LAST UPDATE | 28 Dec 2022

GRAHAM ROWNTREE CHECKS the clock. Three minutes into the second half, referee Chris Busby has just awarded his team a penalty try after Leinster pulled down a surging Munster maul that was barrelling towards the tryline. Leinster have also just lost Max Deegan to the sin-bin. Munster lead 14-6 and are well-placed to record a first win in Limerick over their old foes since December 2018.

By the time Deegan returns to the action 10 minutes later, the visitors will have swung the momentum back in their favour. The damage is done during a clinical, accurate four minute spell in which Scott Penny and Dan Sheehan both power over from 5 metre penalties. 

As impressive a response as it was from Leinster – who are making a habit of landing killer blows when down numbers – Munster were left to rue poor game management and soft defence. A game Munster could have, and probably should have, won, ended with Leinster taking a 20-19 win back to Dublin.

Munster now prepare for a New Year’s Day trip to Belfast in desperate need of points. Ten games into the season, the province sit 11th in the table with just four league wins and 23 points to their name.

They can ill afford to lose more ground in the race to make the playoffs and secure a Champions Cup spot for next season. Much can change across the coming weeks and months, but it only takes a couple more defeats to really derail their recent upturn.

“Must-win games everywhere at the moment, isn’t it?” said a downbeat Rowntree, who was left bitterly disappointed by how the game swung with that four minute Leinster flurry.

“That for me was the difference between the two teams, that period.

We’ll look at what we can do better and move on because it’s a big game every week at the moment. We’re halfway through a 10-game block. We’ve got to crack on, a massive game in Belfast on Sunday, then we’re at home the week after and then we go to Europe again.”

When the dust settles, Rowntree may take some comfort in how well his team played for large portions of this festive fixture.

Peter O’Mahony and Gavin Coombes enjoyed some strong moments in defence while his team also continued to look more coherent and convincing in attack before Leinster took control of the endgame – building on those two converted tries by expertly managing the final quarter of the contest. Of course, that all comes with an asterisk – this was a near fully-loaded Munster team taking on a strong, yet heavily rotated Leinster selection.

“Several aspects around our set-piece, some of our defence (were positives)… just the way our attacking shape is continually developing,” Rowntree said.

There’s components in all of that but we’ve got to do better against a top team. But they get shaded by the negatives. Our game is developing, it’s growing and we got tested tonight by a class team.

“Whoever they have on the field, they’re a class team. They work with class players every day, good coaching team.”

Overall, Rowntree’s post-game analysis echoed that of the Toulouse game earlier this month – all of Munster’s good moments and endeavour outdone by a more clinical, ruthless opponent who know how to make their opportunites count.

“Crucially, (it’s important) not to take your foot off the gas. They don’t need those messages but that shows the maturity and the classiness of that team [Leinster] that the 14 men can still knock us back to our five-metre line.

“We’ll have to look at stopping teams doing that.”

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