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Leinster edge Munster to win Thomond thriller

By PA
Limerick , Ireland - 26 December 2022; Tadhg Beirne of Munster after his side's defeat in the United Rugby Championship match between Munster and Leinster at Thomond Park in Limerick. (Photo By Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

Leinster scored two tries during Max Deegan’s sin-binning to edge out Munster 20-19 and win the first Christmas inter-provincial derby at Thomond Park in three years.

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Gavin Coombes cancelled out two Ross Byrne penalties with a well-finished 30th-minute try to give Munster a 7-6 half-time lead.

Graham Rowntree’s side mauled through for a penalty try and Deegan’s yellow, only for 14-man Leinster to storm back with tries from Scott Penny and Dan Sheehan, both from tapped penalties.

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Munster replacement Patrick Campbell crossed to make it a one-point game, but the BKT United Rugby Championship leaders finished the first half of the season with their 12th straight win in all competitions.

Byrne landed a second-minute penalty for a fast-starting Leinster before Jack Crowley’s turnover penalty kept the Munster try-line intact.

Munster blew their first maul opportunity but despite some good countering from Jean Kleyn and Shane Daly’s elusive running, they ended the opening quarter 6-0 down.

Their captain Peter O’Mahony forced a momentum-changing penalty off a lineout, and Antoine Frisch and Niall Scannell then found holes in the Leinster defence.

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Hooker Scannell was stopped short from a tapped penalty, but Coombes twisted his way over from a ruck. Joey Carbery, who had missed an earlier penalty, edged them in front with the conversion.

Leinster, who missed a late penalty through Byrne, suffered a double blow early in the second half. Referee Chris Busby awarded Munster a penalty try, also carding Deegan for collapsing the drive.

Nonetheless, a clever move five metres out saw Penny plunge over for the table toppers and Byrne converted.

Sheehan then drove through two tackles to score in the 52nd minute. Byrne curled over the conversion for a sudden 20-14 lead.

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Leinster absorbed a punishing defensive stand, but could not hold out in the 63rd minute when Craig Casey passed wide for Campbell to score in the right corner. Carbery’s crucial conversion fell wide.

Calvin Nash and Campbell combined to foil a likely try for Luke McGrath, and although Munster held Leinster at bay from a maul and a late onslaught, they ended the game in their own 22.

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r
robespierre 939 days ago

Great game.

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NH 28 minutes ago
'The Wallabies need to convert much better - or Melbourne could be much worse'

Nice one as always Brett. I think the stats hide a bit of the dominance the lions had, and they would look alot worse in that first half when the game was more in the balance. You mention it here but I think it hasn’t been talked about enough was the lineout. The few times the wallabies managed to exit their half and get an opportunity to attack in the 1st half, the lineout was lost. This was huge in terms of lions keeping momentum and getting another chance to attack, rather than the wallabies getting their chance and to properly ‘exit’ their half. The other one you touch on re “the will jordan bounce of the ball” - is kick chase/receipt. I thought that the wallabies kicked relatively well (although were beaten in this area - Tom L rubbish penalty kicks for touch!), but our kick receipt and chase wasn’t good enough jorgenson try aside. In the 1st half there was a moment where russell kicked for a 50:22 and potter fumbled it into touch after been caught out of position, lynagh makes a similar kick off 1st phase soon after and keenan is good enough to predict the kick, catch it at his bootlaces and put a kick in. That kick happened to go out on the full but it was a demonstration on the difference in positioning etc. This meant that almost every contested kick that was spilled went the way of the lions, thats no accident, that is a better chase, more urgency, more players in the area. Wallabies need to be better in who fields their kicks getting maxy and wright under most of them and Lynagh under less, and the chase needs to be the responsibility of not just one winger but a whole group of players who pressure not just the catch but the tackle, ruck and following phase.

17 Go to comments
J
JW 44 minutes ago
Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us

Thanks for the further background to player welfare metrics Nick.


Back on the last article I noted that WR is now dedicating a whole section in their six-point business plan to this topic. It also noted that studies indicated 85-90% of workload falls outside of playing. So in respect to your point on the classification of ‘involvements’ included even subs with a low volume of minutes, it actually goes further, to the wider group of players that train as if they’re going to be required to start on the weekend, even if they’re outside the 23. That makes even the 30-35 game borderline pale into insignificance.


No doubt it is won of the main reasons why France has a quota on the number of one clubs players in their International camps, and rotate in other clubs players through the week. The number of ‘invisible’ games against a player suggests the FFRs 25 game limit as more appropriate?


So if we take it at face value that Galthie and the FFR have got it right, only a dozen players from the last 60 international caps should have gone on this tour. More players from the ‘Scotland 23’ than the more recent 23.


The only real pertinent question is what do players prefer more, health or money? There are lots of ethical decisions, like for instance whether France could make a market like Australia’s where their biggest rugby codes have yearly broadcast deals of 360 and 225 million euros. They do it by having a 7/8 month season.

68 Go to comments
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