Joey Carbery shot down his former side with a 14-point kicking contribution as Munster defeated 14-man Leinster 26-17 in a feisty GUINNESS PRO14 derby at Thomond Park.
The defending champions’ discipline really let them down during a fiery first half, with props Cian Healy and Tadhg Furlong both sin-binned and Kiwi winger James Lowe sent off on the half-hour mark for taking out Andrew Conway in the air.
The unerring Joey Carbery landed two penalties to add to Chris Cloete’s 13th-minute maul try, giving Munster a 13-3 half-time lead with Leinster captain Jonathan Sexton – in his first Thomond Park appearance since March 2012 – kicking their only points before the break.
Leinster’s maul delivered a 47th minute try for James Tracy, cancelling out Carbery’s third penalty success, but the latter nailed a 64th-minute place-kick and Keith Earls’ intercept try had Munster out of reach before replacement Max Deegan’s late consolation score.
There was plenty of niggle for referee Frank Murphy to deal with inside the opening quarter, an early scuffle between Fineen Wycherley and Sexton setting the tone for some tense and ill-tempered exchanges. Both out-halves missed touch with penalties and the visitors had nothing to show for a strong start from their backs.
The Munster attack clicked superbly in the 12th minute when a clever midfield move off a lineout sent Earls haring over halfway. Scott Fardy’s high tackle on Cloete led to Munster going for the corner and a powerful lineout drive ended with Cloete grounding the ball and Carbery landing the difficult conversion.
Despite Healy seeing yellow for a flailing arm on Conor Murray, a similar infringement by the latter allowed Sexton to open Leinster’s account from the tee. They managed the sin-bin period well, but were down to 14 again after Furlong was binned in the 29th minute for barging into Cloete at a ruck and ‘making no attempt to wrap’.
Barely two minutes later, Lowe’s full-tilt challenge for a high ball upended the airborne Conway who landed on his head. A TMO review led to referee Murphy brandishing his red card and Carbery closed out the first half with two well-struck penalties, punishing tackle and scrum offences by Tracy and Michael Bent respectively.
Carbery opened the second half’s scoring with a penalty, but pressure from successive lineouts a few metres out saw Leinster hit back with Tracy’s maul effort, converted by Sexton. After Conway went close from a rapid counter attack, Munster’s man-of-the-match Tadhg Beirne duly foiled the Blues’ next attempt to build from out of touch.
Leinster, who lie 16 points clear at the top of Conference B, looked to their bench for the final quarter with youngster Ciaran Frawley replacing Sexton. Carbery’s reliable right boot nudged Munster onto 19 points, and just as the visitors threatened in the 71st minute, Frawley’s pass was picked off by the excellent Earls who raced out of his 22 and all the way to the line with replacement Tyler Bleyendaal converting.
Jack Conan’s bulldozing carry led to fellow back rower Deegan touching down past the 80-minute mark, but there was no denying Munster as they overcame their arch rivals for the first time in two years, closing out a 16-match unbeaten home run in 2018 and drawing within two points of Conference A leaders Glasgow Warriors.
Giving his reaction afterwards, Munster head coach Johann van Graan said: “I thought it was a very tough game of rugby. Two of Ireland’s provinces going at each other for 80 minutes. Firstly, very happy with the win. Also, want to give credit to the opponents. Thought they fought to the last play of the game.
“I thought we kept our cool for the third week in a row. I thought our discipline was excellent and at crucial times we used opportunities and very happy with the win. I thought the referee was in a very difficult position. A sell-out Thomond Park and you want 15 versus 15.
“I thought one or two of the earlier decisions could have gone maybe higher but all credit to the referee, I thought he kept his cool and I think it was four massive incidents in the first half and I thought eventually something had to give.”
He added: “I think Joey showed some real mental strength tonight. Missed one or two kicks two weeks ago. I thought he was excellent with his goal-kicking tonight. Obviously, for him personally, playing against his former team at a sold-out Thomond Park was a big moment.
“Fineen has been excellent over the past few weeks. He’s actually a lock. I gave him an opportunity against the Cheetahs as a blindside flanker and he impressed me so much throughout the last year. He really stood up tonight against the European and PRO14 champions and was excellent. Another 80-minute performance.”
Van Graan’s opposite number, Leo Cullen, commented: “When you break apart the performance, the first half hour our discipline is clearly not good enough. From that point on, we do a lot of good things and we stick in the game well. So, that’s really pleasing. I thought the desire and the spirit shown by the players is pleasing.
“Some younger players, we wanted to bring them off the bench to give them that exposure and I thought they handled things reasonably well. I thought when we only needed one try, after all of the cards and particularly the red, when we’re numbers down we only concede one try and that’s an intercept when we’re metres from the Munster line. It’s a good bit of play where they read it, get the intercept and go the length of the field.
“It’s pleasing that we were able to shut Munster out for the majority of the game when we’re a man down. At one point we we were down to 13. So, how the players dug in and adapted because in many ways when you’re down to 14 men the game-plan that you planned all week goes out the window to a certain extent.
“Even losing Dave Kearney (to a tight thigh muscle) in the warm-up, Noel (Reid) stepping in, the way we had to rejig with Rory (O’Loughlin) on the wing… it was a day where we had to adapt. It wasn’t always perfect, but the players dug in for each other and that was the most pleasing part.”
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