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Munster vs Leinster – How a rivalry was born
Its January 2006 and Leinster go into the new year on a high. They have beaten Munster in the RDS and Felipe Contepomi is fast becoming the star overseas player in Irish rugby. Contepomi is now the lynchpin in David Knox’s backline, and while he may his temperamental flaws there is little doubting his ability on the pitch when he is on form. Leinster fans can also take heart from the game in the RDS where their forwards went toe to toe with Munsters international standard pack and allowed their team to come out on top. Michael Cheika is pleased with the progress made in his first six months in charge but is pragmatic enough to know there is still a long long way to go to challenge for European honours. He refuses to be dragged into the hype the media have created after the new years eve game.
Munster and Declan Kidney on the other hand are left to ponder on where their future lies. Kidney knows that forward power alone is not going to see them bring the Heineken Cup back to Limerick and Cork. He has to find a cutting edge to match the blunt force of his forward pack. Munster face a trip to Edinburgh before the round five game against Castres in France. Kidney decides to stick with Trevor Halstead as his inside centre and to partner him with Barry Murphy. The hope is that Murphy can benefit from Halsteads ability to offload in the tackle through his pace and clever lines of running. It is also hoped that if Halstead can dominate the gain line it will create space for others around him.
Munster vs Edinburgh: Shaun Payne; John Kelly (Tomas O’Leary), Barry Murphy, Trevor Halstead, Ian Dowling; Ronan O’Gara, Peter Stringer; Federico Pucciariello, Jerry Flannery (Denis Fogarty), John Hayes (Eugene McGovern), Donncha O’Callaghan, Paul O’Connell capt; Stephen Keogh, David Wallace, Mick O’Driscoll (Trevor Hogan).
Munster scrape a 18-17 win in a virtually deserted Murrayfield. Although the scoreline doesn’t reflect it Munster were extremely close to things starting to click. Timings of runs were just fractionally off or balls were dropped at the wrong time but the signs were there to see. This Munster side were going to hand some team an absolute hiding if things came together.
Munster travelled to Castres in high spirits and while the team may have been confident, a lot of the 2,000 supporters who travelled, went more so in hope than expectation. Whatever about travelling French teams not showing interests in a game, on their home patch you had to earn your points. Things may have changed a bit in modern times but back in the early to mid noughties any win in the south of France was a rarity and one to be savoured. Kidney picked a mixture of youth and experience shown by the fact Ian Dowling won his first European cap on the same night Anthony Foley won his 155th Munster cap.
Munster vs Castres: S Payne; J Kelly, B Murphy, T Halstead, I Dowling; R O’Gara, P Stringer; M Horan, J Flannery, J hayes; D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell; D Leamy, D Wallace, A Foley capt
Replacements: D Fogarty F Pucciariello, M O’Driscoll, S Keogh, T O’Leary, J Manning, G Connolly.
Munster led 13-9 at half time thanks to tries from Marcus Horan and Trevor Halstead but it was just after the break when they really broke lose. Halsteads ability to free his arms in the tackle and offload was a game changer. With his power to dominate with ball in hand as well as his distribution skills Munster cut lose. Tries from John Kelly and two a piece from Paul O’Connell and Thomas O’Leary gave Munster an unbelievable 46-9, seven try win in the south of France. Maybe, just maybe this team could be destined for greatness but a top of the table clash against Sale awaited Munster.
Saturday 21st Jan 2006 5.15pm Thomond Park, Munster versus Sale.
Munster vs Sale: S Payne (M Lawlor); J Kelly, B Murphy, T Halstead, I Dowling; R O’Gara, P Stringer (T O’Leary); M Horan (F Pucciariello), J Flannery (D Fogarty), J Hayes; D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell (M O’Driscoll); D Leamy, D Wallace, A Foley capt (F Pucciariello temp, S Keogh)).
