Leinster secure bonus point win over misfiring Munster in front of URC record attendance

First-half tries from James Lowe, captain Caelan Doris, Hugo Keenan and former Munster man RG Snyman gave Leinster their fourth consecutive maximum-point URC win of the campaign to light up Croke Park with a commanding victory every bit as emphatic as the last meeting of these provinces at GAA HQ 15 years earlier.

Munster’s reply came through a first-half try from Sean O’Brien and a Mike Haley try midway through the second period but never inflicted the sort of pressure required to unsettle a Leinster side that racked up its third league win in a row over their southern rivals having last lost to Graham Rowntree’s side in the 2023 URC semi-finals 17 months ago.

Munster had needed to be at their very best to have a hope of staging an upset and rebounding from a shock defeat away to Zebre Parma in round two by registering a dominant 23-0 win at home to Ospreys in Cork a week later had raised hopes among supporters that Rowntree’s men were back on track. Munster will have travelled to Dublin in fine fettle, despite a raft of injuries that saw key forwards Oli Jager and Peter O’Mahony ruled out following the Virgin Media Park victory.

That optimism was short-lived at Croke Park, however, as Munster fluffed their lines from advantageous positions with a misfiring lineout and Leinster showed their class with a clinical first-half display to take a 21-0 lead after just 14 minutes. James Lowe, the hat-trick hero of Leinster’s Champions Cup semi-final win over Northampton Saints here last May, got his side up and running five minutes in as the home forward pack sucked defenders towards the posts. That allowed Jamison Gibson-Park to pass wide to the left to an unmarked Lowe to score from very close range, Ciaran Frawley converting.

Leinster maintained the pressure as Munster lost both Niall Scannell and his replacement at hooker Diarmuid Barron to Head Injury Assessments while loosehead prop Jeremy Loughman was removed for a blood injury, sending the visitors down to 14 men temporarily with costly results for the Reds.

A Lowe foray down the right earned a penalty which the Ireland wing tapped quickly and from there Munster were scrambling, Caelan Doris scoring his side’s second in 10 minutes as he ploughed through Red defenders to touch down next to the posts, Frawley against adding the extra points off the tee.

Leinster were at their relentless best, adding a third try four minutes later through Hugo Keenan as Frawley’s conversion pushed Leo Cullen’s side into a 21-0 lead but Munster had not been without opportunities of their own. Jack Crowley missed a penalty kick on 18 minutes and Calvin Nash finished excellently in the right corner as Munster finally exerted sustained pressure on the Leinster line, only for the pass he received from Alex Nankivell to be deemed forward by referee Chris Busby after 25 minutes.

Munster were finally on the scoreboard six minutes before half-time with a well-worked lineout move. The pack had gained some ascendancy at the scrum with two successive penalties for wheeling and from the second, Munster executed their five-metre lineout perfectly as the ball reached Jean Kleyn at the tail, No.8 Gavin Coombes wrapping around to collect and send a deft inside pass to wing Sean O’Brien on an excellent line to charge over. The only surprise was that Crowley missed the conversion from left of the posts but Munster had points at last.

That did not stop Leinster extending their lead just before half-time having besieged the Munster line for a three minutes through a series of tap penalty moves, the ploy finally paying off as lock RG Snyman inflicted pain on his former province and recent team-mates by powering through the tryline defence and over for his new side’s try bonus point and a 26-5 interval lead.

Some Munster supporters had booed Snyman’s name when the teams were announced pre-match and there was a louder show of disapproval from visiting fans when the South African double World Cup winner was removed on 50 minutes. Yet the giant Springbok had made his point following a summer move he had not sought, Graham Rowntree having been forced to jettison the injury-blighted Snyman at the end of his contract after Munster stalwart Kleyn had also declared for South Africa.

Kleyn had also been removed around the same time as Tom Ahern made his first appearance of the season following an ankle injury last June and though Munster got plenty of go-forward ball, particularly through impressive centre pairing Nankivell and Tom Farrell, poor execution with the ball and excellent home defence denied the visitors making further inroads on the scoreboard, no more evident than just before the hour when Leinster’s Garry Ringrose was lightning fast off the line to disrupt what had been a promising attack and Calvin Nash sent a forward pass to John Hodnett free on the left wing frustratingly forward.

Munster still had defending to do, full-back Mike Haley outlasting the dangerous Lowe in a chase for a Frawley kick ahead and soon after it was Haley’s pace which secured Munster’s second try of the evening on 65 minutes, Conor Murray’s break getting his side on the front foot soon after his introduction. Murray’s offload from the deck kept the momentum going as Farrell made more yards before another offload to Coombes allowed the No.8 dab a kick towards the Leinster line, his full-back touching down and Crowley finding his range with the conversion to make it 26-12 to Leinster with a quarter of an hour to go.

It did not provide the spark required to unsettle the hosts, who comfortably saw out the remaining minutes in Munster territory and the visitors will return south with plenty to think about but lots of time to put things right with so much of the season to play.

LEINSTER: H Keenan; L Turner (R Byrne, 68), G Ringrose, J Osborne, J Lowe (H Byrne, 76); C Frawley, J Gibson-Park (L McGrath, 68); A Porter, L Barron (G McCarthy, h-t), T Furlong (C Healy, 64); RG Snyman (R Baird, 50; Baird HIA, replaced by T Clarkson, 52), James Ryan; J Conan (M Deegan, 19), J van der Flier, C Doris – captain.

MUNSTER: M Haley; C Nash, T Farrell (T Butler, 74), A Nankivell, S O’Brien (S McCarthy, 61); J Crowley, C Casey (C Murray, 59); J Loughman (J Ryan, 10-24 – blood & 51; J Ryan replaced by K Ryan, 74 - HIA), N Scannell (D Barron, 7-15 – HIA; Barron replaced by K Ryan 15 - HIA, replaced by N Scannell, 24), S Archer; J Kleyn (T Ahern, 49), T Beirne - captain; J O’Donoghue, J Hodnett (G Coombes 57-69 – HIA), G Coombes (R Quinn, 55).

Referee: Chris Busby (IRFU).