Irish bragging rights: Leinster
Leinster claimed the Irish bragging rights in Saturday's Pro12 showdown against Irish rivals Munster with a 18-9 win at Thomond Park.
Leinster effectively secured a home semi-final in the play-offs with victory in an unsurprisingly tense - but try-less - encounter between Ireland's two strongest provinces.
It was the visitors who took a 9-3 half-time lead through three Jonny Sexton penalties. Ronan O'Gara responded with one of his own before adding two more three-pointers to level the scores in the second period.
However, another Sexton penalty helped his side into the lead before Fergus McFadden and Ian Madigan three-pointers sealed the win.
With internationals fully integrated back into the Pro12 season after the Six Nations, both sides went in with full-strength squads. And the first half proved to be incredibly tense with the teams cancelling each other out.
It was Leinster who took the lead through Sexton before a period of scrappy play ensued, until O'Gara then equalised after 28 minutes.
The visiting fly-half added a second penalty as Leinster regained the advantage and also converted another opportunity to extend that lead to 9-3 at the break.
But Munster started the second half in superior fashion, with O'Gara reducing the deficit with a second three-pointer after Marcus Horan and Mike Ross had been sin-binned for each side.
The Ireland international subsequently levelled the scores, but it only served to spur Leinster on and Sexton converted his fourth opportunity from the tee.
Substitute McFadden then kicked a penalty as the visitors asserted their authority on proceedings. And Madigan completed the triumph with a late drop-goal.
The scorers:
For Munster:
Pens: O'Gara 3
For Leinster:
Pens: Sexton 4, McFadden
Drop: Madigan
Yellow cards: Horan (Munster - 43rd min); Ross (Leinster - 43rd min)
Munster: 15 Felix Jones, 14 Johne Murphy, 13 Keith Earls, 12 Lifeimi Mafi, 11 Simon Zebo, 10 Ronan O'Gara (c), 9 Tomas O'Leary, 8 James Coughlan, 7 Peter O'Mahony, 6 Dave O'Callaghan, 5 Mick O'Driscoll, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 BJ Botha, 2 Damien Varley, 1 Marcus Horan.
Replacements: 16 Mike Sherry, 17 Wian du Preez, 18 Stephen Archer, 19 Billy Holland, 20 Tom O'Donnell, 21 Duncan Williams, 22 Ian Keatley, 23 Danny Barnes.
Leinster: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Isa Nacewa, 13 Brian O'Driscoll, 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Luke Fitzgerald, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Eoin Reddan, 8 Jamie Heaslip (c), 7 Shane Jennings, 6 Kevin McLaughlin, 5 Devin Toner, 4 Brad Thorn, 3 Mike Ross, 2 Sean Cronin, 1 Heinke van der Merwe.
Replacements: 16 Richardt Strauss, 17 Cian Healy, 18 Jamie Hagan, 19 Leo Cullen, 20 Sean O'Brien, 21 Isaac Boss, 22 Ian Madigan, 23 Fergus McFadden.
Venue: Thomond Park
Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Comments
jtimkins says...
black47. . .I agree, Earls and Felix had good games but Zebo had a poor game, a few nice moments in attack but far too many missed tackles. Coughlan, in my opinion outshone Heaslip by some bit.
Posted 18:14 02nd April 2012
blametheref says...
After nearly every NH game you'll always get one or two who make a point of coming on to a board to tell us how crap NH rugby is. It's obvious from these persistant comments that a lot of people don't understand what's behind a lot of NH games in certain instances. Like this derby game, played in one of the toughest stadiums in world rugby to win in, there were players coming back from International duty, along with players joining up, like Brad Thorn, plus players coming back from injury. Both these teams had their eye on more important Heineken Cup matches next weekend which clearly were their priority, so a cadgey game was always on the cards with Leinster tactically playing a straightforward territory game to counteract Munster's strength in this area....Though it was a poor spectacle, you will always find one or two games like this now and then. Watching the English Premiership highlights there was some great entertaining rugby played.
