Oct 09,2024
As of Tuesday lunchtime, more than 75,000 tickets have been sold for Saturday's blockbuster BKT United Rugby Championship meeting of Leinster and Munster at Croke Park.
Leinster are hopeful they can tip towards an 82,300 sell-out by Saturday evening, but even if they don’t, the province are already guaranteed a record crowd for a URC game.
The 75,000 tickets shipped is already comfortably ahead of the previous record of 68,262, which the four Welsh regions shared at the Principality Stadum in a 'Judgement Day’ double-header in April 2016. It’s also nearly 20,000 ahead of any standalone game in the history of the league.
"It’s not bad for a club game, that, is it?" Munster coach Graham Rowntree remarked when he was told the latest ticket sales on Tuesday afternoon.
"Tingles in my spine when you say that, and we certainly spoke about it today, the history around this stadium and this fixture."
Even for a rivalry as old and well-worn as Munster and Leinster, it does feel like interest in the big Irish derby has grown in recent years.
The obvious reason for that is Munster’s URC title win in 2023, and particularly their gripping semi-final win against their neighbours in the semi-final that season.
The rivalry has also been fueled in recent years by transfers and contract negotiations at IRFU level, which has seen the national central contracts dominated by Leinster players, and resulted in Munster’s RG Snyman moving up the M7 to Leinster in the summer.
Related to that, a portion of Munster fans have been vocal around how some of their players have been overlooked for international selection, which has resulted in Jean Kleyn becoming non-Irish qualified after he switched back to the Springboks, and Antoine Frisch and Ben Healy departing the province for Toulon and Edinburgh.
Leinster may have won both installments of the Interpro last season, but each contest was well-attended and close on the scoreboard; In November, 49,246 people watched on at the Aviva Stadium as Leinster won a thrilling game 21-16, while they won 9-3 in monsoon conditions in front of a sold-out Thomond Park on St Stephen’s Day.
Three of the last four meetings of the sides have been won by Leinster, but all four of those games have been decided by just a single score. Prior to that, six of the previous seven meetings had been won by double-digit margins, and Munster winning just once in that time.
Rowntree, who has been at the province since late 2019, believes the rivalry between the pair is as strong as he’s known it since moving to Ireland.
"There’s a healthy rivalry, and just another huge Interpro between these two provinces."
And the Munster boss (below) admits he hadn’t known the full extent of their rivalry until he arrived in Limerick just under five years ago.
"No, I never realised. You don’t get it until you’re in it.
"I always remember speaking to Stuart Lancaster. He came over here [to Leinster] before I did and he was telling me about how he navigates moving over and back, and travelling, and he said: ‘You realise we can never speak again’, after I joined Munster and he was with Leinster.
"I said: ‘What do you mean?’ But I get it now. There’s an intense rivalry there and a very respectful rivalry. They are a great team, a great team; achieved good things.
"They work hard, everyone has spoken about their defence, particularly with Jacques [Nienaber] coming; their speed off the line, they work hard, they scrum well, they make life difficult for you around the breakdown, they’ve got some great launch-plays off lineout and breaking out of mauls, so you can’t give them access.
"They’ve got quality, a large, quality squad with threats across the board," he added.
After a shock defeat to Zebre in Round 2 of the URC, Munster responded impressively on Saturday, with an energising 23-0 win against the Ospreys at a wet and windy Virgin Media Park in Cork.
While the bonus-point win, and a much-improved defensive showing will have buoyed his side, the Englishman said he was most pleased with the attitude shown by his players.
"I knew we’d get a reaction. I think I’d been quoted as saying I was looking forward to it. It helped us, playing in those conditions where we had to be super physical. As I said post-game, our accuracy was very impressive.
"It's a big deal to nil a team these days, it doesn't happen very often. To do it in the manner we did at the end of the game, Bryan Fitzgerald holding guys up over his tryline. The way we stuck in it was very pleasing. Just what we needed from the week before.
"It was one of the toughest weeks I’ve had at the club, leading into it. Our intensity, from the start of the game, you could see a real intensity in those conditions against a good team. We’ve had a few good ding-dongs with them in the last year.
"In the second half into the wind, the wind was coming from everywhere, in the second half we had one shot to get into their 22 from a lineout and a nice trick lineout play that Mike [attack coach Mike Prendergast] had come up with, and we did it with Jack O’Donoghue. He moved position in back row into Shay McCarthy, and back to Jack and Jack scores.
"We had one shot and we took it. Our accuracy in those conditions really pleased me."
