Munster Face Trip To Ulster After Losing To Leinster Young Guns

An understrength Leinster side rose to the occasion to win 35-25 at the Aviva Stadium and deny Munster a home quarter-final in the United Rugby Championship.

Four tries in 22 minutes – with Scott Penny’s opener coming inside 90 seconds – made for a highly entertaining first half which ended 15-12 in the table toppers’ favour.

Penny and Cormac Foley crossed for the hosts, who rested their first-choice players ahead of next week’s Heineken Champions Cup final, while Munster had back-to-back scores from Jack O’Donoghue and Mike Haley.

An opportunist Conor Murray try moved Munster a step closer to finishing second in the standings, but Leinster roared back with a penalty try – Niall Scannell was sin-binned for collapsing a maul – and a rapid Rory O’Loughlin effort.

Harry Byrne’s 70th-minute penalty clinched it for Leinster who have a home quarter-final against Glasgow Warriors in two weeks’ time. Ending up in sixth place, Munster will travel to Ulster in the last-eight.

Leinster also picked up silverware on the night, receiving the competition’s inaugural Irish Shield after finishing eight points clear of Ulster. Munster were a further three points back in third, with Connacht fourth.

Returning to the scene of their heart-breaking European exit, Johann van Graan’s men were stunned when Ciaran Frawley’s cross-field kick played in Penny to score past Joey Carbery in the right corner.

Back to full fitness, Ryan Baird had made the initial break during the build-up, and a strong counter ruck and pick-up from Thomas Clarkson saw Munster turned over during their first attack.

Out-half Byrne, who missed the conversion, tagged on a penalty for 8-0, but a reliable lineout platform set up Munster to strike back with some nice handling and a excellent finish.

Munster’s stand-in captain O’Donoghue clawed back five points, doing really well to stay in play and score in the right corner despite the presence of Foley. The try was created by a long Keith Earls pass.

Good approach work by the visitors’ forwards allowed them to make it a quick-fire double in the 16th minute. Ever-alert full-back Haley picked from a ruck to snipe in under the posts and Carbery converted.

Jordan Larmour’s electric run from a kick receipt inspired Leinster’s second try. He brought play back up to halfway and Jamie Osborne then sprung Ciaran Frawley through midfield, with the final pass putting Foley over for his first score in Leinster blue.

Although Byrne’s boot made it 15-12, Leinster had winger Rob Russell sin-binned before the break for a deliberate knock-on. Centre Frawley also made way for a head injury assessment.

A bomb of a kick from Haley caused trouble for Leinster on the restart, the breaking ball being scooped up by Murray for a gift of a try, which Carbery converted for a 19-15 scoreline.

The Munster number 10 then cancelled out a Byrne penalty, only for this youthful Leinster side, boosted by a fresh front row which included Cian Healy, to lift their game.

A brilliant 50:22 kick from Foley put them in prime position and their lineout drive forced a penalty try, with Munster hooker Scannell also seeing yellow for the infringement.

O’Loughlin followed up just two minutes later with a terrific bonus point effort, the initial damage caused again by the dazzling footwork of Larmour, the URC player-of-the-match. Byrne’s conversion made it a 10-point game.

Carbery chipped away with his second penalty, yet a long-range strike from Byrne settled the issue with Leinster’s defence on top late on in front of the 32,411-strong crowd.

Two knock-ons really dented Munster’s hopes of getting back into contention, while the sight of Jack Daly being hammered into touch by Osborne and then go off injured added to their woes.

With their injury list already headed up by regular skipper Peter O’Mahony, Simon Zebo and Damian de Allende, and the game coming too soon for Gavin Coombes, Munster also lost Jean Kleyn, Andrew Conway and Alex Kendellen at key stages.

Back on provincial duty for the first time since January, the fit-again Conway was prominent early on – particularly in the aerial contests – but had to hobble off on the hour mark.

If it proves to be his final appearance for Leinster, it was a fitting way for retiring lock Devin Toner to bow out. Sean Cronin, another player set to hang up his boots, enjoyed a 50-minute run-out.

Pleased with the impact of Larmour and a debut late on for young scrum half Ben Murphy, Leinster head coach Leo Cullen said: “Lots of really good stuff. Munster had their moments as well. One of the most pleasing parts is probably the start of the second half.

“Munster get that try, the ball goes up in the air and they get the bounce and it was a little bit of fortune, obviously they take the try. But the composure of our guys, particularly with some young guys, would they get themselves back into the game?

“But to be fair, they get a fair bit of control back into the game and produce plenty of moments. The penalty try leads to a yellow card for them and suddenly we’re in the ascendancy.

“Guys coming off the bench made decent impacts as well, so plenty of good stuff I have to say, which is great. It was great for Jordan. That’s what we said about guys timing their run at this time of the year.”

Munster boss van Graan commented: “Certainly the performance wasn’t good enough. I think the frustrating thing for us is the fact that we created a lot and didn’t finish it. The penalty try, yellow card, the try straight from that kick-off, that hurt us tonight.

“We’ve hopefully got a few guys coming back (for the play-offs). We had quite a few guys unavailable but in saying that we came here to win with the 23 selected and we’ll do our review like every single week and we’ve got to make sure we learn out of it.

“What I would say is when you fall 10 points behind against Leinster they don’t let you back in and they didn’t give us an option of that tonight.”