MAGNERS LEAGUE MUNSTER v LEINSTER: GERRY THORNLEYexamines the intense rivalry between the two provinces that is built on mutual respect rather than enmity
AS RONAN O’Gara has since revealed, there was a seminal moment at that Ireland squad get-together in the Marriott Hotel in Enfield when bringing up the issue of whether Ireland were as tightly knit as Munster proved a cathartic experience.
It had been bravely brought up for discussion by Rob Kearney – not so much questioning anyone’s commitment, more whether the bond in green was as tight as the bond in red – and once out in the open it was dealt with in depth and put to bed.
Thereafter, from the opening game against France, it became abundantly clear there was an even greater closeness and friendship within the Ireland squad, which went a long way towards sustaining their assault on a Grand Slam. Yet, here they are today, just two weeks after that seismic evening in Cardiff, when Munster and Leinster friends become foes again.
You’d imagine it’s a strange dynamic, all the more so in the immediate aftermath of the greatest Ireland championship campaign in over six decades. But it’s probably stranger to those of us on the outside than those inside.
“It’s not as grandiose as saying brothers fighting,” says Denis Hickie, the ex-Leinster and Ireland winger. “I suppose it can seem a little strange, but to the guys playing it’s as natural as anything, and guys are very comfortable with it and look forward to it. I think it’s actually that aspect the players look forward to. It’s the level of closeness that makes the game what it is. That’s half the morbid fascination with people coming to watch it.”
If Hickie could encapsulate the reason for the increased rivalry between the two provinces in one word, it would be “respect”.
“The people you want to beat the most are the people you respect the most, in a rugby sense, and I think that’s what spurred a lot of the rivalry of late. As guys get to know each other more, so they want to beat each other more.”
Completely unprompted, “respect” is also the word used by Anthony Foley, ex-Munster rival and Ireland team-mate of Hickie’s for many years. “It’s a respectful rivalry, it’s not a rivalry built on hate. It’s more a rivalry built on competition and fellas being competitive, trying to get the upper hand on fellas they would be in national camp with and vying for positions there. So it was always one of those games you didn’t need to get up for much.”
In any event, Hickie maintains he never detected a Leinster-Munster divide in the Ireland squad. “All the provinces are different, and they’re all different in their own way and they need to be, because they’re all from different parts of the country. But it’s a pretty small country, so we’re not that far apart. There’s always been guys from one province who don’t like guys from another province, but that’s not necessarily a Leinster-Munster thing.”
Historically, Munster would always have harboured a grievance that in the old days of the Ireland Big Five, they were often given the short end of the stick when it came to representation on the Ireland team. They were probably entitled to be a little paranoid, and, in a sense, the Leinster-Munster rivalries developed within the AIL and latterly, more regular meetings at provincial level have helped them achieve political and selectorial parity.
“I think that’s gone,” Foley says of the old injustices. “When you look at the Irish side at the moment, you can see that players are being treated fairly across the board for a number of years now.
“The times of the five selectors has moved on, when there was usually a few weird selections, I’m reliably informed,” he adds, with the career of his father Brendan perhaps a reference point.
Like much that’s good in modern-day Irish rugby, even the origins of this renewed, more intense provincial rivalry can be traced more to the clubs.
Hickie played on a star-studded St Mary’s team that was the one consistent contender from Leinster amid the initial hegemony of the Munster clubs, and for a few years their rivalry with Shannon was the stand-out fixture of the club season.
“We had some brutal battles with Shannon and Young Munster and Garryowen, which is well known, and they had some tough games down here,” recalls Hickie. “Shannon never won a game in Mary’s while I was playing with Mary’s. And they were as mindful of that as we were.
“Nobody wanted to lose on their home patch, and that transferred to the provinces. It’ll be the same on Saturday. Nobody wants to lose their home game.”
The rivalry took on a new intensity and interest when they met in the inaugural Celtic League final, then struggling for identity and without a sponsor, in December 2001. The organisers were taken aback when an estimated crowd of 30,000 turned up on the second last Saturday before Christmas.
“I remember the BBC covered it,” recounts Foley, which only serves to remind us what a huge advertisement that final was for both Irish rugby and the league itself, “and they were talking about tribal war within Ireland. But on the day Leinster played far better than us, and kicked into gear in the second half with a couple of tries.”
Coming hard on the heels of Munster’s Heineken Cup final defeat the previous May to Northampton made it particularly painful for Munster.
Eric Miller was sent off in the 26th minute, but, in what was something of a stunning turnaround, Leinster recovered from a 15-6 deficit into the wind early in the second half to turn the game on its head with two brilliant tries by Gordon D’Arcy and man-of-the-match Shane Horgan to win 24-20.
“Eric kicked me in the balls and got sent-off,” recalls Foley with a slight chuckle. “It was getting pretty intense and Trevor Brennan always brought a little bit of spice to the whole occasion; a man with a Munster mentality playing in the Leinster team. So it was always a competitive occasion.”
It helped too that, starting that day, Leinster began to win a few matches and become true rivals, for as Andy Roddick once said, disarmingly, of his frequent meetings with Roger Federer when the Swiss maestro was at his magisterial best, the American would have to win a few matches for it to count as a rivalry.
