Despite their Saturday defeat in Dublin, Munster’s head coach Graham Rowntree maintains that the team’s rivalry with Leinster is “shifting.”
Although they had to fight hard the entire time, Leo Cullen’s team defeated the visitors 21–16.
Jack Crowley’s penalty and Craig Casey’s try gave Munster an early 10-0 lead. However, Leinster rallied, scoring three touchdowns through Jamison Gibson-Park, Dan Sheehan, and Jordan Larmour.
This was the first meeting between the two since Rowntree’s side shocked the Leinstermen in last season’s United Rugby Championship semi-finals.
On that occasion, Cullen decided not to play his strongest side, but the majority of their Ireland stars featured in Saturday’s clash.
“It is shifting. We proved that in May and that was a fully loaded team they had there [yesterday] and we could have beat them,” Munster’s boss said.
“We could have beat them. A lot of that is in our control and we will have a look at that. We have to build momentum. We have a huge game in Cork next Friday night now against Glasgow.
“We’ve got some battered young and old bodies to look after and we will move forward but I take an immense amount of pride for the stack of things we did well in that game.”
Despite certain shortcomings on both ends, the 80-minute contest served as a fantastic advertisement for Irish rugby and the URC overall.
According to Rowntree, “It was a hell of a game.” When we go close to the opposition’s try line, we’ll examine ourselves and our poise. Early in the game, we were held for a goal line dropout, and the outcome of the following quarter would have been different if we had scored there.
“We’ll examine our performance near the opposition try line, as well as our opportunities and areas for improved decision-making, in the third quarter. However, with 50,000 spectators at the Aviva, that was a legitimate team, and I’m very happy of our performance.
Leave a Reply