The area where Munster can end Leinster's dream of double
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Munster’s dogged defence has become a massive ally for them ahead of Saturday’s United Rugby Championship semifinal against arch-rivals Leinster.
The arrival of defence coach Denis Leamy has proved to be a masterstroke and has allowed the Irish province to surge late season into the playoffs and the semifinals on the back of some tough defensive work.
Leamy’s previous stint in Leo Cullen’s Leinster team has not gone unnoticed, and there is a bit of apprehension about what tricks he will have up his sleeve to stop Leinster’s game plan, which is based on quick ball.
Leinster assistant coach Andrew Goodman admitted there was a concern that Leamy’s inside info may pay off for Munster in a fixture that has lopsidedly favoured Leinster over the past decade.
Munster have won just once in the PRO-Rugby/URC era – 11 years ago, although they did record a win in the Rainbow Cup as well.
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“He’s got good insight into how we would have prepared for Munster games in the past. Me coming in fresh from outside, hopefully, we’ve got some little ideas that he won’t have seen,” Goodman said on Leamy’s influence.
Goodman, who played for the club previously, returned to Leinster at the start of the season but believes Munster have improved over the course of the season.
“Everything around that contact area is going to be a big part of us getting a good result.
“If we can get quick ball off our first and second phase, but it’s not as easy as that with the amount of jackal threats they’ve got and the strength they have in the tackle.
“They played some good attacking teams over in South Africa and did really well. Glasgow was hammering at the line at the start and the Munster boys held strong.
“You can see they are playing for each other. They’re dogged, tough, gritty, and don’t go away, like most of the Irish teams we play against.
#NEWS: Alarm bells for Munster as Leinster issue squad update 👇#URC #Leinster #Munster #LEIvMUN https://t.co/cC4IT5yUye
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Leinster are still nursing injuries and hope to have James Lowe (calf), Robbie Henshaw (quad), Cian Healy (ankle), Scott Penny (HIA) and Ronan Kelleher (shoulder) declared fit before the end of the week.
Goodman did admit that while next weekend’s Champions’ Cup final was on their minds, they wouldn’t lose focus this weekend.
“We can’t be looking forward. I know it is a big game in two weeks’ time but this is the main focus. Munster at home, it doesn’t get much better than that for our lads.
“We’ve got some hungry people wanting game-time so training is competitive. Even in training on Tuesday it was like, ‘Slow down, boys’ — they were competing hard.”
“The one thing I really enjoy about our group is the motivation they come in with every Monday. These are guys that have grown up wanting to play for Leinster, and when they get the opportunity it doesn’t matter who is in front of them.
“They’ve got a little bit of hurt there from last year around what happened at semifinal time, so there’s a lot of motivation. We need to be peaking at this end of the season. We’ve got some big challenges coming up.”
And while they know that while there are bigger games to come, last season showed that they can lose out on all silverware if there is just a dip in their performance.
