Leinster's Jacques Nienaber relishing trip to face 'trendsetters' Munster 

The eastern province head for Thomond Park on Saturday evening.

BOTH SIDES NOW: Jacques Nienaber has seen the rivalry from both a Munster and Leinster perspective. Pic: INPHO/Grace Halton

Ulster are on the up, and it would be a shock if Connacht don’t follow a similar trajectory at some point under Stuart Lancaster at their swanky new stadium, but nothing gets the blood flowing like Munster and Leinster.

Jacques Nienaber has seen the rivalry from both sides having spent 16 months in Limerick with Rassie Erasmus and two years and counting in Dublin. He can also appraise it with an outsider’s perspective given his South African passport.

“From a Munster point of view, when I was with them, it was always a fixture that you relish, if that's the right English word. You find it very challenging and rewarding to participate in a fixture like a Leinster-Munster game.

“You want to go down to Thomond Park because it's such a tough place to win and there's so much history in it … If there's one game that you say, ‘which game would you want to be part of and test yourself in’, it would be Munster at Thomond Park in a Christmas game.” He has his wish again this weekend as the reigning URC champions make their almost annual festive visit to the neighbours, and it has proven to be a thoroughly enjoyable experience for Leinster whose dominance of this fixture has been most pronounced on the road.

The last half-dozen meetings in Limerick have gone the way of the visitors. Some have been tight, with Leinster winning four of them by a combined total of just 17 points. The two others have been comfortable double-digit affairs.

Munster’s last win on home soil in this fixture was the 26-17 game seven years ago when James Lowe saw red early for a tackle in the air, both Tadhg Furlong and Cian Healy spent ten minutes apiece in the sinbin, and Johnny Sexton got all riled up.

Munster have gone through a few iterations since then. That was Johann van Graan’s Munster, since when they have won a league title under Graham Rowntree who has since been superseded at the club by Clayton McMillan.

The performances haven’t been perfect under the Kiwi so far, but they find themselves second in the table after five wins in six matches and with Leinster, unusually, four places further down the pecking order and enduring their own stutters.

This is clearly an opportunity to stop the rot against the old enemy at home.

“They're really on form, playing good rugby, like the Stormers,” said Nienaber. “They're probably the trendsetters, I would say, currently in the URC. So, for us it’s just trying to close that gap between us and them.” 

Leinster have won 14 of the 17 meetings since that fractious Christmas cracker in 2018 with, curiously, all three of Munster’s successes coming in three different Dublin stadiums and in what were effectively three different competitions.

There was the Rainbow Cup win at the RDS in 2021, a PRO14 semi-final shock at the Aviva in 2023 and then the impressive 17-point margin when they got the better of the capital side in Croke Park in a URC game two months ago.

Nienaber wasn’t on hand to witness that last one in the flesh due to a family matter but, if the win and the nature of it caught some by surprise, then the former Springbok coach wasn’t one of them, then or now.

“No, it didn't surprise me. Munster is a good side and they're a quality team. Clayton is in there. They've got quality coaches, they're always there and thereabouts. Last year they lost to the Sharks in a quarter-final of the URC with a penalty shootout.

“They're always there and thereabouts and they know how to win the URC. They've won it before, so it's not like they don't know how to perform in this competition. Munster will always be there. They are currently in the top four.

“We want to get in the top-eight first as Leinster. Then you try to get into the top four. Currently, that's our goal. We’re trying to get where Munster is. It didn't surprise me at all, no. They're a quality team and they showed that.”