Sale arrive in Limerick top of the premiership and certainly not lacking confidence. Their players are happy to play up in front of the press prior to the game claiming that they are the team that are going to beat Munster and take away their unbeaten record in Thomond Park. Munster must win and score four tries to top the pool. It’s the Heineken Cup, last round of the pool stages, Munster at home to English opposition who are top of the league and they had to get an improbable result to qualify. For Sky Sports this is the ultimate dream fixture. From well before kick off the crowd are in place and the ground is buzzing in anticipation. This is the old Thomond Park, with the crowd in on top of the pitch. From the terrace walls you could almost reach out and touch the players. There were no corporate boxes or even proper seats. It was mainly terracing and with a few concrete slabs on the west side that covered the dressing rooms and somehow were designated a stand. From the off the crowd got behind the team and Sale never knew what hit them. During breaks in play, you could see the Sale team just standing around, looking lost, like a punch drunk boxer. No leadership, no togetherness, they were just beaten. Sale look to Sebastian Chabal to give them some direction but Kidney has Munster focused on him with instructions to stop him dead at source. From a Sale lineout, Chabal carries the ball into the ten channel where he’s faced with O'Gara as the defender. Chabal must have been licking his lips at the thought of running over the over the out half and giving some momentum back to his team. O'Gara doesn't flinch and goes low in the tackle and wraps his arms around the legs text book style. As O'Gara stops his momentum Anthony Foley arrives to complete the double tackle and absolutely melts him into next week. When Sale actual do score from a penalty kick the restart is merely another chance for Munster to target Chabel. O’Gara lofts the kick high into the night sky and it hangs perfectly to give the chasers a chance to compete for the ball. However Munster don’t want to compete they want a free opportunity to smash Chabal again. O’Connell checks his run to time it perfectly to allow him to smash Chabal just as he receives the ball. His partner in crime O’Callaghan has managed to get the far side of Chabal to stop his Sale team mates from creating an effective maul or transferring the ball back. Then the Munster support arrives and suddenly before Sale know whats happened they are 5 metres out from their own line struggling to exit.
Barry Murphy scores and unbelievable solo try after a Ronan O’Gara touch finder is half blocked on his own 10m line.Murphy picks it out of the air just inside his own half facing three Sale defenders he holds the ball in both hands so that pass/offload was always on. The support runners in Dowling and DOC distracted the defence but Murphy just kept running and with a few shimmies and swerves of the hips he managed to go all the way to the line. Ian Dowling’s try was a result of the forwards doing the damage then releasing quick ball to the backs who spin it wide, through effective pass and draw to let him slide in,in the corner. Typical it’s Munster as they wait till last minute to score the final try through David Wallace. A scrum on the Sale 22 and ball goes wide through the backs for Shaun Payne who runs a lovely cutting line to get down to the 5m line. David Wallace picks up from the base of the ruck before the defence can reset and walks over the line. Players are carried off the pitch shoulder high as Munster top the group and earn a home quarter final against Perpignan. While technically they have gotten a home quarter final due to ERC rules on minimum capacity the game will have to moved and Lansdowne Road is the agreed location.
Leinster’s good run of form continues into the Heineken Cup with a 46-22 win over Glasgow in round five and very impressive 35-23 win away to Bath. That victory at the Rec gets them into the knockout stages but gives them an unbelievably difficult quarter final away to Toulouse in the south of France. When the draw for the semi final is announced, although it’s unlikely it does seem like destiny with the potential of a Munster vs Leinster semi final in Lansdowne Road. The Six Nations is once again a quiet time for the provinces with Munster recording a 10-8 victory over the Dragons but lost 26-20 at home to Glasgow.
Munster v Ulster: S Payne; I Dowling, B Murphy, T Halstead, A Horgan; P Burke, T O’Leary; F Roche, D Fogarty, F Pucciariello; B Madigan, M O’Driscoll; S Keogh, J O’Sullivan, A Foley capt. Replacements: E McGovern, T Buckley, M Melbourne, J O’Connor, M Prendergast, M Lawlor, G Connolly.
