Munster ‘confident’ they can get the better of ‘threatening’ Leinster in Inter-Pro derby

Munster boss Graham Rowntree believes his side can beat Leinster despite having come off a loss to Exeter Chiefs in the Champions Cup last time out.

It will be the second time the two sides have met in the last five weeks with Leinster claiming a 21-16 win over Munster in a dramatic clash in Dublin. This time out the team lock horns at Thomond Park making for an intriguing battle.

Trust in his side

Rowntree insists that there were many positives in the loss to Exeter and underlined his trust in the team.

“I am confident, do you know why? I trust the group,” Rowntree told the Irish Examiner. “We did some very good things in Exeter. Sixty-three minutes we were still ahead, ha“I am confident, do you know why? I trust the group,” Rowntree said. “We did some very good things in Exeter. Sixty-three minutes we were still ahead, having scored four tries, and then what happened happened. We’ve had a look at that, and had a look at the composure, but we still scored four tries, we still scored 12 tries in the last three games. We’re doing a lot of good things, and we’ll need those good things in our next game.”

Munster dived into a deep review after the Exeter clash and Rowntree believes some of the issues have been rectified in training.

“It’s learning. We have to learn from it. You look at some of our composure bits from the last quarter of the game… those pieces, that’s composure, because with 63 minutes we were on our game but we’ve just got to better in those moments, particularly in a game where in the second half we hadn’t had a lot of possession. We didn’t see the ball a lot in that second half and we were into a swirling wind as well.

“We certainly reviewed it. We had quite a strong review, the lads are honest enough and put their hand up and then we got out and practised it and we’ve certainly done that.”

Threats everywhere

Leinster may miss some players through game time restrictions from the Irish Rugby Football Union but the Munster boss still believes there are threats everywhere. Rowntree also noted their rival’s elevated line speed, an aspect typical of a Jacques Nienaber defensive system.

“Threats? They have threats everywhere. They have power threats in the maul, giving them access to our tryline will be a challenge not to do that, because they have a good maul and hookers who like breaking from mauls. Kicking a bit more then they have been. They’ve increased their linespeed, but they’ve got some incredible ball carriers across the whole team, and they’ll challenge us in most areas.

“They have threats everywhere; power game, attacking the seams, their phase-attack has nice little shapes inside and outside of 10. They play quick as well. That’s pretty much it. Apart from all that, they’re quite a boring team.”

“You’re always trying to win the next game, in whatever competition, and against the Irish international team – as it turns out they can roll out when they want to – but it would be huge for us.”

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