[su_dropcap style=”flat” size=”4″]L[/su_dropcap]einster are the yardstick in Irish rugby right now and if you just looked at the result here, you’d say that Munster are still falling a little short. Two points short according to the scoreboard but, as ever, the scoreboard doesn’t tell the whole story.
This was a gutsy, brave display by a Munster side crippled by injuries to key players. Cronin pulled out before the game with a groin injury. Four minutes into the game, Kilcoyne injured his ankle. Seven minutes into the game, RG Snyman fell awkwardly while competing at a Leinster lineout and tweaked his knee on the landing. Both players left the field at the same time.
Twenty-six minutes into the second half, Jean Kleyn hurt his neck in a tackle with Cian Healy, meaning he had to leave the field. For the remaining 24 minutes of the game, Munster had CJ Stander scrummaging in the second row next to Billy Holland and Rory Scannell packing down on the flank. That meant seven Munster forwards – minus our two biggest second-row forwards and with our loosehead playing 73 minutes – would be taking on a Leinster side with a 6/2 split for 25 minutes chasing an 11 point deficit.
And yet.
We were a shaved post away from a draw. We would have deserved that draw too – and maybe more – but you keep what you kill in this business and Leinster had just that little too much for us at key points.
And yet.
My usual guide for how a game went is based on a few key feelings at the end of a game. We can get tied up in stats and all that stuff but for me, that feeling at the final whistle is usually an honest enough summation of where Munster (or Ireland) are. That loss to New Zealand in the World Cup quarter-final felt like “they rumbled us and we didn’t have enough weapons to hurt them”. The loss to Saracens in the Champions Cup semi-final last season felt like “we’re too small and/or not advanced enough with the ball in hand to beat these guys”.
This game felt like “either Leinster have fallen way back or we’ve jumped a fair bit forward”, even as Casey kicked the ball dead with the clock in the red. Only the next few weeks and months will show which side of that equation is true.
On this game’s evidence, Damian De Allende will be the key to the remainder of this season.
I wondered pre-game what impact De Allende would have on Chris Farrell and I think the evidence of this 80 minutes speaks directly to that. I think this was the best we’ve seen Farrell against first-class opposition since he’s signed for Munster. For the first time in a number of seasons, Munster were able to play with two top-end ball carrying options in the wider spaces off #10 and off the set-piece. In previous seasons, we had Rory Scannell acting as a mix between a typical inside centre with some second-five stylings even though we didn’t really ever get to see either of these profiles against first-class opposition. In practice, this meant that teams like Leinster and Saracens could load up on Chris Farrell in outside space because they consistently backed their inside defenders to handle a Scannell carry.
This isn’t a knock on Scannell, it’s just an explainer of why a lot of Munster’s wider work with the ball in hand looked considerably more comfortable in this game than it has in similar games against this opponent or opponent’s like them. The big change compared to other recent games against a Category 1 Leinster side has been the addition of De Allende.
Here’s an oft used Munster strike play off a wide scrum.
We’ve run this play quite a bit but the impact of both midfield slots being physical threats has a profound effect on the defensive picture we’re looking at. De Allende’s decoy line off Murray holds in three Leinster defenders. McGrath was always going to be held by Murray on this scheme but the real key is Henshaw’s depth and width covering Sexton.
Now Farrell’s decoy line is more effective because Henshaw is having to make up a few steps extra on his defensive path across the field. That makes Farrell’s decoy line more effective because of the picture it produces on the pullback for Earls.
From here, I think the move really works if Daly is slightly more advanced on his line to make Earls pass easier but the ball still managed to arrive with Conway, who had a positive angle to attack.
On the very next phase, the threat of De Allende manipulates Leinster’s defensive press
This is a good defensive position for Leinster – we’re tied on the 5m tramline – but they still load up massively on De Allende.
Conan runs a hard line on Hanrahan’s passing lane to De Allende while Fardy and Baird have eyes on directly on him. That gives Hanrahan a look at stepping inside the press and makes a decent gain before an excellent Van Der Flier tackle.
In the buildup to Keith Earls try, De Allende’s physical presence off the ball was, again, crucial in creating space for the players outside him.
He stuck Henshaw, drew in Byrne and that gave Hanrahan a lane to pass to Earls, who had a clean 5m tramline to accelerate into and then win a collision for the try.
De Allende’s physical presence opened Farrell up for more prominence and ball carrying impact. For the first time in a few seasons against Leinster, Farrell was attacking space and positive angles. He even had the chance to narrow Leinster’s defence with his own presence.
Casey found Farrell with a perfectly paced pass, Farrell narrowed up Doris and Cronin, which allowed Hanrahan to target Gibson-Park before releasing to Daly and Conway for the finish.
Our attacking work looked pretty good for the most part. That isn’t to say that it wasn’t without error. This sequence ended with a pretty poor miscommunication between Scannell and Archer that turned over a promising series of Munster phases.
This shows the value of playing with momentum – a key Munster aim – and the pressure it puts on forward’s handling skill set in dynamic situations.
This was another example in the second half – Loughman’s out of position here and Daly can’t get the separation he needs to give the preferred pass option for Hanrahan.
Hanrahan, too, will probably want his near-intercepted crossfield kick back again. Kearney make an excellent read and take on this, but I think the real play was a pass wide to De Allende.
I’d also be looking at Scannell’s work in the centre of this three-pod. We know the call beforehand so I’d want a little more depth and animation from the player outside Holland in this instance. The outside two of the pod need to sell the possibility of a tip-on pass on this phase so that Hanrahan has more time and space to assess his options on the pullback from Holland. For me, the lack of animation outside Holland allows Porter to get straight onto Hanrahan without much in the way of concern.
