Pro-14 Leinster - Munster 07-10-2017

Munster travel up to Leinster for the derby, not usually a happy hunting ground for Munster. Both teams have looked strong and poor so far this season so this is a really open game.

Leinster: J Carbery; A Byrne, R O'Loughlin, R Henshaw, B Daly; J Sexton (capt), L McGrath; J McGrath, J Tracy, T Furlong, D Toner, S Fardy, R Ruddock, J van der Flier, J Conan.

Replacements: S Cronin, C Healy, M Bent, R Molony, J Murphy, J Gibson-Park, R Byrne, F McFadden.

Munster: JJ Hanrahan; A Conway, C Farrell, T Bleyendaal, K Earls; I Keatley, C Murray; D Kilcoyne, N Scannell, J Ryan, R Copeland, B Holland, P O'Mahony, T O'Donnell, CJ Stander.

Replacements: R Marshall, L O'Connor, S Archer, M Flanagan, J O'Donoghue, D Williams, R Scannell, A Wootton.

Nice to see Earls back though

Really not sure about having Bleyendaal at 12, not sure he is defensively strong enough.

Joe will not be happy.
If Sexton gets injured there are 4 players there to consider for the 10 shirt and, arguably,
none of the best 3 - Carberry, JJ, Bleyendaal - are starting at 10

Not so sure he would be Geoff.

JJ not enough games to be considered for Ireland.
Bleyendaal not in any form at all to be considered for Ireland.
Carberry forced to play 15 because of Sexton.

Keatley, showed some very good form last week so another good performance from him may get him a bench slot.

Munster for the win!

Some great reading and rush from both Sexton and Earls in defence there possibly stopping try's.

Earls with the try but was it a forward pass?

Great finish from him though, proper finish

Yeah, it was a mile forward.

Fair try for Leinster but horrible defence from Ryan.

Absolute BS, Scannell went for the intercept there. Never a yellow card.

Enjoying this a lot so far. Great stuff from both sides. Can't call this one just yet.

Leinster definitely the better team in the first half. Sexton has his kicking boots on and really piling the pressure on Munster. That said, I think a more composed Leinster side may have put more points on against Munster.

Think Leinster will win this in the end and will get a TBP.

Congrats Leinster, better team today.

Bit confused as to how they did not get a YC for an attempted intercept when Munster did though. Also why J v/d Flier didn't see a YC for his collapsing of the maul on the Leinster tryline either.

Anyways, on another day Munster may have got those decisions so no bitter grapes from me and as I said, the better side won today.

eirebilly wrote:Congrats Leinster, better team today.

Bit confused as to how they did not get a YC for an attempted intercept when Munster did though. Also why J v/d Flier didn't see a YC for his collapsing of the maul on the Leinster tryline either.

Anyways, on another day Munster may have got those decisions so no bitter grapes from me and as I said, the better side won today.

The Munster guy went for the ball one handed and the Leinster guy used both. That's what makes it a card these days. To be honest it could have been deemed not even deliberate.

You are right about JVDF though, he was very lucky not to walk.

Fair enough Big Gee but I felt that Scannell was in the passing channel and had every right to go for the intercept one handed. Had it have gone slightly upwards he may have caught it. It was not a slap down at all. At best, may be a penalty but a YC? Not a chance in my mind.

Reggie Corrigan has again been an absolute fool in his after match interview. Fancy asking any Captain of any team about his players commitment to the cause. He is really becoming a horrible pundit.

You take your chance with one handed intercepts these days. If you knock it upwards, retrieve it and score, you are a hero. If not, you are very likely to walk!

It is a high percentage play.

Disappointing enough from Leinster,we should have won that far more comfortably.Gifted Munster their first two tries and didn’t take our chances.
Farrell very lucky not to get yellow for the shoulder charge on Henshaw.

asoreleftshoulder wrote:Disappointing enough from Leinster,we should have won that far more comfortably.Gifted Munster their first two tries and didn’t take our chances.
Farrell very lucky not to get yellow for the shoulder charge on Henshaw.

Yeah, was also surprised that did not go to the TMO. Horrible late no arms hit. Farrell will have to curb his temper in the future, not the first time he has done that when frustrated.

He’s a big unit,I’d say Henshaw felt it.Haven’t seen much of Munster yet this season,how has he been playing,has he the potential to get international caps?
Earls has hit the ground running,if Munster can keep hibiscuses him decent ball he’ll do damage.

