GRAHAM ROWNTREE WAS left to rue a chaotic opening to the game as he saw his Munster team fall 21-0 behind against Leinster at Croke Park today, before leaving Dublin on the wrong end of a 26-12 defeat.

While Leinster came flying out of the traps to score three tries in the opening 15 minutes, Munster lost Niall Scannell and John Ryan to HIAs while Jeremy Loughman also departed with an early blood injury. 

“It certainly wasn’t our best 20 minutes that I’ve seen against Leinster. It was chaos,” Rowntree said.

A double HIA, we didn’t have a hooker on the pitch at one point, trying to get 15 players on the field. Jeremy Loughman got a blood injury as well.

“They sensed we were a bit disjointed and got the ball to the edge of the field and took their opportunities. As a headline to the game, from us, it wasn’t a lack of effort. We just have to get better at taking opportunities. They had minimal opportunities, but took them all. They’re a dangerous team like that.

“I’m pleased with our effort there. They’re a challenging team to play against but accuracy has got to be better.”

Rowntree took encouragement from Munster’s fight across the full 80, despite that damaging opening quarter.

“I thought we had opportunities. We showed we could attack, we stuck to our plan – we had a good plan tonight.

Munster captain Tadhg Beirne. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO

“We kept playing, but I thought that would have changed the complexion in the third quarter. We had our chances late on in the game, Nanks [Alex Nankivell] could have put Tom Ahern away late on in the game. We didn’t stop playing. Fitness is good, but we’ve got to nail those opportunities.

“There were a couple of occasions where we were late getting to the breakdown, our lineout had a few challenges tonight against a very good lineout defence.

“I’m not going to sugarcoat anything. I never have done, but I’m not one for panic either. Our effort was huge tonight, we’ve got to be more accurate.”

Meanwhile, Leinster head coach Leo Cullen admitted to some frustration around Leinster’s failure to score any points in the second half, but played it down as a product of some early-season rust.

“We still had some opportunities [in the second half] and just couldn’t quite nail them,” Cullen said.

“A lot of guys were playing their second game of the season. It’s never going to be perfect in terms of execution. Munster were very aggressive the way they contested every ruck, and we’ll just have a look back at some of those calls that go against us. They come up with some turnovers close to their tryline and we’ll have a look back at some of those.

It was all or nothing for them so they had to contest very aggressively at the breakdown and they kept playing as well.

“I thought we played, for the most part, a lot of the game down at their end of the field in the second half. We just couldn’t come away with any scores, unfortunately, but we’ll have a look back at some of those parts of the game.”

Otherwise Cullen was pleased with Leinster’s superb start as they ran in four first-half tries, including three inside the opening quarter through James Lowe, Caelan Doris and Hugo Keenan.

Equally pleasing was Leinster’s workrate without the ball, with their scramble defence recovering to kill a number of Munster linebreaks.

“Yeah, the intent was good. You’re seeing people working hard and you might get breached every now and again. But there’s always a bit of risk-reward isn’t there? And guys are being nice and aggressive, which is what we want.

“Listen, overall, some guys are playing their second game of the season and it’s such a physical game.

“You can see guys from both teams coming off at different stages, so a hugely physical game, but it’s played in the right spirit overall as well, isn’t it? Even at the end, you just see the way guys are, so yeah, we’re pleased.”