like. So there are little things in there that we know we can get better at very quickly.”
O’Connor highlighted Munster’s lack of cutting edge — despite some bright spots from Zebo and Earls — when asked to praise his team’s work without the ball ahead of next Sunday’s tussle in Toulon.
“The defensive effort was massive,” O’Connor said before adding: “We didn’t have to do that much of it, which has probably helped us in that when we did it was pretty ferocious and pretty intense, which is going to be huge next week.
“They will come at us and they will be very, very direct. It was a bit of a statement for us, and we spoke about that, that we needed to make sure that we were rock solid defensively because Toulon will hurt you all over the field and that was a bit of a focus for the week,” he added.
As for Munster, Penney will look at their failure to bury Leinster when the opportunity arose at 12-3 and 12-6.
“It was a lead that was whittled away quite quickly, too quickly really,” he said. “But that’s just great cuteness on Leinster’s part. That’s stuff we have to get better at defusing and learning some tricks of the trade ourselves.”
Lots to learn and so little time.
LEINSTER: R Kearney; F McFadden, B O’Driscoll (Z Kirchner, 66), G D’Arcy, L Fitzgerald; I Madigan, E Reddan; M Bent, R Strauss (S Cronin, 64), M Ross (J O’Connell, 76); D Toner, M McCarthy (L Cullen, 64); K McLaughlin (J Murphy, 68), S Jennings, J Heaslip (capt).
Replacements not used: E Byrne, I Boss, J Gopperth.
MUNSTER: F Jones (G van den Heever, 66); K Earls, C Laulala, D Hurley (JJ Hanrahan, 66), S Zebo; I Keatley, C Murray; D Kilcoyne (J Cronin, 71), D Varley (Capt; D Casey, 57), BJ Botha; D Foley (D O’Callaghan, 66), P O’ Connell (D O’Callaghan, 4-13, blood); CJ Stander, T O’Donnell (J Cronin, 55-64, sin-bin cover), J Coughlan.
Yellow card: D Kilcoyne 54-64.
Replacements not used: A Cotter, B Holland, D Williams.
Referee: Alain Rolland (IRFU).
With Munster down to 14 men following Dave Kilcoyne’s binning, Shane Jennings’s line break and wonderful offload for Brian O’Driscoll’s moment of magic changed the momentum with the only try of the game to finally separate the sides.
So how many Munster players proved a point to the watching Joe Schmidt they deserved a spot on his Six Nations team? In truth, their lack of game time in recent weeks made it difficult to assess as the rust fell off the likes of Tommy O’Donnell and Dave Kilcoyne. Simon Zebo and Keith Earls looked sharp on the wings for periods but Schmidt would be better to judge them all on next week’s performance against Toulouse.
Leinster: Try scorer Brian O’Driscoll came off looking distinctly wobbly yet the Leinster medical report suggests he took a bang on the neck as well as nursing a tight calf. Mike Ross suffered some cramping in his calf too. Munster: Peter O’Mahony was a very late withdrawal due to ongoing hamstring problems but Rob Penney said the move was precautionary. Donnacha Ryan (foot) remains a major doubt for Toulouse next week while hooker Damien Varley suffered a twinge in his foot as he continues to battle with plantar fascitis.
Leinster captain Jamie Heaslip took the man of the match award in a hard-fought contest, leading the charge with his carrying over the gain line and serving as a defensive rock. Fellow back rower Shane Jennings was also excellent while for Munster James Coughlan and CJ Stander were every bit as hard working as their back-row rivals.
Munster left the Aviva Stadium aggrieved referee Alain Rolland had not given them due reward for their dominance at the scrum and that they were penalised unfairly at the breakdown, victims of Leinster’s “cuteness” according to Rob Penney.
Leinster: “They’ve certainly got big names. But, we’ve plenty of internationals in our side as well. What we have over them is we’re playing for the club we grew up in. You saw with both sides tonight what that means. You’re representing your club, where you grew up and where you come from. I would like to think that’s going to give us the edge next week”. Ian Madigan questions Toulon’s galactico approach.Munster: “We got a bit of a lesson in a few certain areas... It will be very beneficial for us going into next week because they will know the step up required. And they’ll have to step up even higher again with Toulouse being the quality outfitthey are.” - Rob Penney
To think this was all just a tune-up for next week’s Heineken Cup quarter-finals. Munster kickstart the weekend’s European action with a home tie against four-time winners Toulouse with Leinster also facing French opposition, travelling to Stade Felix Mayol to take on defending champions Toulon.
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