Ringrose insists Leinster have always had 'unbelievable respect' for Munster

OLD RIVALRY: Leinster’s Garry Ringrose. Pic: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Garry Ringrose has disputed a change in the Leinster-Munster dynamic following the Reds’ URC semi-final victory at Aviva Stadium last season, insisting the southern province have always has had unbelievable respect from the Boys in Blue.

Leinster will welcome Munster back to the Aviva on Saturday evening for the first time since Jack Crowley’s late drop goal consigned Ringrose and company to an early exit in the competition in which they had reigned supreme throughout the regular season. 

Up to that mid-May defeat, the outside centre had enjoyed a run of continued success over Munster but talking yesterday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the venue for this season’s Champions Cup final next May, the newly-installed Leinster co-captain insisted a change in the status quo following Munster lifting of the URC trophy almost six months ago was wide of the mark.

"Maybe there was a bit of a perception (of Leinster dominance) from the outside,” Ringrose said. "But we would always have unbelievable respect for Munster, knowing how hard it is to beat them from experience.

"Granted we might have fallen on the right side of results but it didn't feel like that. We know we just had to keep up working and luckily won a couple of games.

"But they are champions and last time out the Aviva they beat us so if anything mindset-wise I don't think there was ever any complacency. But there definitely isn't now from the fact they are champions. We have got to be at our best to take on some class players in top-quality form so, yeah, exciting times.” 

Ringrose sat out the knockout defeat to Munster, rested ahead of last season’s Champions Cup final rematch with La Rochelle later that month, but he was impressed by Crowley’s moment of quality and is wary of the fly-half’s capacity to inflict further damage on Leinster.

"I was in the stands. It is a good quality of Jack's. 

"In big moments he has proven himself. Any opportunity he got at the World Cup he was ready for it. He is continuing with that now so we need to have our work and prep done to try and contain him on Saturday."

At Tottenham to represent Leinster at this season’s Champions Cup media launch, Ringrose also looked ahead to an opening pool clash at La Rochelle, the side that has denied them at the knockout stages for three seasons in a row, a semi-final at Stade Marcel Deflandre in 2021, the final in Marseille a year later and on home soil in Dublin last May.

Playing two interpro derbies, against Munster this weekend and at Connacht the week before the trip to France offers Leinster just the hard-edged preparation they need for the latest La Rochelle examination, Ringrose said.

“Any interpro, you have to turn up, prepare the best you can during the week and prepare on the day, to give ourselves a chance of winning. Unfortunately, we fell on the wrong side of the result last year in the Aviva. 

"We’ve got to prepare the best we can this week, that’s what we’ve been focusing on, delivering a performance to give us a crack.

“It’s brilliant the run-in, the next six games, interpro interpro, Europe Europe, interpro interpro, Europe Europe, there’s no let-up at all really. That’s what you want to do, challenge yourself. There’s no dipping our toe into it, that’s what you do want.

"For Munster we have to be all in, in front of 45,000 in the Aviva, then Connacht in the Sportsground where we have had good and bad days. and then there is their astro and how well they are playing, La Rochelle away, Sale at home, so it is where you want to be. It is exciting. The whole thing is to challenge ourselves against the best and see how it goes.”