DENIS LEAMY PAUSES to stress that he means it in a complimentary manner as he looks to profile Leinster succinctly.

He lands on “brilliantly boring.”

There’s no doubt that Leinster’s tactical approach has changed rather drastically since Jacques Nienaber arrived as senior coach following the 2023 World Cup and even though some fans think fondly back to the phase-play attack they specialised in under Stuart Lancaster, Leinster have a different DNA now.

Munster believe they know what’s coming at Thomond Park this Friday, 27 December, as they go up against what is expected to be a Leinster team boosted by returning frontline players. Stopping the Leinster machine is a different story.

Leamy worked with Leinster before moving back to Munster in 2022 but he sees a different set-up to the one he left.

“It was a brilliant environment and I worked very closely with brilliant coaches and brilliant managers,” said Leamy.

“And I was very lucky to do so but I think it’s very different from what I can see over the last 12 months. There’s definitely a big change in mindset from what I can see.

“They are, how would I say… brilliantly boring. And I say that giving them a lot of credit and admiration, but you know they kick the ball almost more than any other team in the league. They play territory more than any other team in the league.

“They’re just brutal then when they get into your score zone. They got this power-based game now that is really, really strong, and how you deny them access to that is the key thing. They back their defence, they back their kicking game. They don’t try to do too much in terms of overplaying, and they just strangle it, put you down into the 22, and then there’s big powerful men running down on top of you. And they’re a handful.”

Given the challenge ahead on Friday night, Munster will take confidence from last weekend’s backs-against-the-wall win in Ulster.

Munster had less than 30% of the possession and territory yet managed to leave Belfast with a bonus-point win.

Leamy’s defence made a huge number of tryline grandstands as they completed 311 tackles, while the attack managed to nab four tries despite the limited possession.

Tadhg Beirne at Munster training today. Morgan Treacy / INPHO Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO

“Just our ability to stay in a fight,” said Leamy of what pleased him about Munster’s defence.

“You know, we made over 300 tackles. Ulster tried to bang the door down. They came hard at us physically. And I thought our boys barred up really well. We felt that they would try to play through the middle of us more often than not. I thought we brought an intensity and a line speed, and our collision was good. And I thought the boys put in a really good shift around their work rate.

“When Ulster did look to take the edges a little bit more, I thought we showed good aggression on the edges. You know, Calvin [Nash] and Shane [Daly] were nice and high. We got some very good contacts out there as well.

“We’ve got to show a bit of discipline as well and smarts around the breakdown just to deny Leinster that access to the 22. But look, I’d be very pleased, and I’ve been on the record before many times seeing how much I enjoy working with this group of players. They go to war for us. They will always go to the well. Some days we have good days, some days we have bad days, but you can never question them.”

Munster head into this battle in Limerick after more bad news on the injury front.

Scrum-half Craig Casey, lock Jean Kleyn, and wing Thaakir Abrahams have all been ruled out for around four months after surgery, while centre Alex Nankivell and loosehead prop Dave Kilcoyne are also set for a spell on the sidelines as they undergo scans.

“Yeah, it’s very disappointing,” said Leamy. “And, look, it seems like we’ve had more than our fair share of injuries over the last year to 18 months. But look, it’s nothing that we’re not used to and we’ve been in this position before.

“It’s very disappointing for the boys but we have a very good medical team. We have a really good S&C team and hopefully we’ll get them back on track as quickly as we can. But it’s next man up and on we go. We’ve got to show some sort of resilience around us.”

More positively, it looks like Peter O’Mahony, Conor Murray, and Diarmuid Barron could be fit to face Leinster this weekend as they make progress with their injury issues.

“All three were on the training pitch today and we’ll just see how that pans out over the next couple of days,” said Leamy. “But as we sit here right now, all three are very much in our thoughts”