CLAYTON MCMILLAN IS a direct communicator. It’s one of the reasons Munster’s players immediately took to him when he arrived from New Zealand. Players like to be told things straight.
This no-nonsense method of communication has also quickly endeared McMillan to the rugby media in Ireland. In a landscape that includes plenty of waffle, he keeps things to the point.
In his first meeting with rugby writers just before this season began, McMillan spelt out in plain terms how he wants Munster to play, simultaneously dispelling the perception of how his Chiefs team had operated.
“If you watch New Zealand rugby, the teams that I’ve played in traditionally had a willingness to keep the ball in hand and play, but sometimes that can be an illusion,” he said.
“The Chiefs, for example, if you asked a lot of people in New Zealand or around the world, are a team that throws the ball around. But we also kicked the ball more than any other team in Super Rugby.
“So the illusion is that you play, but it’s around decision-making, picking the right opportunities to do that, and do it with a bit of confidence and accelerate into those moments.
“But also understand when you haven’t got momentum or you need to go to tactical kicking. Or when someone says just play without the ball and defend, then be happy to do that for a period of time.”
Clayton McMillan and his family at Croke Park. Ben Brady / INPHO
Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
McMillan underlined that “you have to have balance in your game,” as he said everything needed to be built on a solid, tough platform up front. He also stressed the need for Munster to scrap for everything.
Furthermore, defence coach Denis Leamy mentioned during pre-season that Munster would look to bring “a little bit more pragmatism at times in our own half” under the new boss.
Saturday’s performance against Leinster in the URC underlined that McMillan’s messages have been landing with his players.
They used their kicking game methodically throughout the bonus-point win. When they identified chances to attack with ball in hand, they accelerated into them with confidence. But they were more than happy to play without the ball and defend for long periods. Though their scrum problems showed there is still lots of work to do, the lineout – such a huge problem in recent seasons – ran at 100%.
Leinster’s aggressive defence has stifled many teams in recent seasons, but Munster had a kick-centred plan to take the space that Leinster present. It wasn’t just about leathering the ball into the air. Munster used their attacking kicking smartly, and attack coach Mike Prendergast’s fingerprints were all over some of their intelligent plays.
Out-half Jack Crowley was at the heart of the plan, kicking in play 15 times, more than half of Munster’s total of 28 kicks in play.
Below, we see an illustration of Crowley’s kicks in play against Leinster, showing where he kicked from and the outcome of each of his kicks. All kicks from both halves of the game are plotted with Munster playing from left to right.
Munster signalled their intent to play in behind Leinster from early on, although Crowley underhit one diagonal kick – needing Dan Kelly to save his hide as Jamie Osborne gathered and accelerated – and had his second attempt blocked down.
But the Munster number 10 soon settled into his stride.
Munster kicked regularly on first phase of set-piece attack, clearly underlining how much of it was planned, with this 15th-minute example coming from a midfield scrum.
Scrums allow the attack to make accurate predictions about how the defence will be set up and in this instance, Munster know that Leinster right wing Jordan Larmour will advance with the defenders on his inside.
Leinster fullback Osborne has to worry about both sides of the scrum initially, meaning Munster know there will be kick space for Crowley if he’s accurate.
His kick is superbly weighted and left wing Thaakir Abrahams gets the ball with some space to use his footwork, stepping back inside Larmour and Osborne before accelerating all the way to the five-metre line.
Thanks to one clever kick giving Abrahams the chance to do his thing, Munster have made 30 metres in the blink of an eye and Leinster are scrambling.
As they try to win back momentum on the next phase, Leinster lock James Ryan is caught offside.
And though Munster can’t make anything happen with the advantage, they return to the penalty and score their opening try through the powerful Brian Gleeson.
That takes strong work from the Munster forwards to get over the line, with Jack O’Donoghue key to the score with his powerful removal of tackler RG Snyman, but the try stems from Munster’s simple, smart use of their kicking game.
Earlier on, wing Andrew Smith had chipped in behind Leinster with Munster’s first attacking possession of the game.
The temptation is for Munster to hang onto the ball after getting it in Leinter’s half for the first time in the ninth minute, but Smith dinks ahead as Sam Prendergast closes up from the backfield.
