Leinster verdict on beating Munster, 'glaring' Ringrose incident
Saturday night’s 21-16 victory over Irish rivals Munster wasn’t enough to edge Leinster to the top of the URC table after six rounds of matches, but their results are becoming ominously good ahead of next month’s start to the Champions Cup.
Of the 40 clubs across the top three leagues – URC, Top 14 and Premiership – only England’s Saracens can currently match Leinster’s five-match winning streak.
There was criticism about the role Garry Ringrose defensively played in their concession of an early Munster try, but head coach Leo Cullen let his co-captain off the hook and instead dwelt on the positives a fortnight out from their December 10 trip to La Rochelle, the Ronan O’Gara-led French club that has beaten them three seasons on the bounce in Europe, including the past two finals.
Reflecting on when he felt was “a great spectacle” due to the level of commitment exhibited by both sides in front of a bumper 50,000 attendance, Cullen gave Ireland midfielder Ringrose a free pass for blatantly missing Simon Zebo inside the Munster half, a slip that ignited the break which culminated in a Craig Casey try and had visiting supporters believing they could repeat last May’s URC semi-final triumph over Leinster.
“When someone makes a decision to shoot out of the line which is okay, there is full license for him to do that,” said Cullen in relation to the latest defensive error by the Leinster player whose missed tackle statistics often don’t read well.
“There is definitely a little bit of coverage we can be better at for sure early in the game, but there are a lot of parts of performance we can be better at. That’s just one specific piece. Obviously, it results in a try so it becomes a bit more glaring, but that was the only try we conceded in the game.”
Cullen, who still wasn’t sure of the exact date when the Springboks head coach, Jacques Nienaber, will join him to begin on the Leinster managerial ticket, had used the match-up with Munster and the previous week’s fixture against Scarlets to bleed a huge chunk of his Ireland World Cup contingent back into the side.
How did he feel his reunited team was now gelling ahead of a December schedule featuring away games at Connacht, La Rochelle and Munster with a match at home to Sale also on their radar? “I have gone off that term a bit, Irish guys,” he suggested. “The Leinster guys, they are all back together now. We are trucking along okay.
“We have used a good chunk of players in the first six rounds and so when you use a good chunk of players we are probably a bit off in terms of cohesion. If you think a World Cup squad is 33 players and people are on about the different combinations you would use, we have used 45, something like that, over the first six rounds.
“It’s a good chunk of players and there is still some more to come back into the mix as well. We are up and running. We had a disappointing start against Glasgow, defensively we had plenty of things to work on from that day. We conceded five tries that day, and we have won five games since then. We are far from perfect but we’re building.
“We had a good week. I put a bit on the players this week because we were down in Carlow and Kilkenny (for open training), so there was a big demand on the players and if we had lost that game (to Munster), people would look at me and go, ‘Here, what were we doing that there?’ But there is a much broader piece there in terms of trying to grow support.
“I thought it was a really positive few days down there. Like, it’s an unbelievably positive crowd out there (at the Aviva). That is to be celebrated. To have 50,000 people at a round-six game in this competition is unbelievable.
“Why have 50,000 people turned up? Because it’s a full-blooded game with two sets of players that are going full tilt. Yes, there is the odd mistake in the game, of course there is, but they are all human beings at the end of the day and us as coaches, it’s how we prepare them going into the game as well. But it’s a great advert for the game, a brilliant advert I think.”
Leinster boss Leo Cullen on how his Ireland players fared in their URC derby return, the injury to Ross Byrne, the early introduction of Ciaran Frawley, and that tackle error by Garry Ringrose which led to a Munster try. #LEIvMUN #URC pic.twitter.com/tgv0Zd5GS7
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 25, 2023
The coach didn’t have an update on the seriousness of the injury that forced out-half Ross Byrne off early, but he had fulsome praise for Ciaran Frawley’s effort off the bench. “It’s arm-related. Hopefully, it’s not too bad. Ciaran stepped in well. We wanted to see what that looks like and he was excellent, controlled the game.
“Even though he started the season playing 15 for us, the way those roles are, particularly with someone like Ciaran, he is comfortable stepping up as that first receiver, that interplay between your 10, 12, 15, so it is great to have that second ball player there.
“He has been excellent for us this season and hopefully that will be the case going forward. He stepped in, kicked his goals. It was a pretty accomplished performance from him.”
- Click here for all the RugbyPass stats from the Leinster vs Munster match
Comments on RugbyPass
Wow, there is a lot of “could have” and “ should have” in this waist of time dribble. I love the deportation in this story to search for a glimpse at a silver lining. Here are the facts, NZ was a badly coached and undisciplined shadow of their former glory. They never took the lead in a game they were never going to win.
