RUGBY Celtic Cup/Leinster 17 Munster 23: Once again you could see why Eddie O'Sullivan isn't enamoured of these two going head to head when at full strength. Any watching Lions coaches would have come to the same conclusion. Celtic Cup or egg cup, it doesn't make much difference. Gerry Thornley at Lansdowne Road
Although there were no serious injures to report, there was little love lost amid plenty of biff, one red card, a couple of yellow cards, and incidents and controversy aplenty as the lead changed hands five times.
Cracking good game though.
No one in his right mind would have picked the soft-mannered David Holwell as likeliest red-card recipient, yet that was somehow the viewpoint of the Welsh touch judge Richard Hughes, who decreed Holwell should receive the first red card of his career for supposedly putting his knee into Peter Stringer's head.
From TV reviews, it looked as if Holwell was just rucking with his body, and if his thigh came into Stringer's head at all it was brief and accidental. It didn't even appear to warrant a penalty, much less a yellow card, never mind a red.
It should be rescinded, though as perhaps the pivotal moment of the match, it won't do Leinster or Holwell much good now.
At the time Leinster - who had also seen Shane Horgan harshly sinbinned in the first half for contesting the ball after the tackle while on his feet, even if a ruck was deemed to have formed - were in pole position with a 17-16 lead and Munster down to 14 men after Alan Quinlan had been binned for punching Shane Jennings off the ball.
Munster were galvanised by the Holwell dismissal, Leinster were rattled.
From a Shane Byrne overthrow, Jennings gathered the ball but lost it in contact. Munster pummelled away close in, Stringer laying the ball back for Anthony Foley to pick up and pump his legs in driving through Des Dillon's upright tackle for the decisive score.
Defence, the breakdown, and, when it came to it, the sheer desire epitomised by Marcus Horan and Foley in scoring their close-range tries were the difference.
"I was very happy with our defence. We tried to keep the ball in hand, we tried to take the game to them," said Alan Gaffney. "I was worried with five to go on the clock but then things turned a little bit and I'm just delighted to be here with a smile on my face."
If it was a devastating end to Holwell's relatively short career with Leinster, it was a sad end to Victor Costello's far lengthier one as he waved to both sides of the ground to the tune of Time To Say Goodbye by Sarah Brightman and Andre Botticelli.
"Of all the teams you want to beat, it's Munster, but then again if you're going to lose, it might as well be Munster," said Costello, who was perhaps speaking about his career as well as "a great match to play in" when he said he wished it could have gone on for ever.
The game was also marked by tragedy, for before it all began there was a minute's silence for the son of Leinster team doctor Jim McShane, whose two-year-old boy, Teddy, died in a swimming pool accident on Saturday morning.
It was stringently observed by what was a good-sized crowd of about 12,000, considering the spectator-unfriendly Sunday evening kick-off time at the behest of Setanta TV.
Within two and a half minutes, Shane Byrne and Shane Horgan remained scrapping on the deck with Quinlan long after the ruck ball had been moved to the far touchline. Thereafter, bad blood bubbled along, and even fellow Lions weren't shy about giving each other a good shoeing whenever the chance arose at rucks.
Munster opted to tap pretty much everything into the stiff breeze after giving Leinster first use of it, and though they struggled to keep their shape offensively beyond a couple of phases unless they kept it very tight, defensively they did to keep the numbers out as Leinster predictably probed with more width.
So Leinster were confined to four out of five penalties from Holwell.
Two were from halfway, one against Horan as he popped under pressure from Emmet Byrne in an intriguing scrum battle that ebbed all day.
Horan had ample recompense though when after a Foley quick tap, Burke took it up and the prop muscled through Malcolm O'Kelly's tackle for a try.
With Burke converting and tagging on a fine penalty off the upright into the wind, Munster might even have pilfered an interval lead but for a stunning tackle by Brian O'Driscoll to roll his body under Anthony Horgan.
It then seemed Leinster were shooting themselves in the foot with turnovers and penalties when Burke pushed Munster 16-12 in front before Dillon and O'Driscoll took up the charge.
Leinster followed a big scrum by their pack by engineering a sweet setpiece move off the reset. Holwell worked a decoy with Gordon D'Arcy and looped around O'Driscoll for Denis Hickie to link and Girvan Dempsey to break Burke's tackle for a smartly taken try.
With Holwell's conversion, Leinster were in