Ryan Bailey reports from Thomond Park
IT’S HARD TO accurately assess Leinster’s performance on a night when the integrity of the contest was changed irrevocably by the first-half dismissal of James Lowe, but what is for certain is that Leo Cullen’s side were very much the architects of their own downfall.
The way the fixture had fallen on a Saturday, three days after the traditional St Stephen’s Day slot, allowed Cullen more scope to call upon what was notionally a first-choice team, but Leinster arrived in Limerick not only locked and loaded, but in an uncharacteristically frenzied state.
Their usual composure and conviction went awry in the midst of a feral occasion, as they conceded 14 penalties and barely played a quarter of the game with a full complement, after yellow cards were brandished to Cian Healy and Tadhg Furlong and Lowe saw red.
Neither Cullen or Johnny Sexton had any qualms or quibbles with Frank Murphy’s decisions and both coach and captain were in agreement that Leinster’s discipline was not good enough in their 26-17 defeat to Munster.
“You can’t play the game for as long as we did with 13 or 14 men, it’s just too hard,” Sexton said.
“Again, it’s just about having that clear thought process in a red-hot environment here. It’s a very special place to play and you can either rise to the challenge or you can walk out the gate.
“Some teams come here and get beaten no ends up but we didn’t do that. I’m proud of the lads for how we stuck in there but you can’t blame any one person for the cards because no one went out to high tackle someone or no one went out take someone out in the air.
“It’s just us needing to be better in this environment where you don’t do those things.”
Most encouraging for the defending European champions in defeat was the admirable spirit they showed in the second period despite the numerical disadvantage to keep the contest alive until Keith Earls intercepted Ciaran Frawley and streaked clear from 80 yards.
Cullen’s side rebounded with intent after the break and their forward pack regained the initiative through the lineout maul, which was the source for James Tracy’s close-range try to reduce the arrears to just six points.
Sexton’s withdrawal on the hour mark — it was confirmed afterwards that it was a pre-ordained plan — may have taken some of the momentum out of the visitors’ comeback, but two lineout malfunctions inside Munster territory was the killer blow.
Cullen was asked in his post-match press conference if there was a temptation to leave Sexton out there, now that Leinster — who ultimately suffered their first defeat in eight games — had worked their way back into the game with 20 minutes remaining.
“It is because you want your experienced guys out there that have been through, not necessarily that scenario but they’ve been through so much in the game and they’re able to adapt easier,” he explained.
“Having said that, Ciaran [Frawley] will be better for the experience I think and we stuck to the plan. We did question ourselves at the time but we stuck to the plan ultimately.
“We didn’t win the game but we’re still in the same situation in our Conference when we started the weekend which was a surprise to me. It’s not quite the way I expected it but it is the way it is.
“For us, it’s about looking forward now. Dust ourselves off and focus on how we can get better. How we can manage particularly that first 32 minutes because that first 32 minutes cost us the game. That’s why we don’t win the game.
“It’s nothing to do with the commitment from our players right until the very end, it’s the start of the game where we get ourselves into quite a difficult scenario.
“Like I said, it’s about looking forward now. We’ve got Ulster at the weekend who are in our Conference and we’ve Toulouse the week after and Wasps the weekend after that and then Scarlets, who are also in our Conference. That’s four huge weeks for us.”
Sexton added: “Our actions just kept stacking up, one on top of another. We said after the penalty against me for the retaliation [in the second minute], we said ‘Okay let’s get back to it’ and then we give away another one and then it’s like ‘Okay, let’s sort out our discipline.’
“But these moments just kept happening. We just have to figure out why. Whether we were too revved up for the fixture.
But look, if we came here and we played poorly due to a lack of effort or not being up for it — that’s when I would be disappointed and I’m sure Leo would be the same.
“That’s when you are disappointed if you don’t front up and that certainly wasn’t the case today.”
Ahead of next weekend’s final inter-pro of the Christmas period against Ulster, and then the crunch Champions Cup pool clash with Toulouse at the RDS, Sexton hopes he and his team-mates will use Saturday’s experience and learn from it.
“We’ll learn a lot, like I said how you react in the environment,” he added.
It’s important that you never take a backward step in an environment like that but at the same time you just have to be clear in your thoughts. And it’s only one thing per person and if that happens five/six times then suddenly it’s an ill-disciplined performance.
“Even though only one guy gave away a penalty on only one occasion, and that’s just the nature of team sport, and we’ll learn from it. The young guys will learn from it and we’re going to encounter an environment like this again at some stage of the season, whether it’s in a quarter-final, or if we have to Glasgow in the final of the Pro14 against Glasgow for example, we’ll learn from this.
“And we could be back here at some stage, you never know.”
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