If this is supposedly the creme de la creme of Irish representative rugby - the showpiece match-up of the Guinness Interprovincial Championship - then we really are in trouble. The auguries were bad from the word go. On arriving at Musgrave Park, the visitor was inclined to check the scoreboard just to make sure this really was the venue for an interpro. A few hundred eventually followed the players out from the Dolphin clubhouse but if the Munster Branch were henceforth inclined to play all the province's home games in Limerick no-one, least of all the Cork rugby public, could complain. Mind you, they might also question their own PR strategy.

With the contest devoid of atmosphere, the players responded accordingly. You could see there were positive intentions, the more so from Munster, but for all the improved pre-season training and fitness levels, there was scarcely a hint of a try. Loose passes and knock-ons proliferated; there was far too much kicking; far too many penalties as well, and with ruck ball often static, the game was almost bereft of continuity.

There were mitigating factors, though a greasy ball cannot fully account for the poor handling. Nor can Brian Stirling's pedantic performance explain the lack of quick ruck ball, but the whole refereeing approach isn't helping.

More often than not, the attacking team, rather than the defending one, was penalised at the point of breakdown. Nonetheless, there weren't as many penalties for sandbagging, or the third player at the breakdown going to ground to protect the ball, as there had been a week before.

Forewarned by last week's opening games and the continuing debate about this vexed area, both sets of forwards seemingly felt obliged to stand off. Tacklers weren't being cleared away, and the ruck ball was either spoiled or delayed.

Declan Kidney maintained that this area may be as much a problem for coaches and players, with Munster perhaps not committing enough men to the ruck in loading their back-line with forward runners.

For all of this, Munster got there in the end, and they deserved to. By and large, they at least attempted to move the ball through the hands, thereby playing to their strengths which were a far more mobile pack and backrow in particular.

The sharp-looking David Wallace and Eddie Halvey spent much of the afternoon loitering in the back-line, and along with Anthony Foley gained far more yardage than their Leinster counterparts. They also helped to put together what few sustained passages of recycling there was in the game, though ultimately it didn't come to anything except kicks at goal.

Leinster, by contrast, adopted a horses for courses strategy - predictable enough given their lineup. Denied Tony Goldfinch, their one genuine if unproven open-side flanker, and their one gesture at that position heretofore, Stephen Rooney, they were obliged to pick more of a lumbering, set-piece pack. Thus, Alan McGowan kicked for position continually.

However, even when they had attacking put-ins or throw-ins, Leinster just couldn't seem to set up a platform. The scrums were a mess throughout, and they weren't overjoyed at Stirling's handling of them. But their line-out was erratic under consistent pressure from Halvey at the front and Shane Leahy in the middle, and all but disintegrated with the crucial late injury to Aaron Freeman. As for attacking second-phase ball, it never materialised and unless their problem position of open-side flanker is somehow resolved, it will remain a problem.

Not that, individually, their back-row played badly. Indeed, Victor Costello had a pretty good game and the fired-up Trevor Brennan typified their defensive resilience. Bristling with intent from the first whistle, Brennan nearly walked the plank when unleashing a flurry of punches as Leahy, Halvey and Peter Clohessy weighed in, with the Leinster cavalry a little slow to arrive.

Thereafter Brennan put together a sequence of crunching big hits, once poleaxing Ronan O'Gara and then shaking him off like some offensive dandruff. Shane Byrne too had his most prominent and involved game around the pitch in a Leinster shirt.

Leinster could at least take this individual crumbs of comfort from the game, and their collective defensive work, but little of a positive note. Of their three strike runners, Dennis Hickie, Ciaran Clarke and Daragh O'Mahony, only Clarke received one attacking ball all day, whereupon the pack couldn't recycle it.

While clearly disguising his disappointment, it was odd to hear a solemn Mike Ruddock extolling "our rearguard action. In fairness to Alan McGowan he controlled the game quite well." He also admitted: "Munster played better rugby than us and on that count I give them full marks."

You sensed this was not the way he wants Leinster to play, whether it be dictated to him by the available selection or refereeing - or both. Indeed, Munstermen noted with some irony that Leinster's performance was like a step back in time - to what Munster used to play. At half-time, their players were given the same choice, according to co-coach Declan Kidney.

"There were a lot of handling errors but we're prepared to let the players take risks even if that means mistakes, which it invariably will. We asked the players if they wanted to start from scratch again, and tighten things up, but they said they wanted to stick to our game plan. In fact, we tried to loosen it up a bit more."

Credit to them for that much, but collectively, Irish rugby's going up the hill backwards on this evidence.

Scoring sequence: 3 mins: McGowan penalty, 0-3; 28 mins: O'Gara penalty, 3-3; McGowan penalty, 3-6; 45 mins: O'Gara drop goal, 6-6; 48 mins: McGowan penalty, 6-9; 58 mins: McGowan penalty, 6-12; 65 mins: Mahony penalty, 9-12; 77 minutes: Mahony penalty, 12-12; 81 mins: Mahony penalty, 15-12.

Munster: D Crotty (Garryowen); A Horgan (Cork Constitution), S McCahill (Sunday's Well), M Lynch (Young Munster), A Thompson (Shannon); R O'Gara (Cork Constitution), B O'Meara (Cork Constitution); G Walsh (Garryowen), P Cunningham (Garryowen), P Clohessy (Young Munster), M Galwey (Shannon, capt), S Leahy (Garryowen), E Halvey (Shannon), A Foley (Shannon), D Wallace (Garryowen). Replace- ments: S McIvor (Garryowen) for O'Meara (62 mins), C Mahony (Dolphin) for O'Gara (62 mins).

Leinster: C Clarke (Terenure); D Hickie (St Mary's), M Ridge (Old Belvedere), K McQuilkin (Lansdowne, capt), D O'Mahoney (Moseley); A McGowan (Blackrock), D O'Mahony (Lansdowne); H Hurley (Old Wesley), S Byrne (Blackrock), A McKeen (Lansdowne), S Jameson (St Mary's), A Free- man (Lansdowne), T Brennan (St Mary's), V Costello (St Mary's), C McEntee (Lansdowne). Replacement: D O'Brien (DLSP) for Freeman (68 mins).

Referee: B Stirling (Ulster).