MUNSTER MADE THE drive home to Limerick with a losing bonus point to their name but the province will have niggling regrets about how Saturday night unfolded in Dublin, where Graham Rowntree’s side fell to a 21-16 loss at the hands of Leinster.

Despite turning up at Aviva Stadium minus a number of key men – including Peter O’Mahony, Jack O’Donoghue and Mike Haley – Munster struck first in Dublin, Craig Casey finishing an excellent attacking move to fire them into a 7-0 lead with just five minutes played.

Unfortunately for Munster that would be their only try of the night. The rest of their points came from the boot of Jack Crowley while Leinster crossed three times through Jamison Gibson-Park, Dan Sheehan and Jordan Larmour.

Leinster felt they should have scored more as inaccuracies pockmarked their performance but Munster played their part in the arm-wrestle too. While their attack couldn’t quite find a way through Leinster some of their defensive work was excellent, and as the clock wound down they found themselves scrambling to try salvage another last-gasp win, only to come up short.

Not the desired result, but the visitors certainly went down fighting.

“I thought it was a hell of a game,” said Rowntree.

“We will look at ourselves, our composure when we get near the opposition try line. We were held for a goal line drop out early in the game and if we had scored there it changes the context of the next quarter. There’s elements of the third quarter as well that we will look at what we can do better on the opposition try line, look at those chances and where we can make better decisions. But that was a proper team, 50,000 people at the Aviva, and I’m immensely proud of our performance.”

Munster's Jack Crowley and Leinster's Jordan Larmour and Robbie Henshaw. Billy Stickland / INPHO Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO

Munster reignited this rivalry when Crowley’s late drop-goal sealed a memorable URC semi-final win last May and they threatened to steal the victory here again, playing from deep with a move that put their losing bonus point at risk, only for Leinster to hold them out.

“My blood pressure was high at that point but that’s our ambition and I can’t take that out of the lads,” Rowntree continued.

“That’s how we want to play. That’s our endeavour there. It could have gone horribly wrong but we came out with it and we deserved a point. Could have won the game if it wasn’t for a few errors from us but that’s some performance. That’s a massive game that we’ve put in there.”

With Munster’s injury count mounting ahead of the game, Rowntree made some intriguing positional switches for this interpro derby. Tom Ahern impressed in his new surroundings at number six while Simon Zebo proved a handful on his first start at fullback for Munster since 2018.

“He’s got magic touches,” Rowntree said of Zebo.

“Makes things look very easy. He’s been out with a knee injury and he became available 10 days ago, which is quite handy for us given recent retirements and injury to Mike Haley etc. He adds to the group. He always has an energy around him and I was mindful of maybe he wouldn’t be able to do 80 minutes and we planned accordingly and that’s what happened.”

Next up for Munster is a home clash against Glasgow Warriors in Cork. O’Mahony and O’Donoghue are both likely to miss out again but Munster are increasingly optimistic that the pair won’t face an extended period on the sidelines. Munster kick-off their Champions Cup campaign at home to Bayonne on 9 December.

“I’ll know more Monday,” Rowntree said of O’Mahony. “His shoulder wasn’t as bad as we first feared. He had some treatment for it and I’ll know more Monday as to how long he’ll be out. That will be weeks, not months. Jack O’Donoghue the same.”