This kick immediately puts Leinster under pressure as they turn to deal with a bouncing ball close to their tryline. Smith pulls his hamstring as Jamison Gibson-Park gathers, but a good chase from Diarmuid Barron forces a poor clearing kick. Five-metre lineout Munster.
They used their attacking kicking most notably for Tom Farrell’s wonderful try, again kicking on first phase of set-piece attack. This particular plan worked out in stunning fashion.
First things first, the lineout from Munster is a work of art. They use a five-man set-up and throw just over the 15-metre line, therefore inviting Leinster’s backline defence to advance even earlier than would otherwise be the case.
We can see how Leinster get Ryan into the air at the tail too, but he’s beaten by Munster’s near-perfect drill.
Alex Codling, Munster’s forwards coach, must have taken deep pleasure from this delivery off the top. Beirne takes the ball ‘double tops,’ with both hands overhead to meet Barron’s beautiful throw after it clears Ryan, while lifters Edwin Edogbo and John Ryan are chest-to-chest, getting great height in the lift.
Even with the ideal delivery from the lineout, Crowley and co. need to nail their plan off the lineout.
There’s lots going on outside Crowley to convince Leinster that Munster will run the ball.
Gleeson and O’Donoghue [highlighted in red above] are outside him for potential direct carries, while centre Dan Kelly is darting on an overs line out to the right, with Abrahams making a similar run from deeper [both in blue].
Outside centre Farrell [pinks] appears to be running a flat line for a possible wide pass, but he’s already beginning to accelerate to chase the chip.
Leinster’s midfield defence has raced forward with its usual linespeed, while left wing James Lowe [red below] is also advancing upfield as he assesses those various threats.
Lowe’s job is to close up and in aggressively if Munster move the ball wide, so that makes it harder for him to turn back when Crowley actually kicks the ball.
Meanwhile, Leinster right wing Jimmy O’Brien [yellow below] is tracking across from his starting position covering kick space deep behind the lineout. His next job is to clean up any kicks in behind the midfield defence.
This leaves Crowley with a small window of space to drop his kick into.
As he receives the ball, Crowley takes one last glance out to his right, which obviously gives him a chance to assess the kick space, but also suggests that he’s examining the edge of the Leinster midfield defence. It’s another bit of disguise.
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Crowley smoothly drops the ball down to his right foot for the chip.
As we can see below, he stabs at the ball and then draws his foot back after making contact, rather than following through as he would with a kick where he’s going for maximum power.
Crowley wants the ball to drop back down quickly to allow Farrell a crack at it.
That’s what the Munster centre gets, but it still takes a seriously smart and skillful play from him to seal the deal.
Leinster are chasing to adjust to Crowley’s kick and O’Brien is closing in on the drop zone, as Farrell can see when he takes a split-second glance ahead.
So instead of getting right up off the ground to compete for a clean take of Crowley’s kick, Farrell cleverly extends his right arm, hops, and bats the ball up and away from O’Brien’s cradled arms.
It’s cracking rugby IQ at high speed from Farrell, who has also timed his initial run perfectly to be onside.
Farrell scoots clear under the posts for a score that rocks Leinster and infuses Munster with confidence. This is a play that they would have worked on during the build-up to the Leinster game. For it to come off like this is a huge psychological win, as well as seven points on the scoreboard.
14-7 ahead, Munster seal the Farrell try by making a successful exit off the restart, scrum-half Ethan Coughlan hanging up an excellent box kick, replacement wing Alex Nankivell hammering Osborne just after he catches, and Tadhg Beirne jackaling for a penalty.
The subsequent Munster lineout win isn’t ideal to play off but they react well and, in McMillan’s words, “understand when you haven’t got momentum” by going to their kicking game.
It’s a different type of kick as Crowley hangs the garryowen up into Leinster’s 22, but it’s well-executed as he gets more than four seconds of hang time on the ball.
That allows fullback Shane Daly a good chance to get off the ground and he beats opposite number Osborne in the aerial contest.
Again, Leinster are instantly under pressure, although Munster don’t capitalise this time as Robbie Henshaw comes up with a breakdown turnover.
