O’Donnell: We just went about our jobs

There was little fuss or bother in the way Munster set about arch rivals Leinster at the Aviva Stadium and the post-match reflections from the visiting dressing room were similarly to the point.

Openside flanker Tommy O’Donnell led the charge for Munster on Saturday night, as Leinster slumped to a 34-23 defeat, the Tipperary forward topping the tackle count with 17 according to the official statistics as Red won the collisions with Blue and dominated physically at the breakdown, giving scrum-half Conor Murray the platform to engineer a three-try first-half barrage that had been sorely missing in previous games this season.

“I wouldn’t say we were beating our chests, we just went about our jobs,” O’Donnell said, matter of factly. “You know, when you have your knowledge down it allows you to be physical.

“I think that was the real point that we drove this week, that once you have your knowledge down, once you know your role, it allows you to bring that physicality into the game.

“I think that really showed in the first half, the physicality that we have in the team.

“When every man nails his role there’s no guy coming back for a second bit. It gives clean ball to Conor and you can see what he can do when the ball is there on a plate.

“I think in other weeks we’ve struggled, our ruck has been a little bit slow, a little bit messy and for it to win games you need to be in control of that and winning the rucks, winning those battles along with the territorial battles.”

O’Donnell gave credit to an all-round team effort in which the likes of Paul O’Connell, Robin Copeland and Denis Hurley worked tirelessly.

“That was the great thing, it wasn’t just one player getting the turnovers, everyone was really up for it without being overly up for it. There was a quiet sense in the dressing-room beforehand and it was just you don’t have to be perfect, you just have to go about your job and do it well.”

Not that O’Donnell is getting carried away with a win, however enjoyable this derby victory on rival soil was just a week on from a sloppy home loss to Ospreys.

“There’s nothing won yet, there was no trophy there at the end of the day. It’s a long season and it’s valuable points in the bag and I think we have to move forward to next week.

“It’s a very, very short turnaround and the European Cup is in the next two weeks, so if we can keep maintaining this type of form, go back and don’t pat ourselves on the back next week... there were a lot of things there that we have to get better at, discipline areas around our defence.

“It wasn’t the end of the season, it wasn’t our last game. So I think we can always improve.”