Munster’s win over Leinster this weekend was incredibly special — you know this — with a massive defensive performance, but this isn’t just DefendBall; you have to be able to go up the other end and convert when the moments arrive.
We did just that with one of the punchiest, most effective ORW performances I can remember from this group against Leinster.
So let’s get into it.
Munster’s OFFENSIVE RUCK WORK SCORE vs Leinster
- A Dominant Clean is an action that decisively secures possession or that puts the defending player on the ground and keeps them there. It is worth 3 points.
- A Guard Action is where a player plays a role in helping to retain possession and either secures against a counter-ruck or ensures the players we’ve put on the ground stay there. Let’s assign this action 2 points.
- An Attendance can be anything from adding a bit of bulk to ward against a counter-ruck to extending your leg to make space for a box kick. I’m marking this down as being worth 1 point.
- An Ineffective Action is a blown cleanout, a lean, a breakdown penalty or an action that I couldn’t see any direct benefit for. This will be worth -2 points.
| Player | Dominant | Guard | Attendance | Ineffective | Total Actions | ORW Score | ORW / Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7. O'Donoghue | 3 | 12 | 0 | 1 | 16 | 31 | 1.94 |
| 1. Milne | 3 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 23 | 2.3 |
| 4. Edogbo | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 21 | 1.91 |
| 5. F. Wycherley | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 21 | 2.33 |
| 2. D. Barron | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 19 | 2.38 |
| 3. Ryan | 1 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 15 | 1.67 |
| 6. Beirne | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 15 | 1.88 |
| 15. Daly | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 15 | 2.14 |
| 13. Farrell | 0 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 14 | 1.75 |
| 12. Kelly | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 14 | 2.33 |
| 19. Kleyn | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 13 | 2.17 |
| 8. Gleeson | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 12 | 2.0 |
| 16. L. Barron | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 12 | 2.0 |
| 20. Coombes | 0 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 12 | 1.5 |
| 17. Loughman | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 11 | 2.2 |
| 18. Foxe | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 11 | 2.2 |
| 23. Nankivell | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 10 | 2.0 |
| 11. Abrahams | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 2.0 |
| 9. Coughlan | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 2.5 |
| 21. Patterson | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3.0 |
| 22. Hanrahan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| 10. Crowley | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 |
| 14. Smith | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 |
TOP TEN ORW PERFORMERS
| Player | Dom | Guard | Att | Inef | Acts | ORW | ORW/Act |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7. O’Donoghue | 5 | 21 | 0 | 2 | 28 | 53 | 1.89 |
| 4. Edogbo | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 21 | 1.91 |
| 1. Milne | 5 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 27 | 2.45 |
| 2. D. Barron | 5 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 27 | 2.45 |
| 5. F. Wycherley | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 23 | 2.56 |
| 6. Beirne | 3 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 11 | 22 | 2.00 |
| 15. Daly | 2 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 18 | 1.80 |
| 13. Farrell | 0 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 18 | 1.80 |
| 8. Gleeson | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 16 | 2.00 |
| 12. Kelly | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 17 | 2.43 |
From an efficiency perspective, Fineen Wycherley, Michael Milne, Diarmuid Barron and Dan Kelly added the most impact per action on the ORW scoring of players that had more than six ruck entries.
What does this mean?
That, when they made a ruck entry, they were really good at ending that collision point in Munster’s favour. Very little wasted movement, lots of accurate spot-picking.
Team Summary
-
Dominant 167 | Guard 100 | Attendance 7 | Ineffective 4 → Total actions 278
-
ORW 700
-
ORW/Action 2.52
-
Actions/Ruck 4.79, ORW/Ruck 12.07
-
Mix: Dom 60.1%, Guard 36.0%, Att 2.5%, Inef 1.4%
So what did we actually see here?
These numbers look good, yes, but what do they actually mean? We had 58 rucks total in this game, with 36 in the first half, as part of a concerted effort to “off-ball” Leinster and defend them high up the pitch, mixed some of the best red-zone defence you’ll see all season.
But when we attacked with the ball, we did so with real accuracy. It’s not just enough to defend Leinster in-depth, you have to be able to poison them when you get up the field and that doesn’t happen without intense and accurate ruck work.
The platform jumped a tier
Efficiency peak: ORW/Action 2.52 — up from 1.97 (R3) and 1.93 (R2). That’s roughly a +28–31% lift in quality per action versus the last two weeks.
Per-possession surge: ORW/Ruck 12.07 (R3: 6.69, R2: 4.48). With 58 rucks, Munster produced more than double the platform per possession than in the storm-affected R2 and ~+80% on R3.
Workload scaled cleanly: Actions/Ruck 4.79 (R3: 3.39, R2: 2.31). More done on each ruck, without trading away efficiency. This was easier — relatively speaking —
Mix flipped — from guard-heavy to displacement-led
Dominant% 60.1 | Guard% 36.0 (R3: 17.6 | 72.4; R2: 21.6 | 66.8).
This is the season’s first Dominant-led profile, and it explains the efficiency jump: +3 events (dominants) replaced a chunk of +2s (guards). It also aligns with how the game looked — Leinster bodies being moved rather than guarded against around contact.
Discipline at scale
Ineffective just 1.4% (R3: 3.4%, R2: 5.5%). Doing more and doing it cleanly is why the per-ruck platform exploded.
Who drove it?
Volume anchor: Jack O’Donoghue 53 ORW (28 acts) — sustained guard work with enough dominance to lead the ledger.
Middle-third power: Edogbo 21 ORW (balanced Dom/Guard with attendance), giving repeat displacement in heavy traffic in the first half.
Front-row efficiency: Milne (27 ORW, 2.45/act), D. Barron (27, 2.45/act), F. Wycherley (23, 2.56/act) — hooker/loosehead/lock trio hitting top-end returns per touch, Barron in particular, is notable here, as he only played 40 minutes.
Backfield glue: Daly (18 ORW, 1.80/act) and Farrell (18, 1.80/act) kept the edge clean; Kelly (17, 2.43/act) stayed hyper-efficient on lower volume. Their ruck entries also made sure that Jack Crowley didn’t have to hit a ruck once, which was vitally important to managing our position on both sides of the ball. Offensively, you want Crowley at first receiver on every phase when you only use 58 rucks, and you don’t want him burning energy that could be used on the defensive side of the ball either.
How it fits our season arc
Actions/Ruck: 2.36 → 2.31 → 3.39 → 4.79 (R1→R4)
ORW/Ruck: 4.71 → 4.48 → 6.69 → 12.07
ORW/Action: 2.00 → 1.93 → 1.97 → 2.52
Munster have progressed from guard-heavy security (R1–R3) to a dominant-first, high-efficiency engine (R4). That’s the profile of a side that can generate fast, repeatable ball and close big games.
***
The ORW scoring of Diarmuid Barron and Edwin Edogbo in the first half pushed them both to four star performances.
