If Munster hadn’t coughed up seven lineouts, five crucially in the first half, in or around the Leinster 22 it would have been a different game

I WAS back in Dublin this weekend so I got a better feel for the Leinster v Munster clash at the RDS. The reason being my alma mater Blackrock College were looking for me to hand out medals at their annual sports day.

With all this volcano ash floating around, last-minute flights are hardly easy to come by at the moment but our sponsors, CityJet, got me out of London at fairly short notice.

I know I have been banging on about it all season but the set-piece remains paramount to winning a rugby match and Munster proved as much. If they hadn’t coughed up seven lineouts, five crucially in the first half, in or around the Leinster 22 it would have been a different game.

They were building momentum and making territorial gains so if they had gathered even two off their own throw they would have surely transferred them into points and led at half-time despite the substantial headwind.

One was missed off the top and another was a bad lift so I wouldn’t be too quick to have a go at hooker Damien Varley. It was a collective thing.

Looking at the set-piece, really, it was a role reversal to what happened in Toulouse. The Leinster scrum have certainly salvaged their pride and it will be a long time before they are hurt like that again.

John Fogarty was voted the Unsung Hero by his peers at the IRUPA awards last week and he proved why on Saturday night. For starters, John is a hilarious bloke, a real good squad man with a serious work-rate, who has no interest in plaudits but the scrum was dominant and the lineout was impregnable despite the absence of Leo Cullen. The focal point of London Irish scrums and lineouts is our hooker and I presume Leinster are no different. He also seemed to calm a charged-up Cian Healy when a yellow card seemed to be looming. All round, John is a top-class pro.

Munster also seemed frustrated by another new refereeing edict whereby the driving maul is not allowed to build up a head of steam. When they finally engineered possession off an attacking lineout just outside the Leinster 22, Nigel Owens warned Tomás O’Leary to use it.

Tomás looked wide and his team-mates weren’t ready so he went alone, straight into the embrace of the brilliant Jamie Heaslip. The one-off Munster runner was a feature of their performance, as was attacking the short side, but it is now established fact the Leinster defence under Kurt McQuilkin will eat up any solo advances.

It took four men to clean these ruck situations, while Leinster were committing on average two players to the tackle area. That ensured a 10-man offence was trying to unlock a 13-man defence. Inevitably, it led to turnover ball.

Scoring a try off first phase is unheard of these days but a good right shoulder at the scrum allowed Al Gaffney’s influence to be brought to bear on proceedings. Leinster are so dangerous off wrap- around plays. Gordon D’Arcy took three players out with that disguised pass that created a three-on-one out wide.

It must be a hugely satisfying try for everyone involved. Off an eight-man scrum, decoy runners, Sexton’s pass and the finish by Rob Kearney. The complete team try.

It’s great that moves like that evidently still work.

I am fast approaching that feeling that can only be compared to the buzz of finishing your last Leaving Cert exam. From July 1st until the end of May, both mentally and physically, you are punishing yourself but all of a sudden there is no match to play or analyse and no training in wintry conditions.

Most professionals get four weeks off. Our club feel a six-, seven-week off season would take too long to recover from. When I first turned pro with Leinster, and again in my early years at London Irish, I would go nuts on my summer holidays and it would be October before I would get anywhere near peak fitness.

That can’t happen anymore. We get a body fat average midway through the season and for every percentage you come back over your average you get fined £175. It takes the shine off those beers on the beach or the batter burger on the way home.

Week one is about allowing your body to recuperate after a season gathering knocks. I tend to catch up on sleeping and make some bad choices in the food department – nothing stupid but the guilt is not there for a meal out or a few glasses of wine.

Then it starts again. The next three weeks are usually spent abroad on holiday with the lads or the missus but a few fat-burner sessions must get squeezed in. No strain on the joints, mind, just some bike work or rowing.

The other aspect to the season’s end is the inevitable departure of some players be it retirement, guys just moving on or being let go. Every player leaving gets a framed jersey signed by the squad with an action picture and some abusive comments.

You want to avoid a massive turnover of players as whoever is leaving is taking all your knowledge to another team.

For example, James Hudson joined Newcastle and although we tweaked the calls he clearly knew how our lineout functioned when we faced them earlier this season. It forced a major overhaul in the playbook. Anyone leaving has to hand back their journal as while it is changed each summer it does retain some core principles.

Pete Richards was forced to retire while Danny Coetzee has decided to call it a day. Pete Hewat is off to Japan but his fiancee Alicia will also be missed as she put a lot of time into organising the wives’ and girlfriends’ events at London Irish. There were a few tears shed as you do form quite a strong bond, especially at our club where there are so many foreigners. It is a tough time.

It got me thinking of Mal and Girv. It must be so strange for these guys waking up next week having been at it since the game turned professional. It will happen to us all some day, I guess.