Posted 08:17 02nd April 2012
crunchfit says...
@leinsterblue
The scrum stabilised when Marcus Horan went off. He is the reason it was collapsing. As far as I remember, Hagan was not solid at all in his first scrum.
Posted 19:48 01st April 2012
Bitathisnow says...
@leinsterblue-What match were u watching???When Hagan came on it made the munster scrum dominant and solid but definetley not the Leinster scrum...when mike ross came back from the sinbin, the leinster scrum not only steadied but became more dominant. The problem with the scrum in the begining was marcus horan,he kept going down deliberatley because mike ross had a weight advantage, and the small gap nigel owens insisted on having gave the heavier player the advantage. As a result Horan refused to scrummage and should have been sent to the bin(on his own) as when du preez came on, there was a good competition between the two front rows, which allowed for better continuity and resulted in a good final 20 minute period....Wouldnt be 2 worried about cardiff blues, cant see them beating leinster,certainly not at home
Posted 18:39 01st April 2012
J_Hdk says...
It really looked as if the front rows too far apart at almost every scrum. Once that is the case and pressure comes on from the second rows, the prop shoulders will always end up below the hips by the time the hit occurs. If front rows were even 12cm closer at the engage call most of these scrums would not have collapsed
Posted 18:17 01st April 2012
leinsterblue says...
dreadful game...the scrums were absolutely awful and both front rows seemed more intent on disrupting the scrums as opposed to just scrummaging - in my opinion, Owens waited far too long to bin the front rows - by the second failed scrum, the cards should have been out...I thought that when Jamie Hagan came on our scrum solidified a lot more....good to see Sexton seems to be really hitting good place kicking form...
our last 2 games in no way put me in a a confident mood for next weekend - I have an awful feeling that we could come unstuck against Cardiff...our season has come off the rails somewhat in the last few months...
Posted 15:59 01st April 2012
liam2me says...
'both sides went in with full-strength squads' FFS Planetrugby editors, get you facts straight.
Munster were missing Ryan, POC, Murray, Ronan and Howlett. You could also argue that having Wallace only coming back from injury so was on the bench (similar SOB, Healy and Cullen for Leinster) does not make full strength squads either. Do your research will ye.
Posted 11:28 01st April 2012
crunchfit says...
Shocking refereeing from Owens. I've always been a critic of his, but this was pathetic. His refereeing around the field was poor, even by his standards, and he didn't deal well with players. But the worst area of refereeing was obviously the scrum. I have always thought Owens at least had an idea what was going on. He doesn't. I'm shocked at some of the decisions. They were so obvious but Owens was clearly guessing. The first two penalties, for example, collapsed in the exact same manner due to Marcus Horan, yet he penalised each side once.
And how many times did he warn the players about yellow cards? Four, five times? Not to mention only one Horan should have been carded. Idiotic, cowardly and clueless decision. Terrible referee.
Posted 11:22 01st April 2012
kybone says...
If i remember rightly Munster v Leinster fixtures are always the same, in recent times anyway. No excitment, no attacking flair, no tries, just 2 teams slugging it out and trying to win by kicking penalties. And actually its the fans of these 2 clubs that tend to be the ones that come on here to tell England and English clubs how rubbich their rugby is.
Posted 08:49 01st April 2012
J_HDK says...
@leinster goy
Never ever listen to RTE commentary or analysis.
Highly physical and highly contested. Owens is a clown and ruined the flow of the game much more than anything else
Posted 00:13 01st April 2012
leinster_goy says...
well the rabodirect suits are the ones who keep consenting to these bumper fixtures being played at the same time every season. it was perfectly obvious that, shortly after a bruising six nations campaign and only a week before the heineken cup knock-outs (and following a world cup year) this match was never going to be the saturday night spectacle people wanted. both coaches were bound to have their eye on next weekend. granted, leinster at least made some effort to play some rugby but all the same it was ugly stuff from both teams and, overall, a bad advertisement for the "pro12"
on a more positive note, that's the home semi-final and final in the bag
Posted 21:50 31st March 2012