Run 'em up and fill 'em in

I know a lot of people on this side of the Atlantic may not have heard of the Canadian Ice Hockey comedy "Shorsey", but there's a specific line that I think resonates with Munster's performance on Saturday. "Run 'em up, fill 'em in and set the tone boys". "Run 'em up" is about keeping the scoreboard ticking over, "fill 'em in" is about being physically dominant and "set the tone" is about imposing your game plan on the opposition. Munster did all three in spades in Croke Park on Saturday evening.

Munster took their chances and the points when they were available. Munster had 8 visits into the Leinster 22 converting on 5 of them to end up with an average of 3.5 points per visit. Apart from the scrum Munster were largely dominant, winning the big gain line battles especially late in the first half and for the 20 mins after half time when Leinster spent most of their time inside the Munster 22. Munster kept their line intact, through big physical hits and some unbelievable jackals from Tadhg Beirne.

Munster's kicking game was top notch. Jack Crowley has added a real deception to his kicking from hand this season. He has an ability to carry the ball to the line and then at the last minute he drops the ball to his foot to get the chip kick in before the defence anticipate it. Cian Tracey clipped together Crowley's involvements from Saturday and while some of the open field running looks like he should be part of a French team from the 1990's, its actually his control and kicking that stands out to me. A vast array of chip kicks and positional kicks kept the Leinster back line guessing what was coming next. One of the most under rated things I noticed from this clip is the fact that Crowleys kicking off his left boot was so strong.

https://x.com/CianTracey1/status/1979842653010420104

The most impressive thing about the entire game (apart from Tadhg Beirne's performance) was that Munster didn't take anything away from Leinster. Leinster had an utterly dominant scrum from which they won multiple penalties, they had 16 lineouts which they gained 100% possession from. Leinster had 66% possession and 63% territory. If you looked at the starting 23's before the game and were told these were the stats you'd have expected a solid Leinster win. Leinster's attack was very poor and while there are mitigating factors such as players only returning, lack of pre season games, the trip to South Africa etc the facts are that with that many quality players of international and Lions standard, with that much ball and territory and a functioning platform to launch attacks they offered no cutting edge.

Munster matched their physicality and Leinster had no response. The previous week Leinster beat the Sharks in the Aviva, where they had 56% possession and 47% territory and a kick pass ratio of 1:6, which means that for every six passes they kicked once. Against Munster the ratio was 1:17. Munster got ahead on the scoreboard and forced Leinster from their usual off ball kicking game to an onball game where they had to retain possession and they didn't know what to do with it. This is an extremely worrying thing for Leinster and Ireland given the similarities with the players involved and how they play.

This was one of the best performances I've seen from Munster in a long while and is a testament to the culture that McMillan is building. This was all about the fight in the dog rather than the dogs in the fight. The Munster players after the game made comments that were very thinly veiled about how Ireland squad selections played a big part in motivating them for the match. McMillan spoke pre season about how he wanted to tweak things with Munster, reintroduce some old school values and reconnect with the fans. 4 wins from 4, beating Leinster in their own patch and putting in a performance based on boot, bite and bollock certainly has set the bar for him and the squad.

Croke Park has given Irish rugby some huge moments such as the 2007 6 Nations win against England and Leinster's 2009 Heineken semi final win against Munster and Saturdays performance felt like it has given Munster a chance to turn their victory into another pivotal moment, but it will mean nothing if they can't continue to push on and continue this evolution under Clayton McMillan.

Connacht are up next in Thomond Park on Saturday and Munster must back up their Croke Park win.