Fantastic five for Munster
Magical Munster put Leinster to the sword at Musgrave Park, scoring five tries in a win which moves them back to the top of the Celtic League.
It was the perfect preparation for Munster ahead of their Heineken Cup opener away to Sale on Friday week as tries from Marcus Horan, Mick O’Driscoll, Denis Leamy, John Kelly and Ronan O’Gara saw Leinster’s defence ruthlessly exposed.
Three penalty goals from captain Felipe Contepomi helped the visitors into a 9-5 half-time lead, but Munster owned the ball in the second half, running in four tries with each of them converted by O’Gara.
O’Gara, kicking without a tee, booted an early chance to the right and the league’s top points scorer Contepomi was also wide with a punched effort on 20 minutes.
With a stiffening breeze behind him, the Argentinian centre did land successive penalties for the lead on 19, 23 and 29 minutes – the highlight of which was his arced second shot from the halfway line.
Alan Quinlan had been the offender for Contepomi’s third but the Munster flanker redeemed himself on the half-hour when his snappy left-wing break laid the platform for prop Horan’s try.
O’Gara took play up through the middle, scattering the Leinster defence and quick hands from Gary Connolly, Kelly and Barry Murphy put Horan sliding in at the right corner under Denis Hickie’s tackle.
Although O’Gara scuffed the conversion, Horan’s second try in eight days still had a galvanising effect on the home side.
A missed penalty attempt from Contepomi kept Munster four points down at the interval and Leinster prop Reggie Corrigan’s injury-time sin-binning, awarded for a knee drop on his opposite number Federico Pucciariello, certainly changed the game’s course.
With a man advantage, Munster made Leinster pay for a sleepy start to the second half with two tries in the opening six minutes.
The influential Quinlan stole a lineout in the home 22 and his kick ahead launched a furious attack.
Munster managed a turnover and from a close-in ruck, lock O’Driscoll plunged over.
Munster were 19-9 up three minutes later when a loose pass from Christian Warner was seized upon in the Leinster 22 and O’Gara laid off for Leamy to go in behind the posts.
Leinster, despite starting with eight Ireland internationals, simply had no answer to Munster’s all-out attack and Kelly, from Tomas O’Leary’s well-timed pass, and O’Gara, on 72 minutes, topped off the scoring to see Munster displace Ulster at the top of the league table.
