“WE CREATED OPPORTUNITIES and we didn’t use them. Against a team like them they are going to use their chances.” – Johann van Graan, 21 May 2022, Leinster 35 Munster 25, URC, Aviva Stadium.
“We needed to impose ourselves on the game and we struggled to do that.” – Peter O’Mahony, 27 March 2021, Leinster 16 Munster 6, Pro14 final, RDS.
“We had limited opportunities in a semi-final and we didn’t convert our opportunities.” Johann van Graan, 4 September 2020, Pro14 semi-final, Aviva Stadium.
Munster’s recent trips to Dublin have ended in familiarly disappointing fashion: out-played, out-thought, and too often, out-fought. The latter is what Graham Rowntree’s side will be desperately keen to avoid when they return to Aviva Stadium today for a United Rugby Championship semi-final date with old rivals Leinster [KO 5.30pm, RTÉ/Premier Sports/URC TV].
In many ways Munster are in bonus territory here, but that won’t offer much consolation to travelling supporters if they deliver another flat performance in Dublin. In the early parts of this season, as a new coaching team looked to embed new ideas and structures, few would have imagined them making the sufficient improvements to challenge for silverware this year. And when it comes to playing Leinster in the URC, it’s rare to see any team leaving Dublin with a result.
This has become an increasingly harsh reality for Munster. The last eight Leinster v Munster games at Aviva Stadium have ended in a home win. Stretch it out further – Leinster have only lost once to Munster across the last 11 meetings at any venue (a Rainbow Cup win for Munster at the RDS in 2021). Cast the net wider again – since 2014, Munster have only one win at Aviva Stadium to their name (a 49-12 hammering of Connacht in August 2020).
Some day that rotten run will come to an end, but it became difficult to envision that happening today as soon it became clear they would take to the pitch without RG Snyman, Malakai Fekitoa, Conor Murray and Calvin Nash. That injury list could have been worse, and to have captain Peter O’Mahony fit to start is a significant boost, perhaps even enough to tip the scales as Munster’s current form suggests they could finally be in a position to beat Leinster for the first time in a meaningful fixture since 2019.
The recent tour to South Africa and quarter-final win at Glasgow has restored a sense of positivity to Rowntree’s first season at the helm, a campaign which was always going to have its challenges.
Under Rowntree, Munster’s form on the road has been strong. They haven’t lost away from home in the URC since, yep – visiting the RDS in October. Along the way the Munster boss hasn’t be afraid to make bold calls, leaving a fit Conor Murray and Keith Earls out of the team for crucial Champions Cup games and dropping Joey Carbery entirely for the URC run-in.
They’ve also fronted up in the previous two meetings with Leinster this season – a young Munster side making Leinster work hard for a win at the Aviva in October before a second-half surge powered Leinster to a one-point win at Thomond in December.
If they are to go one better today, they need to be ruthlessly clinical and take their opportunities when they get them. Most importantly, though, they need to fight. Too often, Munster teams have looked far to passive against Leinster. Given the messaging that will have been drilled into these players from Rowntree and Denis Leamy throughout the week, it would be surprising if that were to be the case again today.
O’Mahony is the driving force around this aspect of their game but other players need to step up. Gavin Coombes needs to be at his destructive best. Former Leinster man Tadhg Beirne needs to provide the big moments that give energy to those around him. Jack Crowley, relocated to 12, has plenty of fight in him, and Antoine Frisch has quickly made himself a vital part of the Munster team in his first season in Ireland.
Leinster are without most of their key men too, but that’s because they have bigger prizes in mind, with La Rochelle in Dublin next Saturday for a blockbuster Heineken Champions Cup final. On paper, the two teams are closer than expected.
Yet this is still a Leinster team full of internationals and some of the most exciting young players in the country, who have high hopes of being involved in a potential URC final later this month. They’ll be supported by a handful of senior players who are likely to feature against Ronan O’Gara’s men at the same venue next weekend. This is the depth that is the envy of the rest of the URC on full display.
Harry Byrne is enjoying a strong run of form and another positive outing here will keep him in the conversation around World Cup warm-up squads. Rónan Kelleher will be out to impress on his return from injury, while Robbie Henshaw will want to show he’s ready to start at 12 in seven days’ time. The same goes for Ryan Baird, who continues to hover around the starting team without nailing down a place for the biggest days.
There are fascinating battles all over the pitch and on the day, anything can happen between two sides who would have set very different goals for themselves at the start of the season.
For Leinster, it was all about landing silverware following their first trophyless season in five years. For Munster, it was about restoring something that appeared missing during the latter end of the Van Graan years.
There have been highs and lows along the way this season but the last three performances against the Stormers, Sharks and Glasgow suggests Rowntree has them on the right track. Even with the odds stacked against them, they have the ability to make life difficult for Leinster this evening, but nothing will come easy for them.
Of all the messages that will have been delivered to the players in Limerick this week, they’d do worse than remember Rowntree’s words when this semi-finals pairing was confirmed – “We’ll go up there and we’ll go for it.”
LEINSTER: Jimmy O’Brien; Tommy O’Brien, Robbie Henshaw, Charlie Ngatai, Dave Kearney; Harry Byrne, Luke McGrath (captain); Michael Milne, Rónan Kelleher, Michael Ala’alatoa; Ryan Baird, Jason Jenkins; Max Deegan, Will Connors, Jack Conan.
Replacements: John McKee, Cian Healy, Thomas Clarkson, Joe McCarthy, Josh van der Flier, Nick McCarthy, Ciarán Frawley, Liam Turner.
MUNSTER: Mike Haley; Keith Earls, Antoine Frisch, Jack Crowley, Shane Daly; Ben Healy, Craig Casey; Jeremy Loughman, Diarmuid Barron, Stephen Archer; Jean Kleyn, Tadhg Beirne; Peter O’Mahony (captain), John Hodnett, Gavin Coombes.
Replacements: Niall Scannell, Josh Wycherley, Roman Salanoa, Fineen Wycherley, Jack O’Donoghue, Neil Cronin, Rory Scannell, Alex Kendellen.
Referee: Frank Murphy (IRFU)
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