Its now March 2006 and Leinster and Munster are potentially on a collision course in the knockout stages of the Heineken Cup. Munster travel to Belfast where they suffer a heavy loss to Ulster. The 27-3 drubbing is far from the worst news that night as its confirmed that Barry Murphy suffered broken leg and dislocated ankle in the game. In more positive news Paul O’Connell, Alan Quinlan and Jerry Flannery all sign new contracts and Tony McGahan is added to the coaching ticket as a direct replacement for outgoing defence coach Graham Steadman. Mike Mullins and Christian Cullen return from injury in an A game vs Leinster and are included in the wider Munster squad ahead of the QF.
In the Six Nations Ireland beat England with a last minute Shane Horgan try but their defeat in Paris means that Ireland finish second to France on points difference.
Ireland v England: G Murphy; S Horgan, B O’Driscoll (capt), G D’Arcy, A Trimble (G Dempsey); R O’Gara, P Stringer; M Horan, J Flannery, J Hayes; P O’Connell, M O’Kelly; S Easterby, D Wallace (O’Connor temp 16 min), D Leamy (J O’Connor)
Saturday 1st April 2006 and Leinster are in the south of France for their Heineken Cup quarter final away to Toulouse.
Toulouse: Poitrenaud (Medard, 83); Clerc, Jauzion, Fritz (Kunavore, 75), Heymans; Michalak (Dubois, 72), Elissalde; Poux, Bru (capt; Lacombe, 77), Hasan (Menkarska, 75), Pelous, Brennan (Millo-Chlusky, 49), Bouilhou (Lamboley, 67), Nyanga, Maka. Tries: Nyanga, Jauzion. Cons: Elissalde 2. Pens: Elissalde 6. Drop-goal: Michalak.
Leinster: Dempsey; Horgan, O'Driscoll (capt; Lewis, 85), D'Arcy (Kearney, 80), Hickie; Contepomi, Easterby; Corrigan (McCormack, 54), Blaney, Green, Williams, O'Kelly, Jowitt (Miller, 66), Gleeson, Heaslip. Tries: O'Driscoll, Jowitt, Hickie, Horgan. Cons: Contepomi 3. Pens: Contepomi 5.
This was the Felipe Contepomi show inspired by David Knox. Early on Felipe kept the scoreboard ticking over with kicks at goal but as the game went on he played very flat to the gain line and his passing and running game caused Toulouse all sorts of problems.
Michalek imploded in the second half gifting a try to Cam Jowitt while Denis Hickie took a pass from Felipe deep in own 22 and raced away to score before a Shane Horgan try put Leinster 38-21 up inside the last quarter. Felipe added a penalty before Toulouse came back to make it 41-35 at the final whistle. Leinster had done the impossible, gone to the south of France and beaten one of the aristocrats of European rugby in their own back yard. Cheika knew he had something special brewing at Leinster but was also wary of what lay ahead of them.
Munster fans watch Leinster win in Toulouse before the game against Perignan kicks off in Dublin. Its a full house of over 48,000 in Lansdowne Road and everyone is aware of the significance of a Munster win.
Munster vs Perpignan: S Payne; J Kelly, T O’Leary, T Halstead, I Dowling; R O’Gara, P Stringer; M Horan, J Flannery, J Hayes, D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell, D Leamy, D Wallace, A Foley. Replacements: D Fogarty, F Pucciariello, M O’Driscoll, S Keogh, J Manning, R Henderson, C Cullen.
The match itself is whats referred to as “one for the purist”, a real tough forwards battle. The match started with a minutes silence for Conrad O’Suillivan who passed away tragically that week and was followed with what can only be described as 8- minutes of trench warfare. It was far from pretty and hugely physical. A lot of the Munster players were away with Ireland for the Six Nations so they didn’t have much time to train together as a unit prior to the match. Early in the week leading up to the game, Kidney let them off the leash and there was one of the infamous “murderball” training sessions, a no ref, no holds barred session. It was ideal training for the match ahead. Munster won 19-10 with a try from POC after battering the Perpignan line and 14 points from the boot of Ronan O’Gara.
