No argument, the force is now blue

RUGBY/ MAGNERS LEAGUE:NOTHING QUITE defines Michael Cheika's five-year reign like the collisions with Munster – collisions being the operative word. If the 2006 Heineken Cup semi-final was an eye-opener for him, Saturday's latest triumph by 16-6 encapsulated the sea-change in Leinster's winning culture which he has overseen.

His ledger reads eight wins to five. Four wins in a row, featuring eight tries to nil, leaves little room for argument. The force is blue now and this highlighted why.

Munster turned up with true intent, though perhaps lacking a smidgen of self-belief, and a smidgen is all it requires to make the difference. By contrast, Leinster’s self-belief coursed through their veins, and in a team of stars there are no stars.

Thus, the best sides in the league will contest the final when Leinster host the Ospreys at the RDS on Saturday, May 29th (kick-off 6.30pm).

Declan Kidney and the Irish management would have winced plenty on Saturday evening, when Jerry Flannery aggravated his calf problem while warming up to come on early in the second half. A 32-man squad will be announced tomorrow for the summer tour to New Zealand and Australia, which Paul O’Connell and Stephen Ferris look set to miss, along with Luke Fitzgerald and Denis Leamy.

There seems a compelling case to rest some of the thirtysomethings who went on the Lions tour as well. As Leinster’s involvement in the Magners League final will excuse their contingent duty from the game against the Barbarians the following Friday, June 4th, an additional seven or eight players will be named for that game and be on standby for the tour.

To a Cockles and Mussels backdrop turned up to full volume on another pulsating night involving these rivals, everybody in blue readily rolled up their sleeves and contributed to the cause.

“I’ve really enjoyed that part of it,” said Cheika of the rivalry, “and it’s been a real learning curve for me, and I’m glad I was able to sign off with a victory.”

Though happy with their physicality and defence in the first half, Cheika admitted: “We weren’t rucking past the ball, we weren’t really getting good go-forward, so you can’t turn it on for 80 minutes. It’s about turning it on when you realise you’re not. The players managed it at half-time. They pin-pointed the exact issues they needed to improve on, they took responsibility for it and they did it in the second half.”

This, he said, came with the team’s increased maturity, while the ability to keep Munster tryless for the last four meetings was borne out of respect.

“I think a lot of it would be driven by the fact that we know they’re so dangerous with the ball, with guys like Earls, Howlett, de Villiers and Mafi, and O’Leary in close, they can all make breaks. Our players know them very well, they’re worried about them making breaks, so they want to make sure they defend. They got well organised in defence early.”

With Leo Cullen “hopefully” back and the performances of his props making selection difficult for the final, Cheika welcomed the home decider. “With the crowd – you heard them tonight, they were unbelievable again. We really want to make sure we do them proud.

“As far as the Ospreys are concerned, you probably won’t find a team in the league with more of an attacking threat. They’ve got a powerful set-piece, a powerful backrow: they’ve got it all. So it’s going to be down to who has got the most nerve, and who has got the most hunger.”

Munster coach Tony McGahan was generous in his praise of an “excellent” and “well-balanced” Leinster, highlighting their defence and set-pieces. But he looked crestfallen. “The boys are shattered. It’s the end of the season for us. There’s no more next week. There’s no final.”

For Munster, defeat in two semi-finals is nothing to be ashamed of. Plenty of other big-budgeted European clubs have come up shorter. Yet this was a disquietening ending to a disquietening seasonal run-in of four defeats in a row. There will be plenty of fears that the end of an era is nigh.

“There’s always going to be questions about the age profile of the side, that’s inevitable, that’s always going to be there,” admitted McGahan. “I think it’s been there for a few years and we keep rebounding back and keep competing for trophies at the top end of the season. I think there’s no doubt there are players getting to the end of their careers, that’s been well documented – 12 months and 24 months for the majority of them, so we need to keep moving on.”

Most likely it’s the beginning of the end of an era, though we shouldn’t forget that however healthier Leinster may look right now, an era will end in a fortnight with the departure of Cheika, as well as Kurt McQuilkin and Alan Gaffney. He and they will take some replacing.

In any event, Munster look like a team who need summer, whereas Leinster look like a team who have the whiff of silverware in their nostrils for a third season in a row.