As staple a diet of the festivities as turkey and ham has been the Yuletide meeting of Munster and Leinster at a sold-out Thomond Park. Christmas hasn’t been the same without it these past couple of years.
For each of the last two seasons this annual festive high point has been rescheduled for later in the campaign, once without any supporters in attendance which, for any fixture, takes much of the fun out of things.
So, for the first time in three Decembers it’s warmly welcomed back on St Stephen’s Day next Monday.
Of course, for the players who know they’ll be involved, taking part comes with restrictions the day beforehand. Well versed in this traditional clash, Leinster will again defer the trip to Limerick until the day of the game, which is helped by the 7.30pm kick-off, so affording their players Christmas Day with their families and loved ones.
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“You’re obviously thinking about the game, you probably won’t have any alcohol,” says Ross Molony with a wry smile.
“I’ll be with my family and will switch off from rugby for the day. The good thing about Stephen’s Day is we’ll get down early and you have that time to prepare. But I will completely switch off on Christmas Day and enjoy the time with my family.”
Besides, they’ll all be a long time retired, and it’s a fixture worth making sacrifices for, in order to play.
“Yeah, they’re our biggest rivals,” says Molony candidly. “There’s always a lot of energy around that game. It’s an enjoyable game to play in and an enjoyable game to get the rewards and win, so we’re not going to take the foot off. We’re going to go down there wanting a win and enjoying St Stephen’s Day.”
“You’re busy over Christmas with rugby but then there’s a reward there because you go down and you play in an unbelievable atmosphere. It’s a great day, it’s a big day for Munster fans and a big day out in Limerick, so it’s always entertaining, and like I said if you can go down there and make it worthwhile it’s pretty sweet.”
Jimmy O’Brien recently revealed, good-naturedly, some of the comments he overhead coming his way from the Thomond Park crowd, but then again he plays on the wing.
“Thankfully I’m usually in the scrum or in the tight,” says Molony wryly, but he admits to relishing hostile away atmospheres.
“You have to love it. It’s probably why we play. Yeah, there’s an extra edge to it. There’s obviously a few very familiar faces down there and it always goes up a notch in those games. They’re going to throw everything at us so it’s going to be brilliant.”
Molony is one of those who is actually well used to the festive restrictions due to playing in this fixture. “I’ve played in a few,” he says, and he can be forgiven for forgetting, as he’s actually played Munster in their traditional festive fixture at Thomond Park five times out of six since his first one on December 27th, 2015.
“I came off the bench and we won, I think. Zane Kirchener scored an intercept. I could be wrong now.”
Nope, he’s spot on. Leinster won 24-7, Kirchener scoring an intercept try in the 80th minute, and Molony, then 21, played the last 20 minutes off the bench.
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Molony started in Leinster’s 29-17 defeat on St Stephen’s Day a year later, didn’t play in 2018 when Leinster won 34-24, but was a replacement in both the 26-17 defeat in 2019 and 13-6 win in the last of these fully attended festive derbies in 2019.
Such regular participation is in keeping with a player who last Friday earned his 150th cap for Leinster at the age of 28 in their 57-0 win over Gloucester, having made his debut against Zebre in February 2015.
“When I got my first cap, I never thought I would have got 150. I didn’t really think about it much. My old man (Kevin) mentioned it to me earlier in the week, so he was obviously conscious of it. But I would say it’s a proud day for myself and my family. Yeah, delighted with it.”
That Molony has played 150 games and counting underlines the value in which he is held by his coaches at Leinster, for his work-rate, aerial expertise and skill set, particularly over the last season and a half. Despite the arrival of Jason Jenkins and the emergence of Joe McCarthy, as well as the presence of James Ryan, Molony has been an ever present in Leinster’s 11 games this season, starting eight of them.
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“I’m actually loving playing. I’ve featured in every game so far this season, whether coming off the bench or starting. I’m loving the planning that goes into the week, we have a really good group there with a lot of ideas, so I’m loving it.”
Already he’s played nearly 700 minutes, which typifies his durability too.
“Yeah, I’ve been lucky with injuries and it obviously says a lot about the staff we have in Leinster and the way our physios look after our players. I’ve been one of the lucky ones not to have picked up a serious injury, touch wood, so yeah, it’s been good.”
Furthermore, of course, Leinster’s forward-dominated rout of Gloucester, with four tries scored off their catch-and-drive, leaves them looking for a 12th win out of 12 next Monday.
“We have put in performances we can be really proud of, we’re dominating a lot more up front than we may have before. But we can only look at the next game, and that’s Munster in Thomond Park. That’s going to be a physical battle and we’re just going to prep that exact same way.”