It may not have been perfect but that win set up the biggest game in Irish club rugby that would elevate the Munster v Leinster rivalry from the back pages to to the front pages of the press and to the top of news reports. There would be no escaping the all Ireland Heineken Cup semi final on Sunday 23rd April 2006 in Lansdowne Road.
Its April 2006 and Munster are due to face Leinster in the Heineken Cup semi final in what will be the biggest match in Irish provincial rugby history. Leinster are riding high after an unbelievable victory over Toulouse in the south of France while Munster still face a number of questions after being beaten by Leinster on new years eve and scraping past Perpignan to make the semi final. After the Perpignan game Ronan O’Gara is forced to spend a week in hospital on intravenous drips fighting an infection he picked up from a bladed stud cutting open his leg.
Munster ( v Newport-Gwent Dragons). S Payne; J Kelly, T O’Leary, T Halstead, I Dowling; J Manning, P Stringer; F Pucciariello, J Flannery, J Hayes; D O’Callaghan, P O’Connell; M O’Driscoll, D Wallace, A Foley capt.
Replacements: F Roche, E McGovern, S Keogh, J O’Sullivan, P Burke, M Mullins, R Henderson,
Munster send an experienced team to play the Dragons in Wales but lost 23-17. Tries from Trevor Halstead and Feddie Pucciariello kept them in the game but Dragons pulled clear in the second half to win. Of more importance was O’Gara still in hospital and Marcus Horan picking up a calf injury during a scrum session in the build up to the game which now put in doubt his participation in the semi final.
MUNSTER (v Edinburgh): S Payne; A Horgan, J Kelly, T Halstead, I Dowling; P Burke, P Stringer; F Pucciariello, J Flannery, J Hayes; D O'Callaghan, P O'Connell; M O'Driscoll, D Wallace, A Foley (capt). Replacements: F Roche, D Fogarty, T Hogan, J O'Sullivan, M Prendergast, M Lawlor, R Henderson.
Declan Kidney was trying to get some level of continuity with his selections where injury permits and the 36-15 victory over Edinburgh the week before the semi final is the perfect tonic. Leinster continued their good form after the Toulouse game with wins over the Border Reivers and Scarlets as they prepared for the semi final.
The build up to the semi final was unique. There had never been a game like this in Irish rugby before and you couldn’t escape from it. It was on every radio station, it was on every tv station and it was all anyone especially in Munster could talk about. This was about Munster’s blunt attack versus the free flowing backline, it was rural versus city, cider versus champagne. This was going to be tribal. However it wasn’t only in Ireland that this match was the focus in the sports media, L’Equipe sent a reporter to Ireland the week before the game to interview players from both Munster and Leinster. Anthony Foley noted that the reported was interested in the cultural differences between the two sides and that he as always had to be guarded about his responses in case any disrespectful comment made it’s way back to the other side. It was always Axels aim to ensure the opposition failed to have any ammunition to pin on the dressing room wall.
For the players it was about trying to keep focused but for the fans there was only one thing on their mind – tickets. Both Leinster and Munster were allocated 20,000 tickets each to distribute as they saw fit. Munster had been down this road since the Heineken Cup run of 1999/2000 and the fans were well versed in the dark arts of sourcing tickets from the opposition allocation. Many Munster fans were members of several other teams supporters clubs just to be able to buy tickets for away games. Now that the game was in Dublin, which has its own large population of Munster fans, it was turning out easier than expected for those in red. Leinster hadn’t experienced anything like this before and weren’t set up to ensure only their own fans could buy tickets. While the 2006 semi final was a huge learning point for Leinster on the pitch there were also significant lessons learned off the pitch that wouldn’t be fully seen until the 2009 semi final in Croke Park.
