ANOTHER DISAPPOINTING VISIT to the Aviva Stadium, a fourth straight loss to Leinster and another defeat on the road this season, Munster must have returned south on Saturday evening wondering how they left this one behind.
Johann van Graan’s side were understandably aggrieved by a number of refereeing decisions which they felt went against them, and the visitors were certainly hard done by during a frenetic inter-pro with plenty of niggle and controversy.
Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO
All the pre-match talk had centred on the key battles at out-half and up front, but it turned out the match was won — and indeed lost — down one channel as Keith Earls endured a tough day at the office, and James Lowe proved to be the match-winner.
21 of Leinster’s 30 points came down Earls’ side, and that’s hardly a reflection on the Ireland winger, who, like Lowe, was involved in both of the game’s big talking points, which left van Graan and Munster fuming at referee Ben Whitehouse.
Firstly, Earls was adjudged to have tackled Lowe fractionally early as the Kiwi looked to open the scoring from Jamison Gibson-Park’s offload inside, and Whitehouse dished out a double punishment, as Leinster seized an early 14-0 lead.
And then, the match-defining moment which amounted to a crucial 14-point swing.
Earls appeared to have cut Leinster’s lead to just one score with a breakaway try at the start of the second stanza, but was denied a pivotal try by what was a questionable call, as the officials called it back for a Leinster penalty. The hosts duly took the opportunity, and their good fortune, to strike through the dangerman Lowe.
Munster, for all their efforts and they certainly threw everything at Leinster only to be kept at arm’s length, eventually left empty-handed after Stephen Archer’s needless block on Fergus McFadden allowed Ross Byrne stretch the hosts’ lead to eight points.
Still, there were plenty of positives to take from the performance for van Graan, as his side dominated possession and territory and showed good ambition with ball in hand, the likes of Dan Goggin, Sammy Arnold and Andrew Conway lively and energetic throughout.
“Most definitely,” the South African said, when asked if it was his side’s best away display of the season. “Like I said to the team, a loss is never good enough and we came here to win tonight and we expected from ourselves to win. That’s what we aimed for and we came up short.
“But there’s such a lot of positives from this game. The guys were heads up in there, obviously very disappointed for such a big game and such a brilliant occasion. As a guy coming from a different country I was so proud of what was delivered out there tonight.
“Unfortunately we are pretty disappointed with the result but to answer your question, a massive amount of positives and now coming up against a pretty decent opponent next week and a team that we’ve got a lot of respect for and also in brilliant form. So that was a good test for us tonight.”
The physicality and intensity of the work-out may not have yielded any rewards in the shape of Pro14 points, but ahead of the start of the Heineken Champions Cup next weekend, it was a valuable outing for Munster.