Cullen & Rowntree's reactions after narrow Leinster victory at Thomond Park
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Leinster notched up their 10th consecutive victory in the 2022-23 URC on Monday evening with victory over rivals Munster, however, the men in blue were made to dig deep to leave Thomond Park with a win.
Leinster boss Leo Cullen was both relieved and pleased with his charges after a nail-biting contest.
“Yeah it is (pleasing),” Cullen said, “because it’s a pretty unorthodox type of win, isn’t it? But the guys showed great character out there, which is pleasing.
“We’re eight points down at the start of the second half, lose a man to the bin, then to win that next 10 minutes by 14 points, when we accumulate most of our points, that’s really, really pleasing.
“And the last 10 minutes, reasonably controlled, playing the game in the right areas, even though it’s pretty chaotic if you see some of the breakdowns there where players are coming in from all angles, but we managed to get over the line. We’re pleased with a hard-earned four points.”
Meanwhile, Munster Head Coach Graham Rowntree was left frustrated with the result.
“Without having a load of territory in that first half we were ahead (7-6), and then in the third quarter we worked hard for a penalty try, they had a guy in the bin and we concede two soft tries,” Rowntree said. “We can't do that, we just can't do that.
“We lost our way towards the end there against a good team, whoever they seem to put on the field. There's a lot of familiar faces in that Leinster, team, whoever they field, they're a class team.
“The most disappointing thing for me was how we dealt with that time after the penalty try, conceding two soft tries.
Rowntree noted his side’s defence of Leinster’s set moves as a particular area of concern after the latter enjoyed a couple of well-worked tries which caught their opponents napping.
“I'll have to watch it again in the cold light of day,” he said. “We spoke about it a lot, they have an armoury of quick-tap moves. We spoke about it, and previewed it in the week, and trained it, but we have to be better.
“In the white-hot heat of the battle we have to be better than that.
“I think (for the Sheehan try) we were waiting for the next fancy movement off the first carry. “First thing’s first, and we didn't deal with the first carry, we were looking at what they were trying to do off it. We have to be better in every game, and particularly against a classy team like that.
“There are lots of positives, but when you lose a game like that you focus on the negatives. We'll review it again as coaches, and move forward in six days in Belfast.”