He has his moments and is a powerful unit but I do question his temperament. If he has ambitions of playing for Ireland then he will have to sort that out as Schmidt will not tolerate it.

Earls was very good yesterday but not sure if he will be in the reckoning for the AI's.

Carbery again showed what an excellent broken play runner he is, brilliant feet and a nice bit of speed as well.

Earls will definitely be in the mix for the AI’s,Schmidt loves him.As for Carbery, I thought he played well in attack but I was really happy with his defense,he made a few really good tackles at crucial times.

The Leinster 'intercept' was far less likely to result in actually taking the ball - it looked to be one hand as well. Both should have been penalties and neither a card. Whitehouse also favoured Leinster with the non-card for the maul collapsing, but missing the Farrell challenge was incredible.

There is always hype about a 17 stone centre, but Farrell is on the lumbering side to be a 13 and needs to improve his game management to be a 12. Rory O'Loughlin comfortably outplayed him and doesn't make Ringrose an automatic pick for Leinster when fit.

Thought McGrath compared favourably to Murray, and has to be ahead of Marmion as backup for Ireland.

Carberry looks good going forward, but his natural instinct is to be up with the play rather than patrol the back field - could he play at 12 outside Sexton for Leinster and Ireland?

It was another forgettable game.

I thought both teams were not great. Leinster won but after 60 min the penalty count was about 10 - 1 in their favour. It looked like Munster players left their brains in the locker room.

Agree prof, thought that Munster really were undisciplined yesterday.

When I was listening in on the player microphone on Henshaw, thought he was approaching the referee and influencing him. Sign of a very good Captain in the making. He did it with respect and won him over, if only POM had done the same thing...

I watched that game yesterday.

I have to say, I thought Munster were unlucky in the second half. How Leinster were not yellowed during the couple of 5 meter line outs I do not know. The second half for me was mostly Munsters. The thing is Ben Whitehouse is usually a decent ref, but for this game, sorry he was a homer.

Two poor teams. Joe and Andy will have nightmares about the AIs after sitting through that dross.

LordDowlais wrote:I watched that game yesterday.

I have to say, I thought Munster were unlucky in the second half. How Leinster were not yellowed during the couple of 5 meter line outs I do not know. The second half for me was mostly Munsters. The thing is Ben Whitehouse is usually a decent ref, but for this game, sorry he was a homer.

I would not say Whitehouse was a homer LD. There were a few things I didn't agree with (The YC for Munster and not for Leinster intercept attempts and the non YC on the line for v/d Flier) but he could easily have sent Farrell off for his late no arms challenge. Actually thought he had a decent game myself.

Hi Billy, Farrell was that big huge lump in the center wasn't he ? Yes, I reckon a citing could be coming his way.

But if Leinster were yellowed earlier for constant infringements during that spell of about 3 or four 5mtr line outs, then I reckon Munster would have won that game. But hey ho, it's all if's and but's.

Agree with most of what's written here.

That yellow card for Munster was very harsh. Neither that or the leinster intercept attempt should have been cards.
Does Farrell need a citing, reckon POM should give him a glare and that would sort him out.

Earls was the best player on the pitch, popped up everywhere, really got involved, kind of reminded me of that purple patch Trimble has a couple of seasons back.

Reggie was an idiot phrasing a question like that to any captain.

There was a half decent atmosphere at the game.

Carbery is not a fullback. Granted he is illusive running forwards and has a nice kicking game.... but as the last defender he tackling wasn't as consistent as it should be and his positioning in the backfield needs to improve a lot. Kind of shows what a security blanket Kearney is, most times an outhalf or fullback kicks a ball, Kearney is catching it and looking what to do next. Any time the ball was kicked away by Munster, Carbery was jogging over the place he should have been standing to start with.

I was surprised with the Munster pack, front row-locks-back row were all the same height, similar(ish) build from a distance, I didn't realise how much Kleyn was bulking up that pack by.

And I was surprised with the munster back line play, they never attacked Leinster where all sides make yards out of Leinster recently. Maybe that was because the composition of the midfield contradicted itself. Why go with two outhalfs and put a slow crash ball merchant outside them? Surely you should be looking to use the distribution of Keatley/JJ/Tyler to move the ball into openings for pacey strike runners to come onto the ball. Instead a crisp pass from Keatley was followed by a crisp pass from Tyler into Farrell who just trucked it up. That's what it felt like was happening at the game anyway, maybe TV gave a better impression.

Neither side played well enough to trouble Castre/Montpelier next week based on those performance levels.