Leinster 15 Munster 16
Rumours of this rivalry’s demise, or even reduced quality, are indeed premature. At any rate, Munster have had their day and are now within one game of ending their 11-season trophy drought thanks to this memorable and deserved win at the end of an epic, tumultuous old battle.
This was only their second win over their all-dominant rivals in the last dozen meetings but was easily their biggest since the 2011 Magners League final victory in Thomond Park. They will now seek to dethrone the holders, the Stormers, in Cape Town on Saturday week (kick-off 6.30pm local time/5.30pm Irish).
Leinster will feel acute pain over this, but will now have to take it on the chin and beat La Rochelle next Saturday in their last game of the season to avoid a repeat of last season’s anticlimactic trophyless haul.
[ Leinster 15 Munster 16 - As it happenedOpens in new window ]
By the end here, the noise levels and the emotional investment of the supporters in the 26,795-strong crowd mirrored that of the unwavering commitment of the players.
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The intensity, ambition and willingness to throw bodies on the line, if anything, increased rather than ebbed as the game reached an extraordinary crescendo as players played on memory, and Jack Crowley delivered the match-winning 78th-minute drop goal to reward one last astonishing effort by his team.
Boxing analogies are often used but rarely more apt. The two teams slugged it out, each pinning the other against the ropes, but each defending defiantly, almost to a standstill.
Bravery comes in many forms and Munster just about deserved it for their unwavering ambition and determination to keep the ball alive. The frontrowers continually showed their skill set, while John Hodnett and Gavin Coombes had barnstorming games. The Ben Healy and Crowley 10-12 axis worked a treat, pulling the ball back or tipping it on to runners from deep. And typifying the new Munster, Shane Daly appeared to be everywhere.
Some small measure of comfort for Leinster can come in the performances of Josh van der Flier and Robbie Henshaw on their return, and a strong shift from Rónan Kelleher, as well as some classy performances by their younger tyros, an example being Harry Byrne, a talented player whose body is now finally letting him fulfil his potential.
The game was only a minute old when Will Connors took the ball into contact and, double tackled by Diarmuid Barron and Hodnett, his head bounced heavily off the ground. Referee Frank Murphy, close by, immediately stopped play and after five minutes of treatment, the desperately unlucky flanker was taken off on a mobile stretcher.
This was only Connors’s fourth game of the season, and seventh in the last three injury-plagued seasons. This really can be a cruel game.
Barron’s tackle was judge to be sufficiently neck high, if passive, to warrant a penalty which Byrne landed.
A 79-minute run-out for Josh van der Flier on his first game back since being sidelined since the quarter-final win over Toulouse with an ankle injury probably wasn’t in Leo Cullen’s ideal scenario.
But the World Player of the Year was quickly into his stride to ignite yet another huge game. With his first involvement inside two minutes he won a penalty in the jackal and not long after followed up a big hit on Jeremy Loughman close to the Leinster line with an important rip.
Still, Healy was probing dangerously and after one of his half-breaks Jack Conan placed his hands on the ground in first over-reaching in the jackal, for the Munster outhalf to level the scores with a thumping 45-metre penalty.
Each team turned down three and each were repelled by big defensive sets in a nip and tuck first opening quarter before Ryan Baird, having earlier reclaimed a restart, appear to have scored when sharply gathering a loose ball and galloping over from almost 50 metres by beating Mike Haley’s tackle. But replays showed that as well as Peter O’Mahony tapping down Luke McGrath’s box kick, the ball had brushed Tommy O’Brien’s right hand or wrist and the ‘try’ was rightly chalked off.
Reprieved, Munster upped their intensity and ambition, that 10-12 axis working well as they looked to reach the edges, and after Healy kicked them in front, twice they turned down three more points to go to the corner. But first Max Deegan ripped the ball out from Munster’s maul for Dave Kearney to hoof clear, and then Kelleher dislodged the ball from Tadgh Beirne for Conan to charge 25 metres up the pitch to a huge roar.
Both penalties were against McGrath, for tackling while on the ground and for a one-handed knock-down, which could easily have led to a yellow.
In any event, one felt Munster would pay for their missed opportunities, and so it proved nearing half-time when Leinster sensed their moment.
A lovely move gave Henshaw a half-gap, which was all he needed, and the men in blue probed until Henhsaw again, reading his options before receiving the ball and using his footwork to take two tackles, offloaded for Jason Jenkins to finish well from about 20 metres, breaking Crowley’s tackle en route. Byrne’s conversion made it 10-6 to Leinster at the break.
