It seemed bordering on cruel, as if rubbing Munster’s noses in the iconic Croke Park grass. The 40 minutes were up. A second penalty under the posts. Take the three and trot off 24-5 to the good. No, Leinster tapped again and, of course, it had to be RG Snyman to secure the bonus-point try.
On the day when Leinster scooped another financial jackpot, perhaps nothing illustrated the class divide, or their socioeconomic advantages, more than that one play when Snyman ploughed through Stephen Archer and Craig Casey. It was an unequal contest.
“To get 20 points, you can’t ask for anything more,” ventured a contented Leo Cullen after this statement, 26-12 bonus-point win ensured a maximum haul from Leinster’s first four URC games. Well, another two million or so sure helps.
Leading 26-5 nearing the hour, nothing epitomised Leinster’s defensive desire more than Thomas Clarkson busting a gut to help Hugo Keenan deny Alex Nankivell a try after another break by the impressive Tom Farrell.
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Jamie Osborne, physical in defence, strong and skilful in attack, then shot up to subsequently drive Nankivell back as a prelude to Liam Turner and Ciaran Frawley counter-rucking to win a turnover penalty. Leinster’s ensuing celebrations were as animated as for any of their four tries, which told us much about their mentality on the day and in that second-half especially.
“The players drove everything this week,” said Cullen in admiration of that defensive sequence. “They just know the enormity of the occasion and they want to just put it out there for the fans that are turning out to see them. That’s what you want to see and that’s why the fans turn out to watch it as well.”
With Jacques Nienaber now having had his first pre-season with the province, it would appear Leinster’s defence has improved to another level.
“You would hope so,” said Cullen, laughing. “This time last year Jacques hadn’t arrived. It was interesting watching back at that round-six game [against Munster] last season because you tend to forget that Jacques arrived the week after.
“There is a lot clearer understanding having had that pre-season. We’re making progress, guys are working hard and there is a deeper understanding there but, it is still such early days.”
“The group is motivated but it is round four. There are six games in this window, can we win all of them? The next thing is the Sportsground, which is such a tough place to go,” said Cullen ahead of next Saturday’s trek to Connacht, who came away from their 32-27 defeat away to Ulster with two bonus points despite a red card for their former Leinster forward Josh Murphy.
Cullen confirmed that Leinster will again juggle their resources and Frawley, having re-asserted his claim to Leinster’s hotly contested number 10 jersey, Sam Prendergast may be given his turn after his eye-catching performances with Emerging Ireland.
“Sam was good yeah, he played three games, so they certainly got plenty of good value out of him. He produced some really good touches in all three of the games, steered the team around. He was there today and I only literally just saw him, he picked up a nice tan. But it’s great to have all those guys in now. It’s more competition.”
Jack Conan was forced off in the first half and Ryan Baird went off for an HIA, while Munster appeared to have a plethora of issue ahead of their Monday flight to Cape Town for upcoming matches against the Stormers and Sharks.
“You’ve got to roll with the punches,” said Graham Rowntree. “We’re used to that. Lads come off when their mouthguard sensor gets pinged, I can’t change that. You’ve got to deal with that and it’s right that we’re looking after our players like that.
“We’ll get on with it. We’ve never shied away from poor performances or lack of effort, but I was happy with our effort tonight; got to be more accurate,” he added, lamenting the odd line-out malfunction, failure to resource rucks, poor passes and missed chances.
“But I thought we did the occasion justice. We came here to play, we fired shots, we let ourselves down on occasion with our accuracy, but I thought we did the occasion justice. We were ready for this game.
“It was a special occasion. I’m not sure any of those lads will have played a club game in front of that amount of people before. It’s an incredible stadium. I’ve been around the world in stadiums, I’ve not been to this one before. Wow! Wow! It’s a shame we’re not leaving here with a ‘W’.”
Shane Daly and Billy Burns will return and Rowntree took heart from their last two South African sorties which secured the title two seasons ago and an unprecedented 10-point haul last season, and they will use the same Cape Town base.
“We’ve got huge games now against two South African teams and I’m a strong believer that if you’re going to advance in this competition, what you do in South Africa is huge in terms of what you can acquire, points-wise.”
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