MUNSTER LEFT FEELING BLUE
Familiar result but youngsters give Reds hope for the future
THE rain arrived at halftime but it took another 20 minutes for the Munster dam to burst. When Luke McGrath burrowed his way over the line, it finally put some daylight on the scoreboard between a jittery Leinster and a rookie Munster side who had been written off as cannon fodder.
At that stage, you expected Leinster to run riot. The severelydepleted visitors were looking a bit ragged after a courageous display. When replacement wing Rob Russell scampered over for a late try, it sealed the bonus point, and the win. The records will show yet another Leinster victory in this derby, but there were grounds for optimism in this Munster side’s display.
Graham Rowntree has a hefty injury list at the moment. The Munster head coach went into this game without the likes of Peter O’Mahony, Tadhg Beirne, Andrew Conway and Keith Earls, some of a host of frontliners who are currently unavailable.
Still, this youthful selection was a bold move from Rowntree. And the rookies repaid his faith in spades here. There were huge shifts from Diarmuid Barron, Tom Ahern, John Hodnett and Gavin Coombes. Jack Crowley showed no shortage of promise. The game was long gone by the end, but the sight of 19-yearold Ruadhan Quinn and a 20-yearold Patrick Campbell in the thick of it will hearten Rowntree and the long-suffering fanbase.
Joey Carbery going off with a shoulder injury in the second half was not a welcome sight, for club or country, especially with the November internationals just around the corner.
Otherwise, Rowntree will feel he has a base to build from now. Leinster might have been off their game last night, but they remain a class outfit. This Munster side is raw but there was more than enough evidence that this group can close the gap in the years ahead. Youth is the blueprint for Rowntree.
There was a hint of David and Goliath about this fixture. The gulf in class and experience was pretty stark when you sized up the team sheets.
Take Robbie Henshaw v Rory Scannell, for example. Here we had a Test Lion with 60 Test caps and arguably one of the best centres in the world against a player with just three Ireland caps to his name – the last earned in 2017 – who has fallen well down the Munster midfield pecking in recent times.
Then there was Keynan Knox packing down against Cian Healy, a 23-year-old tighthead making only his 10th senior start against a grizzled veteran who has represented his province on 252 occasions – not to mention his 118 Ireland caps. Healy may not be the same barnstorming force around the pitch but the 35-year-old remains a menace in the set-piece.
The gulf in resources was glaringly apparent when you saw how each side filled a void at tighthead. The late withdrawal of Tadhg Furlong was a huge blow, but Leinster had a quality replacement in Michael Ala’alatoa.
When Knox was sin-binned midway though the first half, Jeremy Loughman, a loosehead by trade, had to switch across to do an emergency gig on the tighthead side. Not ideal.
Loughman has been training there of late, given that Stephen Archer and Roman Salanoa are carrying injuries. It was one of many departments where Munster were at the bare bones. Leinster have no such worries.
It merely added to the pre-match narrative that Munster were in big trouble. This was a daunting challenge for this depleted Munster side, no question.
It was an opportunity as well though. After all, these young bucks don’t have the same emotional baggage as their more experienced teammates. There is not the same fear and loathing of the trip up the M7 for this rookie crew.
Can you even call this a rivalry when Munster had won just three of the previous 18 encounters?
The scale of the task at hand was apparent from the moment Johnny Sexton landed the first kickoff on top of Crowley, on his maiden start at full-back. For the next 40 minutes, Munster were on the ropes. Leinster, as is their way, attacked in waves. They seemingly broke the line at will, with Ciaran Frawley, Jamie Osborne and Garry Ringrose punching holes. Dan Sheehan, Jason Jenkins and Caelan Doris were making their
presence felt in the tight exchanges. It was all eerily familiar. At times, you felt the floodgates would open.
Munster, to their immense credit, dug in with some of the old-school grit which defined the halcyon Heineken Cup days. It helps that the hosts were uncharacteristically wasteful in possession. By our calculations, they had nine visits into Munster’s red zone, but left with just seven points to show for all their efforts. The fact the Reds had Knox and then Jean Kleyn in the sin-bin for swathes of a frantic first half merely underlined the scale of this rearguard effort.
All things considered, Rowntree would have been delighted with the half-time score of 7-6. Leo Cullen, on the other hand, will have been mystified to see so many balls on the deck. You could understand the prolifigacy in Galway last week when the downpour was torrential. Conditions were near perfect in the Aviva, however.
Sexton and Healy were guilty of handling errors at key moments, but the sight of Osborne – having a fine game otherwise – botching a certain try , twice, in the space of 30 seconds would have been utterly galling for Cullen and the Leinster management. Sexton’s face as he made his way off the field at the break told it all. The Leinster captain was utterly miffed with his side’s inaccuracy.
Eventually, they pulled away in the second half, their heavyweight bench, featuring Andrew Porter and Jack Conan making a big difference.
Once again, Munster leave Dublin with no points. Nothing new there. The sight of a fresh-faced brigade putting it up to their illustrious rivals was very much a new development, mind.
Munster can build from this. They have no shortage of raw material, clearly. Backing the kids is the way forward.