Jonathan Sexton set a new Leinster points-scoring record as they posted a 23-17 GUINNESS PRO14 derby win over Munster at the Aviva Stadium.
Rory O’Loughlin’s well-taken brace of tries after 16 and 34 minutes had the hosts leading 14-7 at half-time, sandwiching an intercept score from Ian Keatley.
An early second half penalty saw Jonathan Sexton eclipse Felipe Contepomi (1225 points) as Leinster’s record points scorer, before the returning Keith Earls finished off a Tommy O’Donnell-inspired try for resilient Munster.
Two more penalties from man-of-the-match Sexton – taking his provincial career haul to 1234 – sent the blue-clad hordes in the 46,374-strong crowd home happy, albeit that Earls’ 78th-minute try bagged the Reds a late bonus point.
Speaking after the game, Leinster head coach Leo Cullen said: “We’re reasonably pleased with the performance, a lot of effort went into it. We’d looked quite strong and dominant up until the Keatley intercept try and we had played a good pressure game.
“We’ve done enough to win both games (against Edinburgh and Munster) and that’s the most important part. There are things to work on and I thought we were definitely better than last day. We created a lot of opportunities out there and could have been a bit more ruthless in finishing the chances but we would have taken that as a result going into the game.
“From a defensive point of view, there are bits we can look at as we’ve conceded three tries which is unlike us. We’ll turn our attention quite quickly to Montpellier as it’s going to be a huge step up again.”
He added: “(I’m) delighted for Johnny. I was surprised he was turning away so many shots at goal last weekend, kicking to the corner. It was good that he had a few shots at goal today.
“He’s shown amazing consistency and resilience coming back at various different stages. He’s worked hard since coming back from New Zealand and is in really good shape now. Good to get him through 65 (minutes) last week and 75 today, he’s going to play a huge part in our season.”
Both provinces were looking for a momentum-building performance heading into Europe next week, with Robbie Henshaw returning from the torn pectoral muscle which ended his Lions tour, and Earls also making his seasonal debut.
Wingers Andrew Conway, who was first to slice open either defence, and Adam Byrne were both prominent in a fast-paced opening 10 minutes, the latter showing his aerial ability from Sexton’s cross-field kicks.
TMO Jon Mason ruled out what would have been an excellent solo try from Earls – Chris Farrell’s long pass was adjudged forward – but Leinster were on the board soon after.
Off solid possession in the visitors’ 22, centre O’Loughlin spun out of John Ryan’s attempted tackle and produced an excellent finish under pressure from CJ Stander and Robin Copeland. Sexton converted from straight in front.
Leinster failed to score during Niall Scannell’s sin-bin period, the Munster hooker seeing yellow for a deliberate knock-on, and Keatley punished them, swooping on a Sexton pass, which Henshaw could only get his fingertips to, as he raided in under the posts for the levelling seven-pointer.
Joey Carbery had made a vital tackle on Earls before that and the young full-back provided the assist for O’Loughlin’s second try at the end of 25 exhaustive phases. Byrne beat Earls to a couple of searching kicks, Munster hanging on until Carbery injected some pace – following a Sexton-Tadhg Furlong wraparound – to send O’Loughlin over from the left wing.
Keatley had to come to Munster’s rescue on the resumption, Barry Daly threatening from a grubber kick before a Farrell high tackle allowed Sexton to make it 17-7.
With some deft Leinster handling and Jack Conan breaking their defensive line, Munster needed a big response and they got it with flanker O’Donnell’s terrific break from his own 22, his well-timed pass sending Earls over in the left corner past Byrne’s last-ditch tackle.
JJ Hanrahan missed the difficult conversion and Sexton quickly snatched back control, knocking over successive penalties to reward the home scrum and Josh van der Flier’s breakdown work.
The Munster forwards were then thwarted from a couple of gilt-edged maul opportunities, with full-back Hanrahan needing to react swiftly at the other end to deny Daly a try from Jamison Gibson-Park’s grubber.
Munster were disjointed at times, bringing back bad memories of their last two Dublin defeats to Saracens and the Scarlets, but they took home a point after very good work off a lineout and quick transfers from Farrell and Conway allowed Earls to complete his brace in the corner.
Munster captain Peter O’Mahony commented afterwards: “It’s always a difficult place to come and play and when you go out and concede eight or nine penalties in the first half, you’re putting yourselves under a huge amount of pressure.
“I don’t know what our final (penalty) tally was but you’re always going to struggle against a team of that quality. As you can see, we’re trying different things and working hard as we can but you have to give yourself a chance and we didn’t today with our discipline.
“If you keep conceding penalties, we spent a lot of game in our half. Off the top of my head, very little set piece inside Leinster’s half or 22. There were just two or three opportunities for us and as I said, you had to give yourself a chance and we didn’t do that today.”
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