Oct 14,2024
On a night when more than 80,000 people wedged into Croke Park to watch Ireland's biggest professional sporting rivalry, there were some uncomfortable truths unfolding in front of their eyes which could not be ignored.
It didn’t come as a surprise to anybody that a Leinster v Munster game, which featured 32 players with Test caps, was going to be physical. This was beyond the usual standards though.
By the 15th minute, Munster head coach Graham Rowntree had to move from the coaches’ box to pitchside to help manage their comings and goings, such was the extent of the damage.
At that point, the province had both hookers, Niall Scannell and Diarmuid Barron, undergoing head injury assessments. Scannell would return to the action after 18 minutes and play the rest of the game, while Barron’s day lasted just seven minutes in total.
While both of those players were being assessed, loosehead Jeremy Loughman (below) was also being seen to for a blood injury, and while he was quickly patched up, he played on until the 51st minute with blood seeping from above his cheekbone, and an ever-expanding bruise below his eye.
In the second half, the province also saw John Hodnett temporarily leave for a HIA, while in the final few minutes John Ryan became their fourth player who had to be assessed for a brain injury.
On the Leinster side, Ryan Baird was also withdrawn with a head injury barely a minute after coming onto the pitch, following a nasty collision with his team-mate James Lowe, and with Jack Conan already having been replaced with a different injury, it left the province swapping props Thomas Clarkson and Andrew Porter across the back row.
It all made for some difficult viewing at times, particularly on a day when the eyes of the sport would have been on such a high-profile game, although for Rowntree, the abundance of caution was more important than the spectacle.
"We need to look after the players," the Munster coach said.
"I agree with it but the idea of these mouthguards with the sensors, it’s a sound idea. I’m very confident with all the HIA return to play protocols, I’m really confident in that.
"There was a huge amount [of head injury assessments] today. That’s how the game is, but we’ll manage that. I think it’s on us as coaches, as provinces, as clubs, to get on with it, manage it, deal with it.
"Lads come off when their mouthguard sensor gets pinged, I can’t change that. You’ve got to deal with that and it’s right that we’re looking after our players like that."
While 14 of the 26 points scored by Leinster came during that ten-minute period when Munster lost Scannell, Barron and Loughman for treatment, Rowntree (above) didn’t deflect the blame onto those issues, insisting his side created more than enough chances to be able to win the game on their own.
"You’ve got to roll with the punches. We’re used to that.
"We’ll get on with it. We’ve never shied away from poor performances or lack of effort, but I was happy with our effort tonight, [we have] got to be more accurate.
"You play against the top teams, they make life hard. That frustrates me, and you go back to the lineout defence, they’ve a very good lineout defence going up in the air. It’s the moments when no-one goes up, or we don’t attend a breakdown when we should be, or there’s a pass, a poor pass. They’re the things we need to iron out. That’s all we can get on with.
"I’ve never shied away from poor performances. Tonight for me, there wasn’t a lack of effort, it was accuracy," he added.
The schedule doesn’t get any easier for Rowntree’s side, who will now head for a two-game tour of South Africa, taking on the Stormers and Sharks.
In the last two seasons, the province thrived on these trips though, with four wins from their last five games, including the URC final against the Stormers in May 2023.
And the Munster coach says he places huge value on what can be learned on tour.
"It’s been a productive area for us the last couple of seasons...we predominantly stay in Cape Town.
"There’s a hotel there we use, and we’ll be flying up to Durban the night before the game and we’ll stay in Cape Town as long as we can.
"It’s proven, and we know the facilities, we get away as players and as coaches and we get on with it. The Stormers are travelling [home from Europe] as well.
"We’ve got huge games now against two South African teams and I’m a strong believer that if you’re going to advance in this competition, what you do in South Africa is huge in terms of what you can acquire, points-wise."
