Heineken Rugby Cup Semi Final 2009 Munster Lose
European Champions Beaten by Leinster in Front of World Record Crowd
May 3, 2009
Munster’s British Lions misfired as O’Driscoll led Leinster to a famous victory in front of 82,000. Leinster now play in their first Heineken Cup Final.
No-one saw this coming. Munster are the reigning European Champions, have just won the Magners League, provided the backbone of the Irish grand slam team and will supply legions of players to the British and Irish Lions squad.
Munster had also beaten Leinster twice already this season, winning 18-0 at the Royal Dublin Showground and 22-5 at Thomond Park and, when the teams met at this stage of the Heineken Cup three years ago, Munster destroyed their Dublin rivals. All the signs and portents were pointing to Munster. Nothing could go wrong, could it?
This game was supposed to be about Munster’s team ethic and collective will to win against the individual genius of the Dubliner’s back division with Contepomi, O’Driscoll and D’Arcy posing the main threat.
Leinster’s Forwards Matched Munster
For Munster, Leinster have added steel to their forwards since that last semi final. The Leinster pack was phenomenal and didn’t take a backwards step all afternoon. With Australian flanker Rocky Elsom to the fore, they were ferocious at the breakdown, turning Munster over time and again.
When Munster did manage to get the ball out of the ruck, things were going wrong at half back too. Their experienced and usually rock steady combination of Stringer and O’Gara had a dreadful afternoon. Stringer’s passing was lethargic and his box kicking poor. O’Gara, under pressure from slow ball, couldn’t control the game and seemed to lose composure as the game went on.
Leinster Score Three Tries
The Dublin team showed that for all their new found attitude, they still had a cutting edge. With half an hour gone, full back Nacewa made a slashing break and his pass found D’Arcy out wide, who finished well in the corner. Worse was to come in the second half when slick passing from the Leinster backs put Fitzgerald in space. The winger stepped inside the flapping Paul Warwick and the conversion from Sexton, on for the injured Contepomi, made the score 18-6.
To misquote Reggie Perrin’s boss, ‘Munster didn’t get where they are today by curling up and dying when things get tough’. They roared back at Leinster and were pressing hard when O’Gara threw a pass in midfield which O’Driscoll interecepted, racing 80 metres to score under the posts. This made it 25-6, game over and Leinster will play their first Heineken Cup final, meeting Leicester. There will be a lot of Heineken Cup final tickets swapping hands in Ireland over the next few weeks.
Problems for the British and Irish Lions
The storm clouds of this defeat won’t simply hang over Limerick. Ian McGeechan will be sweating over the fitness of two of his British and Irish Lions selections, hooker Flannery and wing Fitzgerald both left the field injured. There was also concern about pictures that have emerged of Quinlan and Paul O’Connell allegedly gouging opponents. The Quinlan episode looked more serious and could well lead to a citing.
McGeechan will also be concerned that the Munster pack, supposed to be the bedrock of his Lions pack, were blown away in a lacklustre performance. A repeat against the Springboks will lead to a very one sided series.
 |