Declan Kidney knew better than anyone where Leinsters strengths and weaknesses were. He, along with the brains trust of Jim Williams, Tony McGahan and the senior players, devised a game plan to attack Leinster’s forwards, put pressure on Felipe Contepomi and crowd the midfield to try and shut down D’Arcy and O’Driscoll. Attacking Leinster’s forwards was about dominating physically and getting a set piece platform for O’Gara to play territory. Pressure on Contepomi was about getting into his space and head. Felipe was a talented player with ball in hand but if Munster could run his channel all day long and force him to make tackles against big heavy carriers they knew he could be frail mentally. Crowding the midfield was going to be David Wallaces job. The plan was that for Leinster lineouts, Munster would compete with one player less in the lineout to allow Wallace join the centres. This was only possible thanks to Jerry Flannery being so mobile at the tail of the lineout and the fact John Hayes was a world class lineout lifter and so accomplished at the one man lift.
Sunday April 23rd 2006
Leinster: Dempsey; Horgan, O'Driscoll (capt), D'Arcy, Hickie; Contepomi, Easterby; Corrigan (McCormack, 68), B Blaney, Green, Williams, O'Kelly, Jowitt (Miller, 56), Gleeson, Heaslip.
Munster: Payne; Horgan, Kelly (Henderson, 12; O'Leary, 65), Halstead, Dowling; O'Gara, Stringer; Pucciariello, Flannery Hayes, O'Callaghan, O'Connell, Leamy, Wallace, Foley (capt; Roche, 73).
Declan Kidney decided to keep John Kelly in the “cursed” 13 jersey where he could use his test experience against the Lions test pairing. O’Gara of course made a lazarus like recovery in time to play a game that no one wanted to miss. Peter Stringer picked up a knock in training just a few days before the game and was a doubt right up to kick off. The Munster players and management were taken aback on their trip from the Raddison Hotel to the ground, they found it hard to spot a person NOT wearing red. The Munster fans had won the first battle, the one for the tickets but they knew their job was far from over. It was a beautiful warm spring day with barely a breeze blowing. Fans were mingling outside the pubs close to the grounds but there was no last minute rush to the ground for most of the Munster fans. The Munster fans knew this wasn’t an event, they weren’t spectators, that they had an umbilical link to the team and it was their job to drive the team on. The Munster fans had a genuine fear of how good Leinster actually were and how much it hurt to see them go on to the final and potentially win the Heineken Cup after Munster had reached five semi finals and two finals in the last six years. The unthinkable couldn’t be allowed happen.
In the build up to the game Michael Cheika had said that in some ways he was fortunate to be an outsider because he approached the game without any psychological baggage which was seen as referencing Kidneys time at Leinster. As the Munster team arrived to the dressing rooms Kidney noted that the home dressing room had Leinster’s name on it already and was being prepped for their arrival. Kidney decided it was time to start the psychological warfare and sought out the officials. Although Leinster had officially been drawn as the home semi final team according to the tournament rules the game had to played at a neutral venue and therefore there had to be a toss for who got the home changing room. To Kidney it didn’t matter if he lost the coin toss, but if he won it would just annoy a few people on the Leinster side. Kidney won the toss and Leinster were forced into the away changing room.
The noise as the players emerged from the tunnel to do the warm up was unreal. It was as loud as any match I’ve experienced in Thomond Park. The Munster supporters club were totally organised and prepared and gave out Munster flags and did face painting on the way into the ground. Axel took the team down to the corner beside the south terrace and east stand. It was still well over an hour to kick off but the south terrace was nearing capacity was just a sea of red. The stadium was buzzing and no one had even kicked a ball in anger yet. Prior to kick off all you could hear was The Fields and the occasional version of Stand Up and Fight.
There was so much noise at kick off that Malcolm O’Kelly and Jamie Heaslip can’t hear each which results in a knock on and leads shortly afterwards to O’Gara opening the scoring to put Munster 3-0 up. Leinster are under pressure from the off and Felipe Contepomi misses a kick to touch from a penalty and shortly afterwards Paul O’Connell steals a Leinster throw on their own 10 metre line.
