No room for rustiness as old foes Munster and Leinster prepare to do battle

Munster head coach Johann van Graan with Dave Kilcoyne. Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Amid all the talk of unknowns surrounding rugby’s restart in Ireland this evening, it is answers to the on-field questions that will be most eagerly awaited when Leinster face off against Munster behind closed doors at Aviva Stadium.

A six-month break for entire squads between games is unprecedented, as is playing a competitive game without spectators and all the new Covid-19 protocols that are now in place to guard against the transmission of the coronavirus that brought about such new and unusual circumstances in the first place way back when in late February, early March.

Yet here we are at the beginning of the end of 2019-20 campaign with the first of the two final regular-season rounds of the Guinness PRO14.

A trophy is just four games away but teams are required to dispense with pre-season rustiness and fling themselves straight into the white heat of interprovincial rivalries with everything on the line in terms of season-defining outcomes.

For Leinster, with a ‘home’ semi-final berth assured thanks to their 13-game winning march into an 18-point lead at the top of PRO14 Conference A, there remains an opportunity to grasp on two fronts. Not just to close out an unbeaten defence of the 2018-19 crown they secured 15 months ago but also ready themselves for another tilt at a record fifth European title with a Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final against their 2019 final nemeses Saracens following hot on the heels of the league final in mid-September.

Whereas Munster have a singular objective, to reel in Edinburgh and claim top spot in Conference B, avoid a second meeting with Leinster in the PRO14 semis and close in on their first shot at silverware in nine long years.

Winning tonight’s derby would go a long way to meeting those objectives. Defeating Leinster would not only deliver a first win over their rivals since December 2018 but has the potential to inspire Johann van Graan’s side to longer-term success.

Not for a very long time has the southern province been better equipped to get the job done. New arrivals in the form of South African World Cup-winning duo Damian De Allende and RG Snyman, as well as Saracens full-back Matt Gallagher, bring a winning mentality to a Munster matchday squad of whom only Keith Earls and Conor Murray survive from the 2011 Magners League final victory over Leinster and can boast winners medals from their time with the province.

Head coach van Graan is relishing the increased expectations on his revamped side that has no excuse but to shake off the inconsistency that marked the first portion of the season when new coaches Stephen Larkham and Graham Rowntree had little time to work with frontline players on Ireland duty at both the World Cup and 2020 Six Nations or rested under IRFU player welfare rules. Murray, for example, will be starting just his eighth game of 2019-20 for Munster having started nine Tests for Ireland.

The coming weeks, then, are a chance to finally put all the pieces together.

“We’re looking at this as a brilliant opportunity,” van Graan said.

“You’ve got to qualify for the semi-final and then you’ve got to make sure you get past the semi-final and that’s something that we haven’t managed to do the last three seasons.

So, first and foremost, we must get into a semi-final and then attack that semi-final, whether that’s going to be against Leinster or Ulster, but like I said before in terms of expectation it’s something that we embrace.

“We as a squad are desperate to take the next step but you can only play what’s in front of you and at this stage it’s Leinster on Saturday evening and a great, great challenge ahead if you just look at what they have at their disposal. Really looking forward to that.”

The stirrings at Munster have not been ignored in the blue corner with van Graan’s counterpart Leo Cullen anticipating a contest that warranted a pretty strong selection but for the absences of lock James Ryan and Tadhg Furlong, who tweaked his back during the week.

“It should be a good battle,” Cullen said yesterday.

“We know it's a huge game for Munster because of where they sit in their conference and trying to get ahead of Edinburgh.

I'm sure they're building strongly and it will be a great test for our guys.