Munster Juniors Lose Out To Leinster

It was an improved performance by Munster in the Junior Interprovincial Championship but they were unable to come away with anything from a sun-soaked Coolmine after a 27-16 defeat.

It was a very entertaining game between two sides looking to play open attacking rugby while not being scared of mixing it up in the tight exchanges.

The start of the game couldn’t have been better for the Munster side. Derry O’Connor was pinning the hosts back with some deep kicks into the Leinster Twenty-Two. They started applying pressure with Sean Walsh claiming a line out Kieran Downey barged towards the line but was stopped short. The forwards continued to carry strongly and stretched the Leinster defence before the ball was spread out to the left with Luke Hogan putting his fellow Premier County man Eoin O’Dwyer who crashed over the line.

Leinster reduced the gap with a long-range penalty by Gearoid McDonald as both sides looked to spread the ball. Dan Horgan and Warren Kelly were making some strong runs with Conor Cremin dictating the attacks from scrum-half. Downey was lively around the field while the scrum improved throughout against a cohesive all-Dundalk front-row.

As the half-wore on, Leinster came more into the game. They had some dangerous runners from deep and regularly broke through the first-line of defence. The Munster defence was committed, with Kelly robust as the last defender and some great scrambling and never say die attitude forced Leinster into errors when tries looked beckoning. Still they could only hold out for so long with Mikey Russell finally going over; showing great speed and swerve to get past the Munster defenders. McDonald added the conversion to stretch the lead to 10-5 at the break.

Having started the first-half superbly; it was the worst possible start to the second-half for Munster. They were unable to clear the ball out of the Twenty-Two and Leinster got awarded a five metre scrum after a knock-on. The forwards picked and drove hard and Munster’s defence was stretched with replacement Cathal Bannon touching down. McDonald again added the extras.

Munster did respond and after a period of sustained pressure, Ronan O’Brien made a great burst on the left-wing to come close to the line. Munster continued to pressurise before Eoin O’Dwyer crashed over for his second try and reduce the gap to 17-10. Conor Cremin soon added a penalty to reduce the arrears by a further three points and the game was very much in the balance.

Munster looked to run from deep in their own-half but at one stage turned over possession. Leinster quickly sniffed a chance and their quick counter saw Derek Williams go through. Sean O’Herlihy kept Munster in the game with a penalty to leave the score at 22-16 but another fast-paced multi-phase attack saw scrum-half Stephen Horan snatch the final try that sealed the win for Leinster.

Munster never dropped their heads and continued to press late on. Niall Campion came within inches of touching down while Tom O’Callaghan also pressed hard but they just couldn’t make another breakthrough as Leinster held out after an extremely entertaining encounter.

The home side will now battle for the Title with Ulster while Munster will look to seal a win from their final match as they host Connacht in Rathcooney next Saturday.

Leinster: Dan Costello (Monkstown); Derek Williams (Dundalk), Mikey Russell (Clondalkin), Matt Stapleton (Clondalkin), Corey Carty (Wexford); Gearoid McDonald (Dundalk), Stephen Horan (Gorey); Jonathan Gray (Dundalk), Sean Arrowsmith (Dundalk), Robert Farrell (Dundalk); Wes Carter (Kilkenny), Benny McManus (Longford); Kieran O’Gorman (Longford) (c); Karl Keogh (Boyne), Tom Satchwell (North Kildare).

Replacements: Joe Gorman (Carlow), Dylan Quinn (Longford), Cathal Bannon (Monkstown), Tom Brady (Clondalkin), Robin Foot (Portlaoise), Conor McCrossan (North Kildare), Paul O’Connor (Gorey), Stephen Duffy (Wicklow).

Munster: Warren Kelly (St Senan’s); Dan Horgan (Muskerry), Luke Hogan (Clonmel), Eoin O’Dwyer (Thurles), Ronan O’Brien (Kanturk); Derry O’Connor (Abbeyfeale), Conor Cremin (Kanturk); Niall Campion (Clonmel), Mike Cronin (Castleisland), David O’Gorman (Clonmel); Sean Walsh (Clanwilliam), Brendan Childs (Galbally) (c); Tony Cantwell (Clonmel), Ronan Crosse (Clonmel), Kieran Downey (Castleisland).

Replacements: Mark Corby (Clonmel), Brendan Kelleher (Kanturk), Danny Lambe (Fethard), Luke Kelly (Thurles), Oisin Walsh (Galbally), Sean Herlihy, Johnny Lillis (Thurles), Tom O’Callaghan (Mitchelstown).

Referee: Henry Richmond (IRFU).