ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER new role for Ciarán Frawley, who once again passed his latest test with flying colours.

A series of injuries across Leinster’s back three saw Frawley named at fullback in the team to play Munster at Aviva Stadium yesterday, signalling his first start for the province with 15 on his back.

And the 24-year-old – who has been used at both out-half and centre already this season – looked right at home as he delivered an assured, confident display in a 27-13 win for the hosts, often coming into play as an extra-playmaker and adding some nice touches with the boot before a shoulder injury ended his evening after 60 minutes.

The highlight of his evening was a smart second-half break which saw the Skerries man skip past Joey Carbery with a wonderful dummy.

“He’s brilliant,” said Leinster scrum-half, Luke McGrath. “He can play in so many different positions, he’s got a bit of that X-factor as well.

You can see he was making line-breaks from 15, and he hasn’t played a lot of 15, but he just soaks it all in, all the information he was getting throughout the week. I thought he was brilliant.”

Head coach Leo Cullen was also suitably impressed, adding that the new-look back three, which included Jimmy O’Brien and Jamie Osborne on the wings, functioned well as a unit.

“It’s a little bit of a makeshift back three. We’re just lacking a little bit of cohesion because we have chopped and changed, some of the combinations have changed,” Cullen said.

“You take a little bit of a risk with that.  We’ve had a lot of players up and running now which is good. When guys split apart, the next few weeks we have our game against Scarlets, that’s our sole focus now, trying to get as much as we possibly we can this week, with X amount of players gone (with injury and Ireland camp).

Rob Russell and Ciarán Frawley celebrate the win. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

“Most teams are hit, that’s the pot luck of the schedule, who you get on these international window weeks, where some teams are missing a tonne of players, and others are missing next to nobody.”

Leinster picked up the bonus point win despite a mixed display littered with errors, their accuracy and execution letting them down in the first half in particular. 

“We are delighted to get a bonus point win in a Leinster-Munster game, it doesn’t happen that often, does it?,” Cullen continued.

“There are parts of the game that we can look back on where we create a lot of opportunities in the first half but we are not particularly clinical in terms of finishing them off.

Then we get ourselves in a situation where Munster with 14 men get in twice in the first 47 minutes and then suddenly they are ahead in the game. We showed better composure from then on, both sides of the ball. Up to that point we are probably just a little bit impatient at times. We are forcing certain things, we are falling on the wrong side of some calls with the officials.

“It is the composure part that we are lacking. Having said that, to come away with four tries is a positive outcome for us. The points (tally) up to this point is positive. We have used a fair few players. It’s always tricky at the start of the season. If you go back and look, particularly coming off (international) tours you have a lot of moving parts, coming and going at the start of the season, so to get six wins is pleasing, particularly as three of them are interpro games.”

The Leinster boss was also quick to highlight Munster’s role in the tie. Minus a number of senior players, Graham Rowntree’s side delivered a battling performance in which a number of their young squad members stood up. 

Crowley was superb at fullback for Munster. Ben Brady / INPHO Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO

Jack Crowley looked sharp at fullback, hooker Diarmuid Barron enjoyed some good moments and second row Tom Ahern once again showed glimpses of his obvious potential.

Rowntree stressed how “proud” he was of his team after an encouraging display, and his opposite number admitted the visitors made it hard for Leinster to find their usual rhythm.

“You have to give Munster a huge amount of credit,” Cullen added.

“You see them there at the end in terms of battered bodies coming off the field. They kept throwing everything at us which is what you want to see in a provincial derby game. They have a lot of young guys there in their 23, they have a fair few injuries leading into the game.

“I thought they dug in and scrambled unbelievably well. They scrapped for everything, particularly close to the goal-line. We weren’t quite accurate enough so some of it is in our control.

“That’s the bit we need to get better at when you play these big games. Big stadium, big crowd; there was plenty of the game, plenty of learning from our point of view. Then we get guilty of trying to force things, pushing the pass, where we lacked that bit of control and patience at certain stages.

“There is a hell of a lot of good work because we get ourselves into good positions, make a ton of line breaks during the game.”

Both teams will now wait for updates on a number of players who were forced off across an attritional encounter in Dublin 4.

Cullen issued a positive update on Tadhg Furlong post-game after the tighthead dropped out of the starting team with an ankle injury. Frawley was withdrawn in the second half with a shoulder problem while Jamie Osborne didn’t return after going for a HIA following a heavy collision with Munster lock Jean Kleyn, who was yellow carded for the incident.

Munster saw Joey Carbery leave midway through the second period with a shoulder injury, while Liam Coombes and Jack O’Sullivan also picked up injuries.

Both coaches – and Ireland boss Andy Farrell – will await further news with interest.

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