For much of the late ’90s Munster had become a dominant force in the interpros, and went into that Celtic League final unbeaten in the sides’ previous five meetings after winning three interprovincial titles in a row under Declan Kidney.
The following season, they didn’t meet, and in 2003-04 and ’04-05 both sides were usually diluted by frontliners being unavailable. All that changed in ’05-06. Munster routed Leinster 33-11 in Musgrave Park in October, before Felipe Contepomi inspired a remarkable 35-23 win in their first meeting at the RDS.
Hickie made his comeback as a 71st minute replacement for Brian O’Driscoll that day after recovering from a dislocated knee. “It was an emotional match and that series was really big,” says Hickie. But that, of course, was as nothing compared to what happened next.
The Heineken Cup semi-final. The mother of all Irish derbies; Leinster v Munster in a Lansdowne Road, 47,800 sell-out. Small forests were probably cut down to accommodate what we wrote in the build-up. As the match neared, it dominated the airwaves. It seemed to assume a lifeforce all of its own. Tickets were like gold dust but the Munster fans proved hungrier and more resourceful, as the Red Army and their team simply took over the joint.
“The hype around that semi-final game was something to behold,” recalls Foley, the Munster captain then and almost still in wonderment of it all. “I’ve never come across anything like it before and unless it happens again this year it will be very hard to get it again.
“It was built as an All-Ireland final, as red v blue, ‘what colour are you?’ The way Munster took over Lansdowne Road that day and made it a sea of red was something to behold as well. It was unbelievable walking out on the pitch and seeing that.”
Foley admits the 30-6 scoreline flattered them, with Contepomi having an horrendous day with his kicking and Munster adorning the scoreboard with late tries by Ronan O’Gara and Trevor Halstead.
“There’s never been much between the sides and there probably never will be, because of the ambition and the passion that both sides will bring to it.”
You feel almost sorry for bringing it up with Hickie. “There’s no hiding from it, and there’s no hiding from the result. That was one of the hardest losses I ever had to bear, in any match – international or otherwise. And that’s not a bad thing, it’s just the way things were. It was a pain in the rear at the time and it’s still something I remember very well. But if I can take myself away from the emotion I do recognise it was a fantastic day for Irish sport, it just wasn’t a fantastic day for Leinster.”
That game also, probably, increased the rivalry between large chunks of the fans to a new – at times even excessive – level of bitterness. “I think the crowd rivalry was always fairly bitter before that,” sighs Hickie.
As for the rivalry on the pitch, Hickie doesn’t recall the matches as especially nasty, whatever about being ferocious and competitive. “Some of them have been nasty, but not many of them really. I’m not saying everything was above board. You’d have to ask players who were in the coalface, but I think guys generally know where to put a line on it.”
Hickie has no doubt it’s been a great rivalry, and beneficial for Irish rugby. “It’s provided very competitive matches, and a lot of times in crucial parts of the season. The Irish season needs to be punctuated by those sort of games. They seem to come at a time when both teams needed a really tough match to play in.”
That certainly applies this evening, what with their Heineken Cup quarter-finals next weekend. Of course, victory for both in those would realise another semi-final ding-dong, this time in Croke Park, three weeks later. But as Foley says, that’s 160 minutes of rugby away, the multi-talented Ospreys will be coming to Thomond Park “in the tall grass”, and Harlequins’ 60-pointer against Worcester on Wednesday night to go top of the English Premiership is a reminder of the task facing Leinster in the Stoop.
Nonetheless, one way or the other, they will meet again. Don’t know where, don’t know when, but this one is set to run and run.
Blasts from the past
Interprovincial Championship Sep 28th, 1996, Donnybrook Leinster 40 Munster 45
Munster had won five of the previous seven meetings and this remarkable win would spark a run of six wins out of the next seven.
Still the highest scoring game between the two rivals, Leinster outscored Munster by five tries to three but with the help of 17 points from the boot of winger Brian Begley and another 10 from Michael Lynch ensured that a late try by Eddie Halvey secured a memorable win.
Celtic League Final Dec 15th, 2001, Lansdowne Road Leinster 24 Munster 20
Leinster had won just three of the previous 14 meetings, went into the game as underdogs, were reduced to 14 men in the 26th minute and were trailing 15-6 into the wind, whereupon they turned the game on its head after two Nathan Spooner penalties.
Following a Denis Hickie counter-attack, Keith Gleeson and Shane Horgan combined to put Gordon D’Arcy over before Nathan Spooner and Brian O’Driscoll combined for Horgan to score.
Heineken Cup Semi-fina l Apr 23th, 2006, Lansdowne Road Munster 30 Leinster 6
The build-up to the mother of all Irish derbies ensured a fever pitch occasion on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Ballsbridge, when the Munster hordes turned the old ground into a sea of red for a game Leinster went into as slight favourites.
Leading by 16-6 inside the final 10 minutes of the match, despite having Federico Pucciariello sin-binned and Anthony Foley forced off the field, tries by Ronan O’Gara and Trevor Halstead in the final four minutes secured an emphatic victory before going on the beat Biarritz in the final, O’Gara’s 20-point haul putting the seal on his Ronan Conquest.
