Celtic League: Once again the thought occurred as to quite what purpose was served when these two were often kept at arm's length in recent years, for when at full tilt they unsurprisingly saw out 2005 with a veritable cracker.
That Leinster obtained a bonus point and denied Munster with the game's last play took them to within two points of the Celtic League leaders, and also ensured a truer reflection of the game.
That Munster came within an intercepted pass of having a conversion to lead deep into injury time tells us much more about their undoubted resilience and grittiness than it does about the quality of the two performances.
When you analysed this pulsating encounter, both collectively and individually, Leinster were much the more skilful and ambitious side.
Take two plays as an example. The Munster pack had finally breached the Leinster line through Paul O'Connell to reduce their leeway to 21-16 while Leinster were down to 14 men for a second time through the binning of Reggie Corrigan, whereupon Felipe Contepomi's restart dropped short, giving Munster the ideal platform of a scrum on halfway.
Surely now, Munster had to go for it? But when Peter Stringer moved the ball to Ronan O'Gara, the Munster outhalf merely launched a speculative up-and-under, which Girvan Dempsey ably dealt with.
It appeared a wasteful and unambitious use of possession at a potentially critical point in the match.
By contrast, Leinster had daringly seen out Contepomi's yellow card by keeping hold of the ball as much as possible into the wind. Likewise, after Contepomi had brilliantly gathered his own chip to score and push Leinster 28-16 in front, he ran back the recycled restart to take on two men in the tackle, release Kieran Lewis and follow up in support.
Indeed, the contrast in the respective outhalves was telling. O'Gara's body language is usually a fair reflection of his well-being and form, but here he looked like a player with much weighing him down, and with good reason, for these are slightly disconcerting times for Munster.
Dependent on his pack for penetration, working off inferior ball, outside him, O'Gara has nothing like the riches and attacking options at Contepomi's disposal, while he has never had the running talent the Puma possesses.
Aside from an uncharacteristic missed penalty which was immediately followed by a knock-on, O'Gara missed three tackles, one when completely outfoxed by Contepomi.
For his part, Contepomi was given quality ball and, as he is encouraged to do in Leinster's much more expansive game, used his running and distribution to explore space for himself and for others.
O'Gara, by dint of his passing skills, can also do this, as he showed off Anthony Foley's quick tap to put Trevor Halstead over with a skip pass moving into the 80th minute. Typically, he landed the touchline conversion to make it 28-23.
Outside of him, the young Barry Murphy looked like the one Munster back who could trouble Leinster with his pace and ability to offload in the tackle, beyond which their only running threat was David Wallace.
When O'Gara moved the ball off a turnover, Murphy made a half-break and passed to John Kelly, but Denis Hickie's pace on the turn and palmed intercept facing his own line prevented a try.
It was desperately unfortunate for Murphy that his knock-on and the wild bounce off Guy Easterby's clever box kick enabled the chasing Contepomi to run in his second try to a thunderous reception from a raucous home crowd.
Contepomi has also become a mammoth point-scorer, and he finished it all off with a faintly ridiculous yet inevitable touchline conversion into the wind for a personal haul of 25 points.
The leading scorer in both the Celtic League and the Heineken European Cup, Contepomi now has 225 points in just 13 competitive games for Leinster this season, including a remarkable seven tries.
Clearly too, Brian O'Driscoll's return has had a galvanic effect.
Considering the length of his absence and the nature of his injury, it was a profoundly encouraging comeback for the Leinster captain, not least in his typical hunger for hard work, making hits and stealing balls in trademark style.
Ultimately, it had to get fast and loose at some juncture, and the faster and looser it got, the more it suited Leinster. Their ability to hold on to the ball and build rapidly through the phases, notably in the multiphased counterattack from halfway in the build-up to Contepomi's first try, was beyond Munster's ambit.
But first they had to dog it out with the Munster pack, and nothing will have given them more pleasure than the resilience of the first quarter.
Federico Pucciariello gave Reggie Corrigan a hard time at the scrum - although the penalty count went two-one to the Leinster warhorse - and evidence of this was the three occasions Stringer nippily and cleverly probed the blind side. Had Kelly been flat to the scrumhalf on the first of those, it could have been try time.
The Munster pack also made a statement of intent from the off with a 25-metre drive off the first lineout, and followed that up with another, but thrice when they went to the corner Leinster held them up. During this spell alone the work-rate of Cameron Jowitt, as with all his fellow forwards, justified his selection.
After Contepomi quick-wittedly fired a long-range penalty to touch at the behest of O'Driscoll, Leinster went to the corner themselves and kept excellent body positions in driving low through the middle of the Munster pack off one of many superb takes by Malcolm O'Kelly.
The biter having being bit, it was the day's most significant psychological blow.
Although O'Gara's boot and Leinster's poor restart game kept the scoreline close, some curious decision-making by Munster led to Shane Horgan taking Anthony Horgan on the outside and Contepomi's boot steering Leinster into a 21-9 half-time lead.
It was by no means an impregnable buffer into the stiff wind but huff and puff as they tried, Munster couldn't blow the Leinster house down.
SCORING SEQUENCE
6 mins: Contepomi pen 3-0; 8: O'Gara pen 3-3; 23: Blaney try 8-3; 26: Contepomi pen 11-3; 28: O'Gara pen 11-6; 33: O'Gara pen 11-9; 37: S Horgan try, Contepomi con 18-9; 40(+3): Contepomi pen 21-9 (half-time 21-9); 66: O'Connell try, O'Gara con 21-16; 73: Contepomi try and con 28-16; 80: Halstead try, O'Gara con 28-23; 85: Contepomi try and con 35-23.
TEAMS
LEINSTER: G Dempsey; S Horgan, B O'Driscoll, G D'Arcy, K Lewis; F Contepomi, G Easterby; R Corrigan, J Blaney, W Green; A Byrnes, M O'Kelly; C Jowitt, K Gleeson, J Heaslip. Replacements: B Williams for Byrnes (17-28 and 52 mins), R McCormack for Jowitt (63-71 mins), D Hickie for O'Driscoll (71 mins), E Miller for Jowitt (73 mins). Not used: D Blaney, B O'Riordan, J Hepworth. Sinbinned: Contepomi (46 mins), Corrigan (61 mins).
MUNSTER: S Payne; J Kelly, B Murphy, G Connolly, A Horgan; R O'Gara, P Stringer; M Horan, J Flannery, F Pucciariello; M O'Driscoll, P O'Connell; D Leamy, D Wallace, A Foley. Replacements: J Hayes for Pucciariello (52 mins), D O'Callaghan for O'Driscoll, T Halstead for Connolly (both 63 mins), T Hogan for O'Connell (78 mins), J Manning for O'Gara (83-84 mins). Not used: D Fogarty, M Prendergast.
Referee: Alistair McKay (IRFU).
