Munster 9 Leinster 18:MUNSTER WHIPPED up a storm or two, but Leinster weathered them impressively to lay down quite a significant marker.

For sure the league champions were missing a few of their main men and were not at their best, but the European champions reaffirmed their status as top dogs domestically with, if the truth be told, a fairly assured and convincing win.

In the process, Leinster avenged two defeats here last season – including the Grand Final – to complete a league double and, in the process, open up a 10-point gap at the top – thereby virtually ensuring that if these two sides are to meet again this season it won’t be in Limerick.

Leinster’s win all but copperfastens a home semi-final – one more win from their final three games will ensure as much – and, should they win that, home advantage all the way through to the final as well.

Munster’s failure to obtain even a bonus point, coupled with bonus point wins for the Ospreys, Glasgow and Ulster, demotes them to third and seriously imperils their chances of earning a home semi-final, as well as endangering their prospects of even reaching the knockout stages.

There is now an almighty five-way scrap for the three remaining play-off spots from which, of course, only one of whom can earn a home semi-final and Munster’s three-game run-in is against the three sides within touching distance of them.

Clashes between these two have spoilt us royally over the years, but this was fiercely physical and certainly wasn’t one of their better ones, thanks in the main to the scrums, which were a debacle.

Nigel Owens, who has had better games, never came to grips with them.

Penalties either way at the first two put-ins looked questionable and, the die having been cast, unsurprisingly this did nothing to prevent the continual, timeconsuming collapses, all of which were on the Marcus Horan-Mike Ross side of the scrum.

One could understand the referee’s frustration when eventually yellow carding them four minutes into the second half, during one sequence of scrums which, alone, took up three minutes and 22 seconds of the game.

But by then the damage had been done and it looked like a belated cop-out, which was particularly severe on Ross.

Given this also meant the introduction of experienced South African Wian du Preez and the inexperienced Jamie Hagan, Leinster undoubtedly came off the worse from this deal.

For the second week running, Hagan suffered horribly, but the collapses ceased on foot of Owens’ drastic action and once Ross returned, Leinster were the dominant force, earning a second scrum penalty from which Fergus McFadden extended their lead to 15-9.

The breakdown, with new directives against attacking players for sealing off or going off their feet, ensured much more competition from the off – there were literally an exchange of turnovers in the opening phase of the match.

It made for some exhaustive exchanges – and some players mightn’t have been too upset by the frequent scrum “time-outs” – but also contributed to the lack of fluidity and continuity in the game.

Coupled with the teams’ familiarity with each other and two high-quality defences, this resulted in the first try-less clash between the pair in a dozen meetings, dating back to Leinster’s 21-12 win at the RDS in April 2008 en route to them winning the league that year.

In truth though, Leinster would not have been flattered by a try or two, as they often looked the more likely side to do so.

There was no denying Munster’s effort and intensity – Peter O’Mahony had a huge first hour, Mick O’Driscoll tackled himself to a standstill and BJ Botha had a big game – but attacked closer in, where the impressive Shane Jennings marshalled Leinster’s defence superbly.

By contrast, Leinster were much more capable of putting width on the ball and stretching the home side to breaking point.

Rob Kearney came within a whisker of scoring after his swift transfer from Eoin Reddan’s superb skip pass released Luke Fitzgerald for a chip and catch, and it required some desperate last-ditch defending by Simon Zebo and Felix Jones to deny the ever dangerous Isa Nacewa in the second half.

Amongst many otherwise productive aspects of Leinster’s display, it was striking how much Leinster looked to use Jamie Heaslip and Gordon D’Arcy.

In a storming 80 minutes, Heaslip was much more his dynamic self while D’Arcy was back dancing again, using his footwork to beat the first tackle nearly every time when the going was toughest.

Despite the feverish atmosphere, silence was meticulously observed for both kickers and judging by the way a sizeable contingent of blue mingled with the red army before having the stands and terraces all to themselves, perhaps this fixture has matured off the pitch too.

Jonathan Sexton struck the ball beautifully with a four from four return, pushing Leinster 9-3 in front at the break. Ronan O’Gara landed three from five, though one missed was from long-range and the other hit the upright.

But when push came to shove, – ie when O’Gara drew the sides level with a brace of penalties in quick succession early in the second half – Leinster impressively upped their intensity, put tempo and width on their game and effectively took ownership of the ball in the final quarter to pull clear.

It was always like that if the game was on a knife edge or tilting Leinster’s way, then their more experienced, heavyweight bench would then have a major impact, and so it came to pass.

Leinster probably have more depth anyway, but without three or four front-liners, Munster were more thinly spread.

While Mike Sherry, Wian du Prees, Tommy O’Donnell and Duncan Williams made decent impacts, especially Sherry and O’Donnell, by contrast Leinster virtually emptied their entire bench by the hour mark.

They pretty much all made significant impact on the match, Leinster’s scrum ascendancy growing stronger but most of all their control of the ball threw hard carrying and even harder recycling.

It will have given them significant satisfaction that they marshalled the final quarter without Sexton, if not the outhalf himself. So too The Fields giving way to the sound of Cockles and Mussels in Munster’s citadel.

SCORING SEQUENCE: 9 mins: Sexton pen 0-3; 28 mins: O’Gara pen 3-3; 31 mins: Sexton pen 3-6; 35 mins: Sexton pen 3-9; (half-time: 3-9); 46 mins: O’Gara pen 6-9; 54 mins: O’Gara pen 9-9; 60 mins: Sexton pen 9-12; 70 mins: McFadden pen 9-15; 75 mins: Madigan drop goal 9-18.

MUNSTER: F Jones; J Murphy, K Earls, L Mafi, S Zebo; R O’Gara (capt), T O’Leary; M Horan, D Varley, BJ Botha; D O’Callaghan, M O’Driscoll; Dave O’Callaghan, P O’Mahony, J Coughlan. Replacements: W du Preez for Horan (44 mins), M Sherry for Varley (51 mins), T O’Donnell for O’Callaghan (56 mins), D Williams for O’Leary (65 mins), D Barnes for Earls (67 mins). Not used: S Archer, B Holland, I Keatley. Sin binned: Horan (43 mins).

LEINSTER: R Kearney; I Nacewa, B O’Driscoll, G D’Arcy, L Fitzgerald; J Sexton, E Reddan; H van der Merwe, S Cronin, M Ross, B Thorn, D Toner, K McLaughlin, S Jennings, J Heaslip (capt). Replacements: F McFadden for D’Arcy (34-37 and 65 mins), J Hagan for Ross (44-56 and 77 mins), C Healy for van der meurwe (54 mins), L Cullen for Thorn, S O’Brien for McLaughlin (both 55 mins), R Strauss for Cronin (59 mins), I Madigan for Sexton, I Boss for Reddan (64 mins). Sin binned: Ross (44-54 mins).

Referee: Nigel Owens (WRU).