FOLLOWING AN eye-opening defeat when the sides last met at Croke Park a little over two months ago, Ronan Kelleher and Leinster will be looking to put things right when they renew acquaintances with Munster in the United Rugby Championship at Thomond Park on Saturday night.

With no fewer than 11 players from the British & Irish Lions squad that toured Australia last summer in their match day 23 – including Kelleher himself – the eastern province were strong favourites to overcome their arch rivals in round four of this season’s URC at GAA HQ on 18 October.

However, despite Kelleher and Scott Penny helping themselves to a try each, a determined Munster emerged from the game with a deserved 31-14 bonus point triumph. The overwhelming consensus was that Leinster performed well below the standard required throughout the contest and Kelleher acknowledged a repeat display in Limerick this weekend won’t cut the mustard.

“We were just off it that day. It was a bit of an eye-opener for us. It’s something we’re all looking forward to putting right this weekend.

“It’s something we’ve been working hard to do over the last couple of months and last couple of weeks as well. Just making sure we get into these games in a good swing and into a good flow,” Kelleher remarked at a Leinster media briefing on Monday.

“We were off it probably a bit physically [in Croke Park]. They got their tails up and then they grew into the game as well. It was hard to wrestle back that momentum. It was a difficult day for us and we know we got a lot wrong that day and it’s very important for us that we try and right that this weekend.”

Aside from being a huge win for the visitors – who were playing under new head coach Clayton McMillan for just the fourth time in a competitive fixture – it was felt that game in Croke Park provided the rivalry between Leinster and Munster with a much-needed injection of life.

Prior to their clash at Jones’ Road in October, Munster had emerged victorious in just two of their previous 16 encounters against the eastern province. Interestingly, both of those successes were on Dublin soil with their triumph at the RDS in the short-lived Pro14 Rainbow Cup on 24 April, 2021 being followed by a URC semi-final win over Leinster at the Aviva Stadium a little over two years later.

In fact, you have to go all the way back to 29 December, 2018 for the last time Munster got the better of the Blues in Thomond Park – 10 points from ex-Leinster star Joey Carbery propelled the hosts towards a 26-17 victory on that occasion.

Yet although Leinster have regularly claimed the spoils during his time in the professional game – he has been on the winning side in seven of the nine games he has played against the southern province – Kelleher insists their rivalry with Munster has remained strong throughout this period.

“They’ve always been very close, hard-fought games. The intensity is right up there and it’s one that we never take lightly. Obviously, that all adds to the disappointment that was Croke Park. It’s just making sure that we right those wrongs and make sure that we’re on the right side of the result this weekend.

“Maybe to the outside, it probably doesn’t feel as much of a rivalry as it was, but inside our camp and I’m sure inside their camp, it’s still a massive rivalry. It’s our biggest rival and that’s never changed for us.”

While they have won five games on the bounce across the URC and the European Champions Cup since losing to Munster in Croke Park, there is still massive scope for improvement when it comes to Leinster’s on-field performances.

After overcoming a nine-point interval deficit on their way to defeating to Leicester Tigers in the pool stages of the Champions Cup at Welford Road seven days earlier, last Friday saw Leinster coming from 10 behind at the break to get the better of Ulster on a final score of 24-20 in a URC interprovincial derby at the Aviva Stadium.

Though it is more often than not a results business at the elite level of professional sport, Kelleher nevertheless stressed that how Leinster perform on match days is also of major significance.

“I think the performance does matter, definitely. We hold ourselves to a standard that we’re constantly chasing down better. It’s very important that we keep doing that and that we don’t just settle for wins and we’re chasing down us being better all the time,” Kelleher added.