Watching Leinster’s victory over Clermont last weekend, a text was sent to a former analyst at a professional team.
“Light the beacons, Leinster have scored on transition.”
The exchange was in reference Sam Prendergast’s length of the field score, an audacious decision to counterattack from deep. Not playing with freedom while padding a lead, but running from their own 22 while trailing by a point away in France.
“And an offload,” came the response from our analyst friend, pointing to Jimmy O’Brien’s final pass that sent his outhalf under the sticks.
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The incredulity was due to the try’s origin. Transition. Counterattack. Offloading. Unpredictability. These are all words used to describe the damage done by French teams to Leinster and Ireland in recent years. In the Irish context, they have largely been used to describe what they’d like to do, rather than what is actually happening.
Ahead of this weekend’s interpro with Munster, Leinster are now more consistently turning words into action.
For their part, Clayton McMillan’s side have also undergone a shift. Their set-piece strikes have been the best in the country so far this season. Ditto their scrum. All of which leaves the fascinating scenario of the two largest Irish provinces looking altogether different from the sides that featured in Munster’s Croke Park heist 12 months ago.
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This time last year, the Ireland coaches came out with a clear goal to improve on transition and counterattack. In recent weeks, Leinster have been making similar noises. At the start of the season, attack coach Tyler Bleyendaal used rugby’s magic E-word – evolve.
Was he talking about transition, the area of the game prioritised by the Bordeaux side that filleted Leinster in May? The evidence of the early season, young fullback Todd Lawlor running back kicks in South Africa (he is fifth in the URC this season for metres carried despite only playing twice) would seem to suggest so.
“Exactly,” confirmed Leo Cullen. “There are certain players, Caspar [Gabriel] has the ability to take the line on, Todd, he’s an instinctive player. It’s bringing more unpredictability to their games.
“They’ve worked hard during the course of preseason. We started with a young group and ... [we’re] adding senior players into the group all the time. I’m curious to see how guys run out.
“We’ve tried to always stay ahead of the curve. There’s lots of little things we’re doing. The group are buying into it as well, which is the important thing.”
When the senior players came back, they took on the counterattacking mantle. See Jack Conan’s try against Cardiff, Joe McCarthy and Tadhg Furlong pouncing on a spilled ball to feed Prendergast running up from the backfield à la Mathieu Jalibert. One last-ditch tackle prevented Leinster from scoring a coveted “zero-ruck try”, with Conan crashing over a phase later.
Add to that list the Prendergast score in Clermont, arguably the most aesthetically-pleasing try scored by the province in years. The shift in attitude is leading to results, albeit in October and not yet in a May final.
For many reasons, it’s a shame that Prendergast misses Saturday’s Munster clash. One is the inevitable billing of young outhalf taking on young outhalf, the public deprived of the current holder of the Ireland 10 shirt facing Charlie O’Shea, a man who may well challenge him in the not-too-distant future.
In the shorter term, though, Prendergast is the single best individual illustration of Leinster’s desire to be more unpredictable. He has spoken of his wish to become more of a running threat. Hence he took on two frontrow forwards in his own 22 in Clermont. It was certainly a better decision that his previous one to take on a wing, almost coughing up possession close to his own line.
Last season, in more than 1,000 minutes of action, Prendergast made 588 carry metres and 13 line breaks. This year, in just 183 minutes, he is has already made four breaks and 124 metres. In other words, Prendergast is already 30 per cent along the way to match last year’s total line breaks and 20 per cent for yardage. All in circa 15 per cent of equivalent game time.
Alas, he will not bring that newfound game to Lansdowne Road this weekend. Albeit with Joey Carbery at the helm, a man fresh off the boat from – checks notes – Bordeaux, counters cannot be ruled out.
O’Shea is a natural where Prendergast has laboured to improve. Watch him break the line against Racing last weekend. Or finding gaps in chaotic situations when scoring a hat-trick for Ireland Under-20s in the summer. He is a counterattacking dream.
While that new youthful exuberance to Munster’s play will dominate attention, arguably their most significant change this season has come up front. The very front. The frontrow.
Marnus van der Merwe was signed as hooker, while tighthead props Kieran Brookes and Jack Aungier also came in the door. After a litany of frontrow injuries in recent years, general manager Ian Costello was good value when explaining the recruitment process for these players at the start of the season.
“We’ve targeted frontrow and set-piece as one of the key gaps in the squad,” he said. “Marnus [van der Merwe] has lots of other qualities but set-piece hooker is definitely one of his points of difference. He offers something different from the other hookers we have.
“Tighthead is probably the most obvious [area for improvement]. We were very unfortunate with Roman [Salanoa] and Oli [Jager] and the injuries that they have sustained. That placed a massive load on Michael Ala’alatoa and our young props. We addressed that by recruiting quality but also players that have evidence of being robust.
“Brookesy [Kieran Brookes] has over 300 first-class games, he’s played across multiple leagues and has so much experience, but he’s played 20 games a year plus for the last six years. Jack Aungier is the same, relatively young but has over 100 first-class games and plays 20 games a year.
“Them as people, the quality of them from a set-piece and rugby point of view, but also the robustness. It’s pretty clear what our intention around recruitment there was.”
Acknowledging the small sample caveat, the benefits of this recruitment are clear to see. In three of their four games so far, Munster have won all of their own scrums. The exception, curiously, was the Ulster game, that contest bringing a return of 83 per cent despite the Munster pushing Ulster off their own ball at times.
That opposition point is also worth raising, with Munster winning the ball back off opponent put-in this year. Only Racing had a clean scrummaging day at the office against the province so far this year, as Glasgow (80 per cent success rate), the Bulls (80 per cent) and Ulster (88 per cent) all faced a stern contest. Last season, Munster won the bull on just three per cent of opposition scrums.
The benefit of a good set-piece, for one, is avoiding penalty concessions that have you marching back towards the 22. Especially in this day and age of dominant rolling mauls.
On the other side of the ball, being able to attack off a solid basis is equally valuable, as Munster are showing under the tutelage of Jared Payne. The former Ulster and Ireland centre is responsible for the first three phases of Munster’s attack. At times, their first phase strike plays have been excellent.
Against Glasgow – who were down to 14 at the time – a lineout play put the ball in the hands of scrumhalf Ben O’Donovan, forcing the defence to deal with another playmaker in a dangerous position.
In later games versus the Bulls and Racing, Munster’s centres played crucial, decision-making roles in try-scoring strikes, adding width early in the phase and opening up space for running threats. Even when O’Shea dropped Alex Nankivell’s pullback against Racing, the ball landed perfectly to Shay McCarthy mid stride.
With Leinster’s transition looking more threatening and Munster shoring up their set-piece, all while adding some strike-play creativity, both teams will arrive on Saturday offering something different from what we have seen before. Not that Leinster have a weak set-piece or Munster a poor counterattack. O’Shea alone ensures the latter is not true.
Yet both sides come to this latest showdown resembling better teams that have made genuine progress at improving the areas that have let them down in recent times. Saturday is flirting with being one of the more watchable derby days in recent memory.
