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Unbeaten Leinster stay on course for PRO14 title hat-trick

By Liam Heagney
(Photo By Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

The Leinster quest for an unprecedented hat-trick of successive Guinness PRO14 titles will roll onto next weekend’s final in Dublin after Leo Cullen’s side yet again got the better of Irish rivals Munster, this time by 13-3 at the Aviva Stadium.

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A try from Ronan Kelleher and eight points from the boot of Johnny Sexton was enough to win a low-scoring, limited spectacle semi-final and leave them awaiting the winners of Saturday’s Murrayfield clash between Edinburgh and Ulster.

In contrast, Munster were left to rue a dearth of potency. Their ideas were limited in the opposition 22, there was an over-reliance on box-kicking while JJ Hanrahan was inaccurate twice off the tee in quick succession around the hour mark when just seven points separated the teams.

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RugbyPass brings you Game Day, the behind the scenes documentary on the 2018 Guinnes PRO14 final featuring Leinster and Scarlets in Dublin.

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RugbyPass brings you Game Day, the behind the scenes documentary on the 2018 Guinnes PRO14 final featuring Leinster and Scarlets in Dublin.

The result, though, was much expected. Munster had talked the talk in midweek, assistant Graham Rowntree and another World Cup winner Damian de Allende playing up their chances, but they were taxed by a five-day turnaround between matches as they fielded a dozen of the same starters from the Sunday win over Connacht and that exertion eventually took its toll against the way more rested Leinster XV.

Then there was the weight of history. The legendary Ronan O’Gara had insisted history had nothing to do with this fixture, except it very much did.

Munster came into the game with just one win in 15 away to Leinster since ‘nilling’ them in September 2008 and while they were only two points shy 13 days earlier in a regulation-season derby following a late fightback, the gap at the final whistle on this occasion was pushed out to ten.

Letting Leinster dictate early on the scoreboard had too often been Munster’s downfall on these fraught assignments in the Irish capital, a dastardly derby sequence which started with that seminal Heineken Cup semi-final loss at Croke Park in 2009 and in recent years featured successive PRO14 semi-final defeats at the RDS.

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You can now make that three lost league semis in a row even though Munster enjoyed a tonic of an opening, holding a three-point lead for 22 minutes before paying a heavy price for giving the hosts a sniff off a 28th-minute lineout maul.

What initially helped them was a series of uncharacteristic Leinster errors – typified by Jack Conan fumbling at halfway under dropping ball – which happened either side of Hanrahan slotting a sixth-minute kick to punish a breakdown offence. Further encouragement was the sight of Sexton’s levelling attempt from halfway falling wide.

Munster, though, couldn’t turn territory into further points in this crucial period and their positive early work unravelled on foot of the momentum shift that was Conor Murray being hit hard in possession by Hugo Keenan, a collision that had the noisy acclaim of the Leinster bench echoing around the empty stadium.

Then came a spill from Keith Earls after Sexton floated a teaser into the 22 and when a penalty ensued off the scrum, Leinster, for whom Will Connors and Caelan Doris excelled, backed their maul out of touch and Kelleher reached out to score.

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Sexton, whose involvement finally brought up his 100th PRO14 appearance nearly 15 years after his January 2006 league debut at Borders, then added a kick from in front of the posts on the cusp of the half-time whistle, the seven-point margin leaving Munster with it all to do.

An issue for Munster during the opening gambit was giving Leinster some easy outs through errors when they were trying to build pressure, and the second-half started in a similar fashion with a breakdown infringement on the 22.

Then, when they were celebrating catching Keenan for holding on, the 54th-minute penalty award on the 22 was reversed as referee Andrew Brace called on his TMO to confirm it was an illegal hit from Shane Daly while James Lowe was in the air that had led to the scramble on the floor for possession.

The get-outs continued. Devin Toner stole a lineout after a penalty was punted into touch at the 22. Then Hanrahan shanked wide two penalty kicks in a four-minute spell around the hour mark before it became a two-score margin on 68 minutes, Sexton rewarding Doris’ penalty-winning breakdown nuisance. That was that, despite a late yellow card for replacement Josh van der Flier.

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Bull Shark 3 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

Of the rugby I’ve born witness to in my lifetime - 1990 to date - I recognize great players throughout those years. But I have no doubt the game and the players are on average better today. So I doubt going back further is going to prove me wrong. The technical components of the game, set pieces, scrums, kicks, kicks at goal. And in general tactics employed are far more efficient, accurate and polished. Professional athletes that have invested countless hours on being accurate. There is one nation though that may be fairly competitive in any era - and that for me is the all blacks. And New Zealand players in general. NZ produces startling athletes who have fantastic ball skills. And then the odd phenomenon like Brooke. Lomu. Mcaw. Carter. Better than comparing players and teams across eras - I’ve often had this thought - that it would be very interesting to have a version of the game that is closer to its original form. What would the game look like today if the rules were rolled back. Not rules that promote safety obviously - but rules like: - a try being worth 1 point and conversion 2 points. Hence the term “try”. Earning a try at goals. Would we see more attacking play? - no lifting in the lineouts. - rucks and break down laws in general. They looked like wrestling matches in bygone eras. I wonder what a game applying 1995 rules would look like with modern players. It may be a daft exercise, but it would make for an interesting spectacle celebrating “purer” forms of the game that roll back the rules dramatically by a few versions. Would we come to learn that some of the rules/combinations of the rules we see today have actually made the game less attractive? I’d love to see an exhibition match like that.

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