Having gone 21-7 up before the break, McMillan’s men continued to probe at Leinster with their kicking game in the second half, again striking from a scrum platform on one such occasion.
This dummy pass from Coughlan to his left before shifting the ball to Crowley on his right is important.
Abrahams [red below] has started behind the Munster scrum before breaking to the left-hand side to present a threat there.
With Coughlan shaping to pass to Abrahams, who also has Daly holding on the left touchline, Leinster right wing O’Brien [yellow above] closes up from a deeper starting position to deal with the possible shortside attack.
But as Coughlan instead switches to his right and finds Crowley, that means O’Brien is having to turn back hastily to deal with the kick that follows.
Leinster fullback Osborne has started in a far more central position and also has to adjust backwards as Crowley launches his kick.
The Munster out-half is going for a 50:22 here but the ball just sits up before the touchline.
Still, Munster have put on a strong kick chase and Leinster are in yet another pressurised situation.
O’Brien gathers the ball and passes infield to Osborne, who has Abrahams and Kelly on top of him as he kicks.
As a result, it’s not the kick Osborne is looking for as it falls short of touch.
Crowley claims the ball in lots of space on the Leinster 10-metre line and launches an attack that results in a Munster penalty a few phases later.
Crowley nails his shot at goal and Munster lead 24-7.
While they had to do a huge amount of defending for the remainder of the half, Munster continued to stick to their kick-focused plan when they did have the ball.
It’s alluring to think, ‘Let’s just hang onto this now that we have possession,’ but Munster were disciplined in continuing to turn Leinster.
Take this example in the 66th minute as Munster yet again kick on first phase off a scrum platform.
Munster shape Leinster’s backfield by first running a dangerous strike play, replacement scrum-half Paddy Patterson hitting Kelly, who has Farrell running short to sit down opposite number Garry Ringrose, as Kelly instead goes out the back to Crowley.
Because Munster are posing a threat out wide, Leinster have had to adjust.
Not only is right wing O’Brien [yellow above] defending up high, but fullback Osborne [red] has closed up from the backfield too.
Crowley recognises that and takes the space vacated by Osborne, using a classy outside-of-the-boot kick to find it.
Leinster left wing Lowe is sprinting across from the far side in a bid to cover as Osborne has to turn and sprint, but Crowley’s delightful kick takes a nice bounce for Munster and Daly regathers the ball.
Munster go close to scoring off the back of the regathered kick.
Four minutes later, Crowley shows yet more variety in his kicking game by using his left foot to find grass in the backfield straight from a Munster lineout.
Crowley is predominantly a right-footed kicker but has worked hard to develop his left, which poses a different threat to backfield defences.
Leinster probably aren’t anticipating a kick from this position but Crowley sends the ball down between the two backfield defenders, Lowe and Osborne, once again turning them.
Lowe gathers and exits to touch on near the Leinster 10-metre line, giving Munster a handy 20-metre gain thanks to Crowley’s smart kick.
Crowley showed that ability with his left foot again on two other occasions, including this one towards the end of the game where he picked out space in the backfield after a knock-on from Leinster.
Prendergast is the one who has to turn back this time and the out-half attempts to run the ball out, only to get snared by the chase from O’Donoghue and Kelly.
Leinster have reached suffocation point and after a few aimless phases close to their tryline, they try a low-percentage chip.
Crowley claims the ball and, recognising the opportunity, Munster accelerate into it with confidence.
They counter with ruthless intent, as Crowley, Daly, and Farrell work the ball from right to left into the hands of Abrahams.
It’s exactly the kind of situation in which Abrahams is such a threat.
Once again, he shows off his exciting skillset by stepping back inside Fintan Gunne and then offloading out of O’Brien’s tackle to Farrell.
Munster end up getting a penalty try here, although it’s a confusing one.
Farrell reaches out in a bid to score but comes up short, before Ciarán Frawley slides in and rips the ball away from Farrell.
With Leinster’s Scott Penny having tackled Farrell, the laws of the game dictate that Frawley has to both stay on his feet and arrive from the direction of Leinster’s tryline before playing the ball.
Frawley does not do that, so commits a penalty offence by the letter of the law.
