Leinster coaches looking in the mirror after defeat to Munster

Robin McBryde said after the defeat to Munster, Leinster's coaches are asking themselves "whether we prepared them well enough for what was to come". Pic: Frans Lombard/Sportsfile
In the wake of the province’s defeat to Munster in the United Rugby Championship at Croke Park on Saturday, Robin McBryde has acknowledged that he and his fellow coaches have been looking at their role in preparing Leinster for battle.
While Leinster were 14-point winners (26-12) when the two sides previously met at GAA HQ in the same competition a little over 12 months ago, their arch rivals were the sharper of the two teams on this occasion. Despite initially falling behind to Ronan Kelleher's converted try in the seventh minute, Munster successfully imposed their game plan on Leo Cullen’s men and ultimately claimed a richly-deserved 31-14 bonus point victory.
“Obviously everybody is disappointed after the loss, but you’ve just got to give credit to Munster really. They were obviously up for it a bit more than what we were. They came with a plan, executed it and we failed to adapt to it for whatever reason,” the Leinster assistant coach remarked at a media briefing in UCD yesterday.
“As coaches, we’re looking at ourselves and asking whether we prepared them well enough for what was to come. On the evidence of Saturday, probably the answer is no. We didn’t. In fairness to Munster, they employed their tactics to stop us play.”
Although there is always a determination to bounce back from a resounding loss, it will be a number of weeks before the majority of those who featured in Croke Park on Saturday return to donning the blue of Leinster.
This is due to the fact that 16 of those who saw game time against Munster are part of the eastern province’s 22-strong contingent in the Ireland squad for the forthcoming November internationals.
As a consequence, a radically different group of players were put through their paces at Leinster’s UCD training base yesterday in preparation for a URC clash with Zebre Parma at the Aviva Stadium this Saturday (kick-off 5.30pm).
In the absence of so many frontline stars, those who are named to face the Italians on the weekend will be looking to get Leinster back on track after last weekend saw them falling to a third defeat in their opening four games of the new URC season.
This is the same number of games Leinster lost across 28 outings in all competitions last year, but considering the calibre of player that is currently within the set-up, McBryde is confident the defending URC champions can experience a significant upturn in performances and results over the coming weeks and months.
“There’s too many quality players here not to [improve] really. I’m sure when we do all get back as a squad, we’ll address those issues. We’ll have to do it pretty quick because we’re straight into Europe with the fixture against Harlequins [on December 6]. That’s the first time we’re getting back,” McBryde added.
“Between now and then, we’ve got Zebre and we’ve got Dragons. Neither of which is going to be an easy game. Zebre, they’ve won two games already this year. It’s one game at a time.”