A marvellous game of rugby. Once again, this fixture fulfilled its description as the hottest local derby in world rugby. The teams’ positions in the Magners League seemed insignificant when set beside the sheer intensity of the drama, with all its fascinating sub-plots. We had two Lions captains forced from the field, one for illegal play, the other, sadly, because of injury — Paul O'Connell looked to suffer a serious ankle injury early in the second half. And we had the mother of all comebacks from Munster, who looked down and out at half-time, by which stage Leinster led 20-9.
There was a place-kicking duel between Ronan O’Gara and Jonny Sexton too, and naturally, it boiled down to an O’Gara penalty, from wide on the left, with 20 seconds remaining. Having missed his previous shot at goal from the same part of the pitch, we wondered if doubts would seep in. Not a bit of it. The ball bisected the posts. Seconds later, O’Gara was chipping the ball into the crowd and a painful run of five successive defeats to Leinster had been ended.
Judging by O’Connell’s midweek comments about duty, self-respect, it was safe to expect his team-mates would bring intensity to the early exchanges. They duly obliged, with O’Gara directing them in the general direction of Luke Fitzgerald on Leinster’s left wing — clearly, Munster reckoned Fitzgerald’s confidence might be shaky. And there was a back-to-basics feel about the build-up to O’Gara’s first penalty, with the maul creating enough pressure to force Leinster to drag it down.
Munster’s basics at restart receptions weren’t perfect, however, and against these opponents, they needed to be — within two minutes of O’Gara’s penalty, Sexton had scored one himself. Munster went in search of something more substantial and another attacking lineout looked promising but Damien Varley overthrew and in the end, Munster had to be happy with a second O’Gara penalty. Once again, they failed to deal with the restart and Sexton punished them again.
The pattern was broken when Sexton kicked Leinster in front, after O’Connell had clambered all over Kevin McLaughlin at the lineout, and there was already a sense that Munster’s initial anger had been exhausted. They were then punished ruthlessly for another sloppy piece of restart work as O’Gara kicked the ball out on the full.
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Munster’s front row were penalised for an early engagement but Leo Cullen opted for the re-set rather than the penalty. Leinster had something planned for this situation and they executed it perfectly — Mike Ross giving Boss the angle to run right off Heaslip’s pop, then O’Driscoll delivering a perfectly weighted inside pass for Isa Nacewa, which carved Munster open. The full-back then dinked an inch-perfect ball into the right corner for Horgan and he celebrated his 200th Leinster cap appropriately. Sexton missing the conversion was the only blot.
Munster needed to respond, but the limitations of their attack were cruelly exposed. Paul O’Connell stood flat off one ruck and was driven back remorselessly as Richardt Strauss went low and McLaughlin lifted him off his feet. Next time O’Connell got the ball, he floored it. Only David Wallace was taking contact on his terms and one of his surges brought a third penalty for O’Gara.
His 40m kick just about crawled over the crossbar, and the fly-half looked like he was struggling from the physicality of the contest. First Sean O’Brien splattered him, then Jamie Heaslip did it. There was a clinical precision about everything Leinster did, whereas Munster kept fluffing their lines.
The pressure on Munster was showing in other ways. After several team warnings from referee Small for illegal work at the breakdown, Johne Murphy was sent to the bin. Sexton kicked the penalty and Munster were fortunate that they didn’t go another man down following Strauss’s gallop through the middle. Tony Buckley opted to concede three points rather than seven and Small let him away with it. Had this anything to do with the fact that Munster were already one man light?
Munster had no time to consider the whys and wherefores. The fear of humiliation brought a powerful response from them in the third quarter, as they tore back into Leinster with ferocious intensity, ignoring the sight of O’Connell being helped from the pitch.
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Leinster’s lead was reduced in three-point increments, as Leinster lived illegally to stem the red flow, hitting the rucks form the side, clambering at the lineout and Mike Ross dropping his bind at the scrum. Approaching the final quarter, Munster were trailing by two and Thomond was its old self again. They snuck back in front in the 61st minute when O’Driscoll was given his marching orders — another offence at the breakdown. Typically, though, Leinster scored their solitary points of the second half when O’Driscoll was absent. But the drama was only beginning.
Star man: Ronan O’Gara (Munster)
Scorers: Munster: Pens: O’Gara (7), Warwick Leinster: Try: Horgan 22 Pen: Sexton (6) Yellow cards: Munster: Murphy 35 Leinster: O’Driscoll 61
Referee: A Small (England)
Attendance: 26.000
Munster: F Jones (P Warwick 76min); D Howlett, J Murphy (S Tuitupou 63min), L Mafi, K Earls; R O'Gara (P Warwick 41-45min), C Murray (P Stringer 67min); W du Preez (M Horan 67min), D Varley (M Sherry 76min), T Buckley (J Hayes 67min), D O'Callaghan, P O'Connell (capt, M O’Driscoll 46min), D Ryan (D Leamy 54min), D Wallace, J Coughlan.
Leinster: I Nacewa; S Horgan (M McFadden 66min), B O'Driscoll, G D'Arcy, L Fitzgerald; J Sexton, I Boss (E Reddan 58min); C Healy (H van der Merwe 56min), R Strauss, M Ross, L Cullen (capt), N Hines, K McLaughlin (R Ruddock 64min), S O'Brien, J Heaslip