Leinster make it a blue, blue Christmas for Munster, again

BKT United Rugby Championship, Thomond Park, Limerick 27/12/2024

URC: Munster 7 Leinster 28

It’s going to be a blue, blue Christmas for Munster. This 21-point loss will stand as their biggest defeat to the old enemy in 15 years. It’s the sixth time on the trot that Leinster have sacked their Limerick lodgings. Grim.

And it was just as convincing as the scoreline suggests.

It’s still 2018 since the red side of this divide last tasted victory against Leinster on home soil. So lopsided has this rivalry become that Leo Cullen’s men have succeeded in 14 of the last 16 meetings, regardless of venue, and this one was never really in any doubt.

Take away a brief spark of life after the half-time break and this URC clash had an inescapable whiff of inevitability to it. For Leinster it is an eleventh win from as many games across both competitions this season. Another good day’s work for them.

Routine, even. And that should hurt Munster as much as anything.

The visitors came here with a side loaded with internationals but with another handful off duty due to injuries and IRFU welfare protocols. Munster were just shy of 20 players with fitness issues and Jack Crowley had to rested.

The hosts, with nothing like the same strength in depth, were always going to struggle more because of absent friends and maybe another impressive run from 21-year old Sam Prendergast shows just how loaded Leinster are in the depth chart.

The Ireland out-half certainly enjoyed his first run at this storied venue with a try and eleven points in all. He even squared up to Gavin Coombes at one point and, if he wasn’t perfect, then this was another key marker in his development.

Munster had almost 60% possession and territory through the opening quarter and change. They huffed and they puffed and they threatened the Leinster line again and again, but they never claimed any tangible reward for all that endeavour.

Leinster weren’t always legit in their defence. Tommy O’Brien saw yellow 21 minutes in after a series of team infringements. That spoke for a side that was going to hold out by hook or by crook, just as they had last week at home to Connacht.

Munster’s blunt edge as they pounded the try line was one part of their problem, a misfiring lineout and creaking scrum were others. They scored four tries with limited supply against Ulster seven days earlier. They weren’t in Belfast anymore.

Leinster were the ones making hay with little sunshine.

Robbie Henshaw butchered an overlap with their first trip to the 22 minutes in. Their second visit produced the opening try for scrum-half Luke McGrath who, after half a dozen close-in phases, waltzed through an enormous gap where the pillar defender should have been.

Leinster survived O’Brien’s absence well enough – Garry Ringrose holding Tadhg Beirne up under the posts at one point – before one of Munster’s poor lineouts resulted in a Leinster scrum five metres out and, eventually, Prendergast scampering in from wide out.

Munster were unravelling at this stage. They had started out with an obvious plan to kick long and through the middle, but two inaccurate hoofs from the hand by Rory Scannell and Billy Burns fed into a deepening unease as they trailed 14-0 going in at the interval.

Any fears that this game was up were disabused – if only temporarily - by a frenetic and fractious enough opening to the second period that, crucially, achieved lift-off when Tom Aherne went over for Munster’s first score of the evening.

It took three tap penalties, more Leinster infringements, and a sliver of variety before it came with the blindside flanker being fed the ball out wide slightly earlier. That minor adjustment was enough to elude the usual obstacles.

The next five minutes really got the juices flowing. Burns caught Jimmy O’Brien in the air but escaped any punishment. Then Ringrose nailed Mike Haley and Tommy O’Brien crunched Shane Daly with a pair of legal tackles.

Seconds later and a couple of dozen players were grabbing collars and making shapes.

This was the stuff.

What the neutral and the home crowd certainly didn’t want at that point was another Leinster score. And it wasn’t just that Leinster went and got it but the nature of the seven points that followed that came as such a blow.

Munster were attempting an orderly exit from their own 22 when the ball squirted out from a ruck and into the hands of Joe McCarthy. Josh van der Flier took it on from there and Prendergast had the easiest of conversions to make it 21-7.

There were still 36 minutes to play at that point but the brief flicker of life that had given some hope was gone. Leinster managed the back end of this one easily and Caelan Doris struck for the try that delivered the bonus point with six minutes left.

MUNSTER: M Haley; C Nash, T Farrell, R Scannell, S Daly; B Burns, E Coughlan; D Bleuler, N Scannell, O Jager; F Wycherley, T Beirne; T Ahern, A Kendellen, G Coombes.

Replacements: E Clarke for N Scannell (HIA, 23-37); J Hodnett for Wycherley (HT); P Patterson for Coughlan (51); J Ryan for Jager (55); T Butler for Burns and B Gleeson for Kendellen (both 65); K Ryan for Bleuler and E Clarke for N Scannell (both 74); B O’Connor for Haley (76).

LEINSTER: J Osborne; T O’Brien, G Ringrose, R Henshaw, J O’Brien; S Prendergast, L McGrath; J Boyle, R Kelleher, R Slimani; J McCarthy, J Ryan; R Baird, J van der Flier, C Doris.

Replacements: A Porter for Barron (23); F Gunne for McGrath and C Healy for Slimani (both 53); L Barron for Kelleher and R Byrne for Prendergast (both 64); B Deeny for Ryan (73); S Penny for van der Flier and J Larmour for Ringrose (both 74).

Referee: S Grove-White (SRU).