LEINSTER LEAVE IT LATE
Blues keep cool to strike killer blow as Munster left to rue errors that cost them victory
A TALE of fire and ice at Thomond Park. Munster brought all the fury, but Leinster had the killer instinct, when it mattered.
Regrets? The hosts will have a few. They did more than enough to secure the win here. For the most of the contest, they shut down the defending three-time champions at source, bossed the breakdown and dominated the aerial contest, with Jordan Larmour targeted time and again to great effect. They showed further evidence of their attacking evolution, but a malfunctioning lineout and errors at key moments killed what could have been a landmark win.
They had the lead for 70 minutes as well. It was so typical of Leinster to launch a late raid and for Larmour – one of their many stars who had an off night – to prove the match-winner with his late finish.
These sides will meet again, perhaps in the Pro14 final down the road. It should be a hell of a contest.
Andy Farrell was in attendance and the Ireland head coach would have left Limerick with mixed emotions. Conor Murray and Tadhg Beirne were outstanding as were James Ryan, Caelan Doris and Robbie Henshaw, but Johnny Sexton’s withdrawal in the second half was not a welcome sight.
The snow subsided in the minutes leading up to kick-off, ensuring a greasy ball and surface.
That didn’t stop Munster putting the ball through the hands in the opening minute. When CJ Stander took a pass from Murray, you expected the Munster No8 to put the head down and charge into Leinster traffic, but Munster have expanded their horizons and they are playing plenty of ball under the guidance of attack coach Stephen Larkham.
And they couldn’t have wished for a better opening 20 minutes. The hosts had everything their own way, dominating possession and territory. JJ Hanrahan had delivered his most imperious display at out-half in that heroic victory in Clermont last month, but the big question was whether he could back it up in another big game?
He made a good start by booming over a 47-metre penalty after Rhys Ruddock was penalised for hands in the ruck.
It got even better a few minutes later when Murray made a dart off a slick lineout before the forwards laid siege to Leinster’s line. Thirteen phases later, Beirne made a surge for the line. Ryan seemed to have done enough to halt his progress, but Peter O’Mahony and Jean Kleyn latched on and barrelled Beirne over the line. Hanrahan’s conversion made it 10-0 and Munster were cruising. Leinster looked rattled. When they finally managed to secure some quality ball from rock-solid scrum on halfway, Henshaw’s cross-kick, intended for Jimmy O’Brien, sailed into touch.
Despite the difficult conditions and the calibre of the opposition,
Munster had been virtually flawless up until then. Errors will kill you at this level. It’s long been a bugbear for the management, especially compounding mistakes with more of the same. Munster were guilty again here.
They botched a lineout before James Cronin made a clumsy high tackle on Will Connors. Then Mike Haley – who was otherwise having an impressive outing at full-back – dropped an aerial bomb from Sexton. All those errors invited
Leinster back into the game and you could feel that momentum swinging back.
They spent the next 20 minutes absorbing wave after wave of Leinster attacks, with Henshaw, Ryan and Doris to the fore.
The fact that the visitors could only muster three points from Sexton’s boot for all their efforts was another psychological victory for the hosts.
They could thank Beirne, who delivered yet another breakdown
turnover, to lift late siege on Munster’s line when the dam looked like bursting. A thoroughly absorbing half finished 10-6 and you felt that Johann van Graan would be far the happier of the two head coaches.
His message at half-time would have been simple: get your hands back on the ball and cut down the errors.
And that’s exactly what Munster did on the resumption, monopolising possession for the first four minutes. Mistakes and a sloppy lineout killed their momentum, however.
It was messy, error-strewn and disjointed but utterly compelling. Van Graan sent on Niall Scannell to shore up the lineout and Dave Kilcoyne – another good sight ahead of the Six Nations – to inject some ballast into his side’s ranks.
Hanrahan made way for Ben Healy as Sexton limped off with Ross Byrne arriving in the other direction. Jamison Gibson-Park was forced to fill in on the wing when O’Brien pulled up with a hamstring injury. There were walking wounded everywhere and it was anyone’s game heading into the final quarter. A proper derby game.
Another huge defensive intervention from Beirne and a raking touch-finder from Haley felt like big moments.
Larmour hadn’t had the best of nights on the defensive front but the Leinster wing applied the killer finish in the corner after Hugo Keenan had gathered Byrne’s grubber into the backfield. The replacement Leinster No10 added the touchline conversion for good measure.
Munster would have been seething with that. Leinster had ice in the veins and saw it out. A sickener for Van Graan’s men. This one will hurt for a while.
MUNSTER: M Haley; K Earls, C Farrell, D de Allende, S Daly; JJ Hanrahan (B Healy 53), C Murray (C Casey 74); J Cronin (D Kilcoyne 53), R Marshall (N Scannell 50), J Ryan (S Archer 53); J Kleyn, T Beirne; G Coombes (J O’Donoghue 64), P O’Mahony (capt) (F Wycherley 67), CJ Stander