Munster 31; Leinster 14
Wow! This game didn’t just throw up one riddle about a shift of power among the provinces but asked the question about who will figure in upcoming Ireland teams in the key out-half position?
Over 51,000 fans made it to GAA HQ along Jones’ Road for a Croke Park run-of-the-mill Autumn league match and came away wondering what the result will really mean as the season progresses.
For starters - there are the two Head Coaches. Munster's Clayton McMillan has a four out of four and his Leinster counterpart Leo Cullen has only one win in four.
Leinster started on Saturday as if they meant business and when they went 7-0 up thanks to Rónan Kelleher’s try and Sam Prendergast’s conversion, you would have been forgiven for thinking - the sluice gates are about to open on Munster.
Instead it was the men in red who stood up to the challenge and by half-time had scored three tries of their own - two of the breakaway variety to sow serious doubts into the Leinster heads as they jogged in for their half-time cuppa.
Those dot-downs from Brian Gleeson, Tom Farrell and Ethan Coughlan, pumped real self-belief into the men from the deep south and with Tadhg Beirne bringing his Lions form to Dublin’s northside and Jack Crowley lording it as the main man in the head-to-head with Prendergast, Munster had the men who pulled the levers in the vital parts of the play.
And the Kiwi coach has brought such a level of belief that you can be sure his squad will benefit immeasurably from such a display which saw boys in red become men before our very eyes.
While Crowley got man of the match, really there was no contest as Beirne was the outstanding player and leader on the pitch.
It is a measure of the heroic defensive display by the winners that despite pounding on their line time and time again, Leinster had to wait until the clock was in the red zone at the end of the game before impressive replacement Scott Penney got in for a converted try.
As the cognoscenti headed for Northern and other watering holes after the game, the chat was about what the game meant for Irish rugby. Are Leinster on their last legs or is it just a hangover from a long season, elongated more than usual because of the Lions tour down under?
They seemed bereft of ideas, none more so than Jamison GIbson-Park who kept knocking in the same way without any success and who looked a pale imitation of the player we have seen for the past five years.
He played second violin to young Ethan Coughlan, who could make a charge into the international arena if he keeps up his burst of form in the coming weeks and months.
Arguably though the biggest talking point was how poor Prendergast looked in comparison to Crowley, whose body language exuded class and a self-belief that for some time now has been sadly lacking in the precocious Leinster man.
This game has given Ireland head coach Andy Farrell a real headache - and it will be a few weeks before we see if he goes with either of those two 10s. Personally I would go for Harry Byrne, who I have always believed gets more out of his three-quarter line than anyone since Johnny Sexton retired, including his brother Ross, Crowley and Prendergast, all of whom appeared ranked above him in Farrell’s pecking order.
After the game, Leo Cullen said Munster were more clinical than his players on the day.
Speaking on RTE sport he said: “I thought we started the game okay. We scored a good try at the start. Munster come back into it, we don't exit effectively, and hence they're down our end. They do well from a close-range try and they get over. We were probably in that position 12 times in the game where we didn't get over, because we're chasing the game."
He went on: “We had a chance before half-time to score, where Munster are scrapping and fighting for everything and you've got to give them a huge amount of credit for the way they went about things. They were able to hold us out before half-time. We started the second half pretty well, I thought, and were in a good position. We have a lineout and we have lots of these pick-and-go opportunities close to the try-line.
“But Munster are just so effective and we're just lacking a bit of composure there. Is that because it's the first game of the season for a lot of guys or whatever that is? Or is it Munster are very good and we're just not quite accurate enough? There's a few different factors there at play.
"It's a good wake-up for the group. We had a group that was out in South Africa, and we have a cohort of the Lions guys. It's always going to be a bit of a sticky start to the season for us. We've talked about it over the last while and now we're seeing it unfold.
“You talk about it and hope that that's not going to be the case, but you're marking everyone's card, our own in particular. We've still got to go through it and we weren't good enough today. But the big thing is composure, taking opportunities. Munster were a hell of a lot better than we were.
:We're just not battle-hardened at the moment. It is what it is. I'm not sure exactly what the solution is for us moving forward. How we get to that physical pitch and speed of playing games. The challenge for us in the short term is we have a cohort that are going to be gone next week and we're playing Zebra at the Aviva.
“I'd love to be coming into the press here talking about a big performance here and sending guys off into national camp, and talking about the group that we have getting ready to play against Zebre and the opportunity that's there for a number of players. We'll have a number of guys making their debut next week.”
Leinster face Zebre this weekend and then the Dragons are next up after Ireland’s Autumn Nations Series campaign.
Munster scorers: Tries: B Gleeson, T Farrell, E Coughlan, Penalty Try
Cons: J Crowley (3) : Pen J Crowley (1)
Leinster scorers: Tries: R Kelleher, S Penny Cons: S Prendergast (2)
Munster: S Daly; A Smith, T Farrell, D Kelly, T Abrahams; J Crowley, E Coughlan; M Milne, D Barron, J Ryan (for Beirne, 64-76 [HIA]); E Edogbo, F Wycherley; T Beirne (capt), J O'Donoghue, B Gleeson Replacements: L Barron (for D Barron, 40), J Loughman (for Milne, 52), R Foxe (for Ryan, 62), J Kleyn (for Edogbo, 40), G Coombes (for Gleeson, 28), P Patterson (for Coughlan, 56), JJ Hanrahan, Alex Nankivell (for Smith, 9).
Leinster: J Osborne; J Larmour, G Ringrose; R Henshaw, J Lowe; S Prendergast, J Gibson-Park; P McCarthy, R Kelleher, T Furlong; RG Snyman, J Ryan; A Soroka, J van der Flier (capt), M Deegan Replacements: D Sheehan (for Kelleher, 45), A Porter (for McCarthy, 16 [HIA]), T Clarkson (for Furlong, 62), B Deeny (for Snyman, 43), S Penny (for Deegan, 71), F Gunne (for Gibson-Park, 70), C Frawley (for Prendergast, 38-40 [HIA], for Henshaw, 56), J O’Brien (for Larmour, 22 [HIA]).