Ultimately though, a loss is a loss.
We can be encouraged by the excellent lineout work, the general quality of our scrummaging, our vastly improved midfield and the pace we attacked with at times but we still lost. There are no moral victories here. Leinster might have been a little rattled by the end of the game but they still showed their quality at key points right before and right after halftime. It was enough for a narrow win.
A lot of what we might have targeted before the game went right; I thought we pressured Leinster’s lineout quite well throughout but we weren’t able to capitalise fully.
It’s natural to wonder how Munster would have done in this game without a litany of injuries to key players but we’ll never know – what we do know is that we managed to hurt Leinster with the ball in hand in a way that we haven’t for a number of years and that alone is cause for optimism.
We can’t get away from the injury toll, though. Munster will wait nervously on the scans for Kleyn, Snyman and Kilcoyne. Kleyn and Snyman, in particular, are key difference makers for us and if they are out in the medium term it’ll necessitate further style changes that will stress our skill set across the board.
On this game’s evidence, the gap that existed between these two clubs has shrunk since the semi-final last season but by how much remains to be seen as this shortened end of the season progresses. Leinster will get better with the addition of Ryan and Furlong (and perhaps Leavy) but you have to wonder how good Munster can be in a game where we aren’t torn asunder by multiple injuries. A few attacking misfires and some profligacy in the Leinster 22 came back to haunt at the end but even in defeat, this was our strongest performance against a near full strength Leinster side for a few seasons.
One thing is clear though – much of what we produced here and hope to produce going forward is dependent on the availability of our midfield pair of Farrell and De Allende.
We wait for injury news, cross our fingers and move onto Connacht.
The Wally Ratings: Leinster (A)
The Wally Ratings explainer page is here.
Players are rated based on their time on the pitch, if they were playing notably out of position, and on the overall curve of the team performance. DNP means the player did not feature and N/A means they weren’t on the pitch long enough to warrant a fair rating.
| Names | Rating |
|---|---|
| Dave Kilcoyne | N/A |
| Niall Scannell | ★★ |
| Stephen Archer | ★★★ |
| RG Snyman | N/A |
| Billy Holland | ★★★★ |
| Peter O'Mahony | ★★★★ |
| Tommy O'Donnell | ★★ |
| CJ Stander | ★★★★★ |
| Conor Murray | ★★★★ |
| JJ Hanrahan | ★★★★ |
| Keith Earls | ★★★★ |
| Damian De Allende | ★★★★ |
| Chris Farrell | ★★★★ |
| Andrew Conway | ★★★★ |
| Shane Daly | ★★★★ |
| Rhys Marshall | ★★★ |
| Jeremy Loughman | ★★ |
| John Ryan | ★★★ |
| Jean Kleyn | ★★★ |
| Chris Cloete | ★★★ |
| Craig Casey | ★★★★ |
| Rory Scannell | N/A |
| Matt Gallagher | DNP |
Notable Players
I didn’t rate RG Snyman and Dave Kilcoyne because they weren’t on the field long enough and I didn’t rate Rory Scannell due to him playing mostly in an unfamiliar role.
I felt this was a disappointing pair of performances from Niall Scannell and Tommy O’Donnell. I felt both guys looked a little off the pace physically, despite some good lineout work out of Scannell and some aggressive breakdown work from O’Donnell. ★★
I felt Peter O’Mahony and Billy Holland were really strong in the lineout in this one, especially when our lineouts reduced throughout the game. O’Mahony’s ability to win the race into the air against taller, longer players remains world-class. Holland ran a superb lineout throughout and showed outstanding handling throughout. ★★★★
I thought Murray and Hanrahan had really strong games. Yes, Hanrahan’s kick to tie the game drifted wide but I thought he played really well outside of that difficult kick. Murray’s box kicking accuracy looked back to where we expect it to be and his pass accuracy was outstanding throughout. ★★★★
Earls, Conway and Daly played really well. I felt Conway and Earls chased really strongly and took their opportunities excellently when presented with them. Conway’s work was particularly good – his kicking and footwork to beat Lowe for our third try were real highlights. Daly’s work on transition was a big improvement on earlier in the season and he looks like a proper player. ★★★★
Damian De Allende was outstanding on and off the ball as I showed above. Leinster were on high alert whenever the play came his way. I thought he was really strong on the ball when he got to surge into the wide channels where he could combine his on-ball physical threat with his smooth passing game.
His partnership with Chris Farrell looks really strong already. Farrell thrived in the extra space afforded to him by his midfield partner and he looked like the player we saw winning man of the match awards against Wales in the Six Nations. This was the best we’ve seen of Chris Farrell since his showing against Saracens in the 2019 European Cup semi-final. ★★★★
I thought Craig Casey’s cameo in the last 11 minutes was revelatory in a lot of ways. The speed of his play and the range/accuracy of his passing drove Munster’s attack to the point where Leinster looked incredibly stretched with every phase. Massively encouraging from a player who looks like he’s 100 caps, not eight.
For me, the best player on the pitch was CJ Stander who, once again, showed why he is the most complete back row currently playing on this island.
He was a breakdown threat, he scrummaged in the second row for 20 minutes, he won multiple jackal turnovers and took four lineout balls under heavy pressure.
This isn’t something that every back row player can do for the full 80 minutes but Stander seems to do it every week. If Munster are to push into a PRO14 semi-final and look to go beyond it, it’ll be built on the test-class quality of guys like Stander. Outstanding.
★★★★★