Munster win a penalty just inside the Leinster half and O’Gara kicks the corner this time. He nails the kick close to the 5 metre line and from the ensuing lineout Leamy scores from a well worked catch and drive. O’Gara gets the conversion to put Munster 10-0 up with just ten minutes in the clock and Leinster have barely been out of their half. Shortly afterwards the curse of the 13 jersey strikes again with John Kelly injuring his shoulder. His replacement Rob Henderson isn’t fully warmed up and so as he described it himself “Full on old school warm up. Two stretches of the hamstrings, spit in the hands – fuck this, lets go lads”. On his first involvement he carried the ball into contact and rolled his ankle. As Henderson goes to ground in that incident he is turned over by Keith Gleeson and Leinster launch a counter attack from deep inside their own half. This was the incident in the match that could have really changed its outcome. Shane Horgan spots Denis Hickie near the left touchline with Paul O’Connell marking him. He throws a quick pass and Hickie is on his way. O’Connell goes full stretch but can’t stop Hickie who now looks to have a clear run in from 80 metres out. Suddenly out of nowhere Shaun “Champers” Payne arrives diving and just getting finger tips to Hickie which causes him to step onto the white touch line. If he had scored it was then only 10-7 to Munster and Leinster were right back in it. Instead it was another crushing blow. Contepomi then gets into a row with Denis Leamy off the ball and has a very kickable Leinster penalty reversed for fighting. Contepomi and O’Gara trade penalties to leave the score 16-3 to Munster at half time.
Paul O’Connell is ruling the lineout leaving Brian Blaney with nightmares. When O’Connell isn’t actually stealing the ball he’s putting so much pressure on that Blaney’s throwing is impacted and Munster win multiple free kicks for not straight. The second half grinds away with both teams unable to make a break through. The curse of the 13 jersey strikes again with Henderson doing lasting damage to his ankle that forces Thomas O’Leary into outside centre for the last 15 minutes. Felipe kicks a penalty to make it 16-6 in the 70th minute and shortly afterwards Freddie Pucciariello receives a yellow card. Munster start to pile on the pressure just outside the Leinster 22 and O’Gara manages to fend off Malcolm O’Kelly and waltz in to score under the posts to seal the game. After everything written in the build up, all the articles around him and Contepomi this is the release. He jumps the hoardings and celebrates with the fans at the front of the south terrace. Trevor Halstead takes an intercept pass inside his own half and runs it all the way under the posts to put the icing on the cake. The final score is 30-6 which reflects Munsters dominance in the game but the two late tries distort how close the game really was for so long.
Gerry Thornleys post match article from the Irish Times
The rivalry with Leinster was a huge factor in Munster finally winning the Heineken Cup and understandably it does get somewhat over shadowed by the final itself. The rivalry that was born that season brought the best out of both sides. For Munster it was one of the driving factors in getting them over the edge to finally win. For Leinster the defeat hit hard, as noted by Gerry Thornley no Leinster representative went into the Munster dressing room after the game and it must have left Cheika in no doubt of the things he needed to change. He knew he needed a hard edge up front and a more solid set piece if he was to take Leinster to the top of the European rugby table. He would go on to sign the likes of Stan Wright, CJ Van der Linde, Rocky Elsom, Trevor Hogan, Stephen Keogh and Leo Cullen to add steel to the Leinster pack and remove the “ladyboy” moniker assigned to them by ex Leinster player Neil Francis. Brian O'Driscoll was quoted as saying Michael Cheika "had cut out the cancer" from Leinster rugby. O'Driscoll's view was that there were individuals that just were on easy-street and just happy to be professional rugby players, rather than professional players who wanted to win.
Munster would be kings of Europe and Kidney would go on to deliver a grand slam for Ireland but Cheika would leave a legacy greater than most. He would eventual manage to achieve what everyone before him, including Kidney, had failed to do, turn the ladyboys into champions. Strangely the semi final in Croke Park in 2009 would prove to be another unhappy memory for Felipe Contepomi as he is forced to go off injured which opens the door for Johnny Sexton to take his own place in Leinster and Irish rugby history. There are so many sliding door moments and what if questions when you start looking back at these games but one of the main themes coming out of this was how much this rivalry drove each of the teams on to greatness.
To the Brave and Faithful
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