Healy, having gone off for a blood wound before half-time to be replaced by Rory Scannell, did not reappear for the second half, and not did Jimmy O’Brien, replaced during the break by Ciarán Frawley.
But Munster resumed with renewed purpose and ferocity; O’Mahony charging upfield and Coombes galloping into clear grass off Loughman’s offload, but Van der Flier cleverly cut off the pass.
Five minutes of intense pressure and another decision to eschew three points with a close-range tap was deservedly rewarded when Beirne ploughed over with a penalty advantage and a little help from Barron, Hodnett and Fineen Wycherley.
Game on. Battle lines drawn. Far from easing down, across the line the players all turned up their physicality in contact. The two sets of players had gone to another zone.
Beirne wasn’t done. Frist he dived on a loose ball as Leinster hammered ever closer at the Leinster line, then he intercepted a Byrne pass as Coombes cleverly kicked downfield.
But after they again turned down three only to be forced back by Leinster’s competitiveness in the air, Roman Salanoa knocked on five metres out when tackled hard by Jenkins and Baird for Deegan to hoof clear.
It then appeared they had run their race, exhaustion after the South African trip taking hold. You had to admire their constant willingness to keep the ball alive but when Wycherley’s pass went to ground, Michael Ala’alatoa dived on to it and Byrne sharply kicked downfield, where the covering Haley just did enough to deny Tommy O’Brien the touchdown.
Not that it mattered, Leinster upping the gears from the goal-line restart and got their recycling rhythm into top gear. The difference was that their around the corner and one-off runners were making more inches through contact, and thus the ruck ball was quicker, until Joe McCarthy – who had a big impact – scored from close-range.
Crucially though, Frawley for some reason assumed the goalkicking duties from Byrne, and missed the conversion, which admittedly wasn’t easy.
Even though the gap was still only two, too many Munster players looked out on their feet, but somehow they summoned the ambition, skills and energy to break out from their behind their own line, Hodnett offloading to Rory Scannell and then taking the return to scamper out of the 22.
They won an ensuing kicking duel, and pounded through the phases some more, staying true to their principles in looking for team-mates with passes or offloads behind, until setting up a ruck in front of the Leinster posts.
Craig Casey hit Crowley, who struck the ball the decisive blow as calmly and accurately as any outhalf off the Cork Con/Munster production line.
Baird was in front of the restart, reserve tight head Thomas Clarkson and Leinster again put in a big shove – their increased supremacy having gone unrewarded, but Alex Kendellen did well to pick up and break off the base. A few phases later, just past the 80, Casey kicked the ball dead.
An epic finale to an epic game.
SCORING SEQUENCE – 2 mins: Byrne pen 3-0; 11: Healy pen 3-3; 24: Healy pen 3-6; 38: Jenkins try, Byrne con 10-6; (half-time 10-6); 46: Beirne try, Crowley con 10-13; 63: McCarthy try 15-13; 78: Crowley drop goal 15-16.
LEINSTER: Jimmy O’Brien; Tommy O’Brien, Robbie Henshaw, Charlie Ngatai, Dave Kearney; Harry Byrne, Luke McGrath (capt); Michael Milne, Rónan Kelleher, Michael Ala’alatoa; Ryan Baird, Jason Jenkins; Max Deegan, Will Connors, Jack Conan.
Replacements: Josh van der Flier for Connors (2 mins), Ciarán Frawley for J O’Brien (h-t), Cian Healy for Milne (48), Joe McCarthy for Jenkins (61), John McKee for Kelleher (65), Nick McCarthy for McGrath (68), Thomas Clarkson for Ala’alatoa (71), Liam Turner for Ngatai (79).
MUNSTER: Mike Haley; Keith Earls, Antoine Frisch, Jack Crowley, Shane Daly; Ben Healy, Craig Casey; Jeremy Loughman, Diarmuid Barron, Stephen Archer; Jean Kleyn, Tadhg Beirne; Peter O’Mahony (capt), John Hodnett, Gavin Coombes.
Replacements: Rory Scannell for Healy (32 mins), Fineen Wycherley for Kleyn (46), Niall Scannell for Barron, Josh Wycherley for Loughman, Roman Salanoa for Archer, Jack O’Donoghue for O’Mahony (all 52), Alex Kendellen for Beirne (71),
Not used: Neil Cronin.
Referee: Frank Murphy (IRFU).