Referee Gianluca Gnecchi’s view is that Farrell would probably have continued sliding towards the tryline, grounding the ball for a try, had Frawley not intervened illegally. As such, Gnecchi awards a penalty try and shows a yellow card to Frawley.
This is a multi-faceted incident which deserves further discussion – and will get as much on Wednesday’s edition of The 42 Rugby Weekly Extra podcast - but Munster get rewarded for accelerating into the opportunity presented to them as they clinch the bonus point.
This lethal counter-attack is something Munster will be looking to build on, while it’s worth noting that there were other examples of their ability to attack with ball in hand against Leinster.
The cleverly-conceived strike play below, which comes off a lineout on the right, is one such example.
Munster know that Leinster want to be ultra-aggressive on the edge of their defence.
Generally speaking, outside centre Ringrose [red below] and right wing Larmour [yellow] will blitz up and in, targetting the ball rather than worrying about any additional attackers out wide.
Munster use a blocker play off the lineout, with scrum-half Gleeson firing the ball to inside centre Kelly, who has a short option or can go out the back to Crowley.
But instead of having centre partner Farrell running that short option, it’s back row Gleeson [blue below] who sets up alongside Kelly.
That means Farrell [pink above] can set up a slot wider for the next wave of the Munster attack.
Munster know that if Kelly sweeps the ball out the back of Gleeson to Crowley, Ringrose will shoot aggressively on the out-half, aiming to shut the play down with a ball-and-all hit.
That means it takes bravery from Crowley to put himself in the firing line, as well as skill to get the ball away under pressure.
We’ve seen Ringrose making massive tackles in kamikaze fashion in situations like this in recent season, but Crowley gets the ball away with a rapid catch-pass.
Generally in Leinster’s system, the edge defender – Larmour – would already be on top of the next attacking player in this instance, but Munster have bought time for Nankivell through the positioning of Farrell [pink below].
Because Farrell is an option to receive a flat pass from Crowley, there is a moment of understandable hesitation from Larmour [yellow above].
Larmour is worried about that short, flat pass from Crowley if the Leinster wing advances out the back onto Nankivell too early.
As such, Larmour slightly delays in shooting onto Nankivell but again, it takes great skill and composure from the Munster wing to get the ball away behind his back before Larmour hits him.
It’s a brave play from Munster because Leinster’s ultra-aggressive defence on first phase can result in huge turnovers, but McMillan’s men back themselves to beat the blitz.
The reward is that fullback Daly can draw Osborne closing up from the backfield and send Abrahams accelerating into space.
He skips past the chasing Josh van der Flier and it takes a thumping tackle from Lowe to stop Abrahams a few metres from the Leinster line.
Although they don’t score off the back of this attack, Munster do strike for the Farrell try after Leinster clear their lines.
Munster were happy not to have the ball as long as their kicking game was putting Leinster under pressure or resulting in attacking chances. And when they did strike with ball in hand on a couple of occasions, they were lethal.
As we reflected upon post-match, Munster’s defence was superb at Croke Park, creating opportunities for Tadhg Beirne to make some huge turnovers.
Leamy clearly had his charges superbly prepared for what Leinster’s attack would deliver, as illustrated by Munster scoring a try directly from their defence.
There is opportunism involved here, of course, but Coughlan’s try is almost certainly down to good analysis of how Leinster play too.
Leinster have just won the gainline twice through short carries off scrum-half Gibson-Park and Lowe [red below] looks to offer a similar short-carry threat on this phase.
But Lowe runs the short line very early, giving Coughlan a cue that the ball with go behind the Leinster wing instead.
Perhaps the more obvious carrier is Max Deegan [yellow above], who is swinging up to Gibson-Park’s left.
But Coughlan knows that Gibson-Park and Leinster like to play lots of passes across the face of obvious recipients to a player slightly wider, like Snyman [blue] in this instance.
Given that Leinster don’t have a back in behind Deegan and Snyman, there is less cause for Coughlan to hold off. He has a sense of the pass Gibson-Park will look for and he goes all out for the intercept, coming up trumps.
It’s a huge defensive play that typified how Munster read Leinster’s attack well on Saturday. They had their homework done and layered vicious physicality onto their plan.
All of it put together added up to a dominant win.
