Leinster v Munster: Rowntree facing huge test of early progress

Huge potential for growth in both gameplan and mindset with a victory over the old enemy tonight

MASTERPLAN: Munster head coach Graham Rowntree, left, and forwards coach Andi Kyriacou during a Munster rugby squad training session at the University of Limerick in Limerick this week. Picture: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Out of the frying pan and into the fire, Munster got their season back on track with an encouraging performance to defeat heavyweight opposition on home turf a week ago but this evening’s visit to Leinster at Aviva Stadium represents a different challenge entirely.

For all the relief, satisfaction and enjoyment that last Saturday’s bonus-point victory over the Bulls at Thomond Park brought to a squad, management and set of supporters who had endured an ugly start to their campaign, this weekend’s BKT United Rugby Championship derby encounter brings a swift reality check of Munster’s early progress under new head coach Graham Rowntree.

Munster’s recent record against Leinster does not make for comfortable reading in the southern province as Leo Cullen’s side’s quality and strength in depth have consistently proven far too great for the visitors. Last season’s trek up the M7 for a must-win URC game that could secure a home quarter-final was supposed to have been the opportunity to right some of those reverses, Johann van Graan’s side handed a golden opportunity to give themselves a favourable play-off draw. The omens were good following on from a stirring European quarter-final epic at the same stadium that saw Toulouse progress only by virtue of a penalty kick shoot-out after extra time, while Cullen fielded a relatively inexperienced side and rested many of his frontliners in anticipation of their Champions Cup semi-final to come. And yet Munster came up woefully short, beaten 35-25, pre-empting an even more miserable URC quarter-final exit in Belfast that end van Graan’s five-year tenure in failure.

So what of the first of this season’s head to heads, with Munster under a new coaching ticket looking to play with more invention, tempo and width but having only been able to see the green shoots of their evolution appear seven days ago? Rowntree’s ambition against former Leicester Tigers team-mate Cullen will be stifled by the absences of key pack leaders Tadhg Beirne and captain Peter O’Mahony through injury and a back-three injury crisis made worse by last week’s loss of Ireland call-up Calvin Nash to a thigh problem, let alone the speed of pass and thought provided by scrum-half Craig Casey, lost to a groin issue.

Leinster, meanwhile, look to be trucking along very nicely as usual as they seek to regain the title taken from them last June by South African interlopers and having already knocked off Ulster and Connacht on their interprovincial travels this season as part of a five-game winning start to the 2022-23 campaign they welcome back talisman and captain Johnny Sexton having rested the veteran fly-half last weekend.

Both sides make several changes from the line-ups which started their respective victories in Galway and Limerick last weekend but while some of Munster’s injury-enforced selections could provide exciting opportunities for the likes of Jack Crowley, the gifted fly-half starting for the first time at full-back, and Thomas Ahern at lock, Leinster’s switches in personnel have a look of experience about them as players are moved in and out of roles to which they bring confidence and assurance.

It is no wonder that Jean Kleyn this week described the fixture as “one of the ultimate tests in world rugby”. The lock knows the potential for growth in both gameplan and mindset that can be achieved with a victory over the old enemy tonight.

“Coming home with the win there, will drastically shift what the log looks like,” Kleyn said. “So for us as a team, this week gone by, this week against Leinster and next week against Ulster are massive weeks for us because they are three of the top teams, and we could knock them down a few points each and bring ourselves up and the log starts looking drastically different, and all of a sudden our season doesn’t look the way it looked literally seven days ago.” 

Munster certainly owe Leinster in an ancient rivalry that has looked decidedly one-sided in recent seasons but Rowntree and his coaches will want to see progression in terms of their performance ahead of a reversion to old habits in order to get the job done. A win in Dublin playing the way they have envisioned will be the icing on the cake but you sense there will also be a certain level of satisfaction if more green shoots appear, whatever the outcome.

Leinster, of course, will have their own ideas. With two games left before the November international window, the other being next weekend’s trip to Scarlets, Cullen will want to finish this block of games by closing out the first third of the league campaign still unbeaten at the top of the table and just as Munster will unleash a twin playmaking threat in Crowley and Carbery, the Leinster boss has elected to start a second fly-half, Ciaran Frawley, at full-back for the first time in blue on his 60th appearance for his province.

The two 10s competing at 15 should provide a fascinating match-up between two of Irish rugby’s great hopes, as does the presence of Munster’s former South African lock Jason Jenkins continuing his fast start to his Leinster career alongside James Ryan and going up against Ahern and Kleyn. That could be one of the match-defining contests as Munster’s less experienced pack faces a tough examination.

Nonetheless, Cullen is expecting old-school Munster, and Tigers, physicality from his old pal Rowntree’s team.

“Munster went back to their typical DNA really in terms of their intensity that they brought to that Bulls game, again the Bulls, who are a big physical team and that we found out to our detriment,” the Leinster boss said yesterday.

“We lost a semi-final at home to them last year in the RDS at the end of the season and there is a not a huge amount changes there. Munster brought a huge amount of intensity with them, chasing hard, very direct, particularly when they get close to the opposition line, they just batter away.

“Thought they were particularly impressive at the end of the game, how they defended, not least as the Bulls scored from one of those tap and go moves against us in the semi-final, scored quite easily from what it looked like, but Muster dug in there.

"It is the intensity piece that they will bring to the fixture, they have a good coaching group. Denis Leamy would know us well from the time he spent with us and, then, Mike Prendergast. You can definitely see what they are trying to do with their attacks. So sometimes these things take time to click, so there is two very good young coaches which I think is a very positive piece for Munster rugby and Irish rugby.” 

LEINSTER: C Frawley; J O’Brien, G Ringrose, R Henshaw, J Osborne; J Sexton - captain, L McGrath; C Healy, D Sheehan, T Furlong; J Jenkins, J Ryan; M Deegan, S Penny, C Doris.

Replacements: J McKee, A Porter, M Ala’alatoa, R Molony, J Conan, N McCarthy, R Byrne, R Russell MUNSTER: J Crowley; S Daly, D Goggin, R Scannell, L Coombes; J Carbery, C Murray; J Loughman, D Barron, K Knox; J Kleyn, T Ahern; J O’Donoghue - captain, J Hodnett, G Coombes.

Replacements: S Buckley, D Kilcoyne, J French, J O’Sullivan, R Quinn, P Patterson, B Healy, P Campbell Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU) Ends