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This Saturday, Munster travel to Dublin’s RDS in a bid to atone for their thrashing at the hands of bitter rivals Leinster in last May’s Heineken Cup semi-final.
Played in front of a record crowd of 82,300 at Croke Park, it was one of the most colourful and vivid sporting occasions I’ve experienced.
Leinster went on to win the Heineken Cup for the first time in their history by beating Leicester 19-16 in the final at Murrayfield on May 23rd.
It was only then that they could finally look their great southern rivals in the eye.
Leinster’s success was based on coach Michael Cheika forging a toughness in the forwards that had hitherto been the preserve of Munster, and using it to complement their traditional brilliance out wide.
Their tries were a mix of the stunning and the opportunistic, putting the “fancy dan” tag to rest by smashing Munster in the collisions and bossing the breakdown.
The rivalry has simmered down through the decades but erupted with the advent of professionalism and the arrival of the Heineken Cup and Magners League.
Despite living in Munster’s shadow for much of the past decade, Leinster won the first major clash of the professional era between the two provinces when they came from behind to win the inaugural Celtic League final in 2001.
Leinster’s Eric Miller was sent off twenty minutes into the game for kicking Anthony Foley in the head and Munster led by 9 points early in the second half.
Ronan O’Gara describes the rest in his autobiography:
“Then they came up with two brilliant tries and knocked us back on our arses. I’ll never forget the Leinster coach, Matt Williams, going mental after the match, running up and down the side of the pitch. Rubbing our noses in it. We wouldn’t have done that but I suppose it was a big deal for them at the time to win a trophy.”
Munster more than avenged that defeat in the next big one, the 2006 Heineken Cup semi-final at Lansdowne Road.
It was the biggest and most anticipated fixture of any code in Ireland that year. The Munster support hijacked the World’s oldest international rugby ground outnumbering the Leinster fans by 2 to 1.
Leinster were favourites having filleted Toulouse in the quarter-final with one of the finest displays of running rugby of the professional era, orchestrated by the brilliant Argentine number ten Felipe Contepomi.
Well known for his short fuse, Munster’s plan was to “go after” Contepomi from the start and upset Leinster’s momentum. They succeeded when he lost the rag after being “bag snatched” in a ruck by a well known Munster back row.
Munster raced to a 10-0 lead and never looked back, eventually winning 30-6. Contepomi spent the entire match fluffing kicks and running about with steam coming out of his ears trying to settle the wrong type of scores.
His less than cordial relations with a number of high profile Munster players are well documented. It’s ironic that the 25 minutes he spent on the field in Croke Park last May before bowing out with a ruptured cruciate were his most effective and important in the colours of Leinster.
He set the scene for the massacre by steam-rolling O’Gara with his first possession, and then gave Leinster the lead on 15 minutes with a dropped goal. In a symbolic changing of the guard his replacement, Johnny Sexton, slotted a penalty as Contepomi was helped from the field.
Is there a better rivalry in rugby?
I’m not sure, but its sister code in Australia has produced one or two worth mentioning.
The annual State of Origin series between Queensland v New South Wales is played at an intensity rarely seen in either code.
The rowdy and feverish atmosphere experienced at Origin games is not the norm for the normally reserved Australian audiences.
For something with even more bite it’s worth travelling back to the 1980s to consider the nastiness that existed between Sydney rugby league clubs, Western Suburbs (The Fibros), and Manly (The Silvertails). In Bad Boys, Sydney journalist and former Western Suburbs coach Roy Masters tells a magnificent tale that reads more like a war than a rivalry.
He paints a filthy picture of forwards charging into tackles with elbows cocked and crowds spitting nails at each other.
It’s unlikely that Leinster v Munster will ever plumb those depths.
The recent success of both provinces has seen the majority of fans from either side grudgingly swallow a bitter pill and support the other when contesting major finals against teams from England and France. Indeed many a Munster fan appeared in Edinburgh for this year’s final wearing t-shirts that read “Leinster for a Day but Munster for Life” and vice versa in 2006 and 2008.
In Harry Byrne’s pub after Leinster’s “Day of Days” at Croke Park a Munster fan spelled it out for me when he pointed to a different rivalry that was once a war and said, “I’m never going to back a team of the Crown against one from Ireland.”
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.