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How McMillan's Munster took Leinster apart at Croke Park
CLAYTON MCMILLAN IS a direct communicator. It’s one of the reasons Munster’s players immediately took to him when he arrived from New Zealand. Players like to be told things straight.
This no-nonsense method of communication has also quickly endeared McMillan to the rugby media in Ireland. In a landscape that includes plenty of waffle, he keeps things to the point.
In his first meeting with rugby writers just before this season began, McMillan spelt out in plain terms how he wants Munster to play, simultaneously dispelling the perception of how his Chiefs team had operated.
“If you watch New Zealand rugby, the teams that I’ve played in traditionally had a willingness to keep the ball in hand and play, but sometimes that can be an illusion,” he said.
“The Chiefs, for example, if you asked a lot of people in New Zealand or around the world, are a team that throws the ball around. But we also kicked the ball more than any other team in Super Rugby.
“So the illusion is that you play, but it’s around decision-making, picking the right opportunities to do that, and do it with a bit of confidence and accelerate into those moments.
“But also understand when you haven’t got momentum or you need to go to tactical kicking. Or when someone says just play without the ball and defend, then be happy to do that for a period of time.”
McMillan underlined that “you have to have balance in your game,” as he said everything needed to be built on a solid, tough platform up front. He also stressed the need for Munster to scrap for everything.
Furthermore, defence coach Denis Leamy mentioned during pre-season that Munster would look to bring “a little bit more pragmatism at times in our own half” under the new boss.
Saturday’s performance against Leinster in the URC underlined that McMillan’s messages have been landing with his players.
They used their kicking game methodically throughout the bonus-point win. When they identified chances to attack with ball in hand, they accelerated into them with confidence. But they were more than happy to play without the ball and defend for long periods. Though their scrum problems showed there is still lots of work to do, the lineout – such a huge problem in recent seasons – ran at 100%.
Leinster’s aggressive defence has stifled many teams in recent seasons, but Munster had a kick-centred plan to take the space that Leinster present. It wasn’t just about leathering the ball into the air. Munster used their attacking kicking smartly, and attack coach Mike Prendergast’s fingerprints were all over some of their intelligent plays.
Out-half Jack Crowley was at the heart of the plan, kicking in play 15 times, more than half of Munster’s total of 28 kicks in play.
Below, we see an illustration of Crowley’s kicks in play against Leinster, showing where he kicked from and the outcome of each of his kicks. All kicks from both halves of the game are plotted with Munster playing from left to right.
Munster signalled their intent to play in behind Leinster from early on, although Crowley underhit one diagonal kick – needing Dan Kelly to save his hide as Jamie Osborne gathered and accelerated – and had his second attempt blocked down.
But the Munster number 10 soon settled into his stride.
Munster kicked regularly on first phase of set-piece attack, clearly underlining how much of it was planned, with this 15th-minute example coming from a midfield scrum.
Scrums allow the attack to make accurate predictions about how the defence will be set up and in this instance, Munster know that Leinster right wing Jordan Larmour will advance with the defenders on his inside.
Leinster fullback Osborne has to worry about both sides of the scrum initially, meaning Munster know there will be kick space for Crowley if he’s accurate.
His kick is superbly weighted and left wing Thaakir Abrahams gets the ball with some space to use his footwork, stepping back inside Larmour and Osborne before accelerating all the way to the five-metre line.
Thanks to one clever kick giving Abrahams the chance to do his thing, Munster have made 30 metres in the blink of an eye and Leinster are scrambling.
As they try to win back momentum on the next phase, Leinster lock James Ryan is caught offside.
And though Munster can’t make anything happen with the advantage, they return to the penalty and score their opening try through the powerful Brian Gleeson.
That takes strong work from the Munster forwards to get over the line, with Jack O’Donoghue key to the score with his powerful removal of tackler RG Snyman, but the try stems from Munster’s simple, smart use of their kicking game.
Earlier on, wing Andrew Smith had chipped in behind Leinster with Munster’s first attacking possession of the game.
The temptation is for Munster to hang onto the ball after getting it in Leinter’s half for the first time in the ninth minute, but Smith dinks ahead as Sam Prendergast closes up from the backfield.