156 Go to commentsGOTTA MAKE ‘THE GEORGE’ HAPPEN!!!! That’s a great idea! A trans Tasman midget battle on ANZAC Day. I don’t think the ABs Wallabies game should be a one off winner takes all though, just the first match with the other two later in the year with the RC. Reason being, no one will ever shut up about how aussies couldn’t win it when it was a 3 match series.
1 Go to comments@Ben smith. Thats knock out rugby. So honeslty who cares?
156 Go to commentsIt will interesting to know which Irish players said that…
1 Go to commentsNaaaww boys will be boys! Now run along ya wee scamp! Don’t let us catch you at again😏
1 Go to commentsGreat to have Ethan Blackadder back in the Crusaders in the last few weeks. One of the best all round loose forwards around. He played so well last week against the Rebels. Fantastic attitude Ethan has and his comments are spot on.
2 Go to commentsThe author is 100% right. The Springboks know that they don't have near the natural attraction, mana, skill and mystic the All Blacks have. So, Chasing the sun 1 & 2 was concocted to overblow the Boks image on the back of a corruptly obtained “win". It's marketing ploy to force the Boks delusion as the World's Best. I guess World Rugby is also not to be believed when it came out with an apology about how the final was officiated. And if the 2023 final such a superb game by the Boks, then the Boks crying about Referee Bryce Lawrence for decades is also deserves a laugh. Chase the sun and get burned like a moth. A very well written literary piece that tore the Boks and Chasing the sun farce to shreds. 🖤All Blacks🏉
156 Go to commentsI’d say France was far more hard done by in the 2011 final than the All Blacks in this game. Joubert simply refused to call a penalty against the All Blacks in the last quarter even directing an All Black to drop a ball he picked up in an offside position rather than penalizing him. This article also totally discounts the efforts of PSTD. Ask Jordie how well he played. Or the backup flank who played hooker for the entire game. Siya was also a brilliant tackle by Richie from scoring a blinder. Pollard was also fantastic. Look I don’t like the boks style but the only thing more questionable than the content of this article is the timing of it. Get over it already
156 Go to commentsDad Marty was also a handy rugby player for Linwood back in the day. Great bloke. Sensational softball career.
2 Go to commentsWhat ifs are always dangerous. If you look at the game before Sam cane got sent of SA was dominating. You could make the argument the going down to 14 men rallied the troops and made them have to play to win which is always dangerous.
156 Go to commentsOmg… you are bruised And battered Benny. Stop crying … the scoreboard speaks. What a pathetic lover you are.. 🤣🤣🤣
156 Go to commentsPacific Lions, cry me a river
156 Go to commentsThis is the single worst piece of journalism I have ever seen since your last one. As a neutral, who really states that there should be an asterisk next to a win? You are an utter embarrassment to real AB fans, journalism and that joke of a house which pays you for this nonsense. Get a life, Ben.
156 Go to commentsGuys. Cancel the World Cup champions after this analysis. It changes everything. Ben knows. We’ll have to unengrave the Bokke off the trophy and hand it to the ABs, now that I’ve been enlightened about this illegitimate win. This needs to be done. Now!
156 Go to commentsBen is right here though, Springboks were woefully poor with the advantage they had throughout this game. The France match was heroic because that was an even contest this match had it taken place in Rugby Championship would have been an easy win for NZ. If anything this match should tell the Bok coaches that a lot of this team should be changed. They beat this same NZ team by record margin with the same circumstances but with a different core. They bring back the tried and tested guys and they nearly botch this game.
156 Go to commentsI knew who wrote this article from the first few words in the headline…lol. The red card actually did the ABs a favour. It galvanized them, only then did they step up a gear. Before that there was zero momentum.
156 Go to commentsFirstly the foul on Bongi was a planned move just like the NZ master plan with Bryce Lawrence you kiwis are filthy fux perhaps try to play a cleaner game next time I doubt that’s possible tho but don’t worry world rugby is on yr side they trying to take away all the BOKS strengths to help all you weakling as Jeremy Clarkson would say LA OO ZA ERR..🤣
156 Go to commentsAbsolutely spot on Ben. I certainly wouldn't gloat over a win like that. Frustrating as it is it's done and dusted and history will forever show the result.
156 Go to commentsHo hum.
156 Go to commentsNo question they were the better team. But that is the beauty of sport isn’t it!
156 Go to comments