SINGING THE BLUES
Fourth successive Pro14 title for dominant Leinster
THE sooner the South African heavyweights join this competition, the better.
Leinster sealed their fourth consecutive Pro14 title yesterday, with plenty to spare. They were down some key men, kept a few more in reserve for next week’s clash with Toulon and, tellingly, they were nowhere near their best, but they were still a class above Munster.
Their arch rivals are the only team who can get near them in this tournament. But they failed to land a glove on them yesterday.
Leinster have a monopoly on this league now. There is plenty of talk about the Dubs across town and their stranglehold on the Sam Maguire. It’s hard to see their dominance disrupted any time soon.
So what do you do if a juggernaut is steamrolling everyone in their wake and stockpiling trophies in the process? You bus in four of South Africa’s best franchises to try and redress the balance.
It will be fascinating to see how the Stormers, Bulls, Lions and Sharks get on in the coming years. We should get a glimpse of the them in the Rainbow Cup – a dry run for next season’s revamped Pro16 – in the coming months.
You suspect Leinster will be happy to see them on the horizon as well. They have outgrown this league. It hasn’t done them any favours when they came up against one of the big English or French outfits in Europe. Think back to when Saracens ambushed them at the Aviva last year. The Pro14 didn’t have them tuned up for the fired-up Londoners.
But that’s a debate for another day. You could only sit back and marvel at this blue machine in full flow yesterday. Fittingly, they spent the final few minutes camped on Munster’s line.
Munster’s players looked physically and emotionally shattered at the final whistle. The hosts looked quietly pleased with their evening’s efforts. They expected as much.
Leo Cullen noted with a wry grin on Friday that a lot of pundits were backing Munster. They reminded everyone why they’re top dogs in this country.
And they have the squad depth, the coaching team and the vision to keep it that way in the years ahead.
And what about Munster? This was their sixth successive loss to the Blues. A record in this rivalry and this was arguably their worst display in this fixture for quite some time.
Johann van Graan’s side were supposedly the more desperate for a win here. They are approaching 10 years without a title and had the added emotional fuel of stalwarts such as CJ Stander and Billy Holland signing off in the summer.
Meanwhile, Leinster – bulk suppliers to the national team – had been disrupted by the Six Nations and were without James Ryan, Will Connors, Caelan Doris and Garry Ringrose for good measure.
You wouldn’t have known it yesterday. It was Leinster who looked the hungrier team all evening. They were quicker to everything and grew stronger as the night went on. They had the opponents in a vice-like grip long before their star-studded bench began to appear.
Munster barely fired a shot. That will hurt the most when they board the bus for yet another depressing journey back down the M7.
The fact that the first half finished at 6-6 apiece was a minor miracle in itself. Some of that scoreline was down to Munster’s sheer grit in defence – most of it was the home side’s shocking inaccuracy.
Leinster are usually so ruthless when they set up camp in the opposition 22 and they were living rent free in Munster territory for most of the opening 40.
From the moment they rattled the visitors at the kick-off, they were quicker to everything. The likes of Ronan Kelleher, Josh van der Flier and Robbie Henshaw were punching
holes at will. They were humming like a well-oiled machine as usual. There’s a reason why they were on the hunt for a fourth consecutive title. No one can live with them when they move up the gears.
All their approach play was top drawer. But their finishing deserted them. Leinster left four tries behind them in the first half. On two separate occasions, Rory O’Loughlin couldn’t connect with Jordan Larmour on the edge with the white line at his mercy. Scott Fardy was held up over the line while Van der Flier handed the ball to Keith Earls – who showed his experience to slip into the defensive channel and intercept – after Hugo Keenan and Henshaw had blitzed they way downfield.
They had Stander to thank for a few defensive interventions while Jean Kleyn was their rock when things got dicey. Time and again, he smashed Leinster carriers back behind the gainline. Munster were living off scraps but Gavin Coombes and Damian de Allende looked threatening when afforded the rare opportunities to make a charge at the Blues defence.
A brace of penalties from the boots of Ross Byrne and Joey Carbery had things deadlocked at the break.
Cullen would have wondered how it wasn’t game over at that stage. Van Graan would have been concerned, but heartened that his side had stayed in the fight.
But Leinster would slowly grind them down in the second half. Jack Conan – one of the many who outshone his opposite number – broke the dam with the killer try and Leinster never looked back after that.