This kick immediately puts Leinster under pressure as they turn to deal with a bouncing ball close to their tryline. Smith pulls his hamstring as Jamison Gibson-Park gathers, but a good chase from Diarmuid Barron forces a poor clearing kick. Five-metre lineout Munster.
They used their attacking kicking most notably for Tom Farrell’s wonderful try, again kicking on first phase of set-piece attack. This particular plan worked out in stunning fashion.
First things first, the lineout from Munster is a work of art. They use a five-man set-up and throw just over the 15-metre line, therefore inviting Leinster’s backline defence to advance even earlier than would otherwise be the case.
We can see how Leinster get Ryan into the air at the tail too, but he’s beaten by Munster’s near-perfect drill.
Alex Codling, Munster’s forwards coach, must have taken deep pleasure from this delivery off the top. Beirne takes the ball ‘double tops,’ with both hands overhead to meet Barron’s beautiful throw after it clears Ryan, while lifters Edwin Edogbo and John Ryan are chest-to-chest, getting great height in the lift.
Even with the ideal delivery from the lineout, Crowley and co. need to nail their plan off the lineout.
There’s lots going on outside Crowley to convince Leinster that Munster will run the ball.
Gleeson and O’Donoghue [highlighted in red above] are outside him for potential direct carries, while centre Dan Kelly is darting on an overs line out to the right, with Abrahams making a similar run from deeper [both in blue].
Outside centre Farrell [pinks] appears to be running a flat line for a possible wide pass, but he’s already beginning to accelerate to chase the chip.
Leinster’s midfield defence has raced forward with its usual linespeed, while left wing James Lowe [red below] is also advancing upfield as he assesses those various threats.
Lowe’s job is to close up and in aggressively if Munster move the ball wide, so that makes it harder for him to turn back when Crowley actually kicks the ball.
Meanwhile, Leinster right wing Jimmy O’Brien [yellow below] is tracking across from his starting position covering kick space deep behind the lineout. His next job is to clean up any kicks in behind the midfield defence.
This leaves Crowley with a small window of space to drop his kick into.
As he receives the ball, Crowley takes one last glance out to his right, which obviously gives him a chance to assess the kick space, but also suggests that he’s examining the edge of the Leinster midfield defence. It’s another bit of disguise.
Crowley smoothly drops the ball down to his right foot for the chip.
As we can see below, he stabs at the ball and then draws his foot back after making contact, rather than following through as he would with a kick where he’s going for maximum power.
Crowley wants the ball to drop back down quickly to allow Farrell a crack at it.
That’s what the Munster centre gets, but it still takes a seriously smart and skillful play from him to seal the deal.
Leinster are chasing to adjust to Crowley’s kick and O’Brien is closing in on the drop zone, as Farrell can see when he takes a split-second glance ahead.
So instead of getting right up off the ground to compete for a clean take of Crowley’s kick, Farrell cleverly extends his right arm, hops, and bats the ball up and away from O’Brien’s cradled arms.
It’s cracking rugby IQ at high speed from Farrell, who has also timed his initial run perfectly to be onside.
Farrell scoots clear under the posts for a score that rocks Leinster and infuses Munster with confidence. This is a play that they would have worked on during the build-up to the Leinster game. For it to come off like this is a huge psychological win, as well as seven points on the scoreboard.
14-7 ahead, Munster seal the Farrell try by making a successful exit off the restart, scrum-half Ethan Coughlan hanging up an excellent box kick, replacement wing Alex Nankivell hammering Osborne just after he catches, and Tadhg Beirne jackaling for a penalty.
The subsequent Munster lineout win isn’t ideal to play off but they react well and, in McMillan’s words, “understand when you haven’t got momentum” by going to their kicking game.
It’s a different type of kick as Crowley hangs the garryowen up into Leinster’s 22, but it’s well-executed as he gets more than four seconds of hang time on the ball.
That allows fullback Shane Daly a good chance to get off the ground and he beats opposite number Osborne in the aerial contest.
Again, Leinster are instantly under pressure, although Munster don’t capitalise this time as Robbie Henshaw comes up with a breakdown turnover.
Having gone 21-7 up before the break, McMillan’s men continued to probe at Leinster with their kicking game in the second half, again striking from a scrum platform on one such occasion.
This dummy pass from Coughlan to his left before shifting the ball to Crowley on his right is important.
Abrahams [red below] has started behind the Munster scrum before breaking to the left-hand side to present a threat there.
With Coughlan shaping to pass to Abrahams, who also has Daly holding on the left touchline, Leinster right wing O’Brien [yellow above] closes up from a deeper starting position to deal with the possible shortside attack.
But as Coughlan instead switches to his right and finds Crowley, that means O’Brien is having to turn back hastily to deal with the kick that follows.
Leinster fullback Osborne has started in a far more central position and also has to adjust backwards as Crowley launches his kick.
The Munster out-half is going for a 50:22 here but the ball just sits up before the touchline.
Still, Munster have put on a strong kick chase and Leinster are in yet another pressurised situation.
O’Brien gathers the ball and passes infield to Osborne, who has Abrahams and Kelly on top of him as he kicks.
As a result, it’s not the kick Osborne is looking for as it falls short of touch.
Crowley claims the ball in lots of space on the Leinster 10-metre line and launches an attack that results in a Munster penalty a few phases later.
Crowley nails his shot at goal and Munster lead 24-7.
While they had to do a huge amount of defending for the remainder of the half, Munster continued to stick to their kick-focused plan when they did have the ball.
It’s alluring to think, ‘Let’s just hang onto this now that we have possession,’ but Munster were disciplined in continuing to turn Leinster.
Take this example in the 66th minute as Munster yet again kick on first phase off a scrum platform.
Munster shape Leinster’s backfield by first running a dangerous strike play, replacement scrum-half Paddy Patterson hitting Kelly, who has Farrell running short to sit down opposite number Garry Ringrose, as Kelly instead goes out the back to Crowley.
Because Munster are posing a threat out wide, Leinster have had to adjust.
Not only is right wing O’Brien [yellow above] defending up high, but fullback Osborne [red] has closed up from the backfield too.
Crowley recognises that and takes the space vacated by Osborne, using a classy outside-of-the-boot kick to find it.
Leinster left wing Lowe is sprinting across from the far side in a bid to cover as Osborne has to turn and sprint, but Crowley’s delightful kick takes a nice bounce for Munster and Daly regathers the ball.
Munster go close to scoring off the back of the regathered kick.
Four minutes later, Crowley shows yet more variety in his kicking game by using his left foot to find grass in the backfield straight from a Munster lineout.
Crowley is predominantly a right-footed kicker but has worked hard to develop his left, which poses a different threat to backfield defences.
Leinster probably aren’t anticipating a kick from this position but Crowley sends the ball down between the two backfield defenders, Lowe and Osborne, once again turning them.
Lowe gathers and exits to touch on near the Leinster 10-metre line, giving Munster a handy 20-metre gain thanks to Crowley’s smart kick.
Crowley showed that ability with his left foot again on two other occasions, including this one towards the end of the game where he picked out space in the backfield after a knock-on from Leinster.
Prendergast is the one who has to turn back this time and the out-half attempts to run the ball out, only to get snared by the chase from O’Donoghue and Kelly.
Leinster have reached suffocation point and after a few aimless phases close to their tryline, they try a low-percentage chip.
Crowley claims the ball and, recognising the opportunity, Munster accelerate into it with confidence.
They counter with ruthless intent, as Crowley, Daly, and Farrell work the ball from right to left into the hands of Abrahams.
It’s exactly the kind of situation in which Abrahams is such a threat.
Once again, he shows off his exciting skillset by stepping back inside Fintan Gunne and then offloading out of O’Brien’s tackle to Farrell.
Munster end up getting a penalty try here, although it’s a confusing one.
Farrell reaches out in a bid to score but comes up short, before Ciarán Frawley slides in and rips the ball away from Farrell.
With Leinster’s Scott Penny having tackled Farrell, the laws of the game dictate that Frawley has to both stay on his feet and arrive from the direction of Leinster’s tryline before playing the ball.
Frawley does not do that, so commits a penalty offence by the letter of the law.
Referee Gianluca Gnecchi’s view is that Farrell would probably have continued sliding towards the tryline, grounding the ball for a try, had Frawley not intervened illegally. As such, Gnecchi awards a penalty try and shows a yellow card to Frawley.
This is a multi-faceted incident which deserves further discussion – and will get as much on Wednesday’s edition of The 42 Rugby Weekly Extra podcast - but Munster get rewarded for accelerating into the opportunity presented to them as they clinch the bonus point.
This lethal counter-attack is something Munster will be looking to build on, while it’s worth noting that there were other examples of their ability to attack with ball in hand against Leinster.
The cleverly-conceived strike play below, which comes off a lineout on the right, is one such example.
Munster know that Leinster want to be ultra-aggressive on the edge of their defence.
Generally speaking, outside centre Ringrose [red below] and right wing Larmour [yellow] will blitz up and in, targetting the ball rather than worrying about any additional attackers out wide.
Munster use a blocker play off the lineout, with scrum-half Gleeson firing the ball to inside centre Kelly, who has a short option or can go out the back to Crowley.
But instead of having centre partner Farrell running that short option, it’s back row Gleeson [blue below] who sets up alongside Kelly.
That means Farrell [pink above] can set up a slot wider for the next wave of the Munster attack.
Munster know that if Kelly sweeps the ball out the back of Gleeson to Crowley, Ringrose will shoot aggressively on the out-half, aiming to shut the play down with a ball-and-all hit.
That means it takes bravery from Crowley to put himself in the firing line, as well as skill to get the ball away under pressure.
We’ve seen Ringrose making massive tackles in kamikaze fashion in situations like this in recent season, but Crowley gets the ball away with a rapid catch-pass.
Generally in Leinster’s system, the edge defender – Larmour – would already be on top of the next attacking player in this instance, but Munster have bought time for Nankivell through the positioning of Farrell [pink below].
Because Farrell is an option to receive a flat pass from Crowley, there is a moment of understandable hesitation from Larmour [yellow above].
Larmour is worried about that short, flat pass from Crowley if the Leinster wing advances out the back onto Nankivell too early.
As such, Larmour slightly delays in shooting onto Nankivell but again, it takes great skill and composure from the Munster wing to get the ball away behind his back before Larmour hits him.
It’s a brave play from Munster because Leinster’s ultra-aggressive defence on first phase can result in huge turnovers, but McMillan’s men back themselves to beat the blitz.
The reward is that fullback Daly can draw Osborne closing up from the backfield and send Abrahams accelerating into space.
He skips past the chasing Josh van der Flier and it takes a thumping tackle from Lowe to stop Abrahams a few metres from the Leinster line.
Although they don’t score off the back of this attack, Munster do strike for the Farrell try after Leinster clear their lines.
Munster were happy not to have the ball as long as their kicking game was putting Leinster under pressure or resulting in attacking chances. And when they did strike with ball in hand on a couple of occasions, they were lethal.
As we reflected upon post-match, Munster’s defence was superb at Croke Park, creating opportunities for Tadhg Beirne to make some huge turnovers.
Leamy clearly had his charges superbly prepared for what Leinster’s attack would deliver, as illustrated by Munster scoring a try directly from their defence.
There is opportunism involved here, of course, but Coughlan’s try is almost certainly down to good analysis of how Leinster play too.
Leinster have just won the gainline twice through short carries off scrum-half Gibson-Park and Lowe [red below] looks to offer a similar short-carry threat on this phase.
But Lowe runs the short line very early, giving Coughlan a cue that the ball with go behind the Leinster wing instead.
Perhaps the more obvious carrier is Max Deegan [yellow above], who is swinging up to Gibson-Park’s left.
But Coughlan knows that Gibson-Park and Leinster like to play lots of passes across the face of obvious recipients to a player slightly wider, like Snyman [blue] in this instance.
Given that Leinster don’t have a back in behind Deegan and Snyman, there is less cause for Coughlan to hold off. He has a sense of the pass Gibson-Park will look for and he goes all out for the intercept, coming up trumps.
It’s a huge defensive play that typified how Munster read Leinster’s attack well on Saturday. They had their homework done and layered vicious physicality onto their plan.
All of it put together added up to a dominant win.
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Analysis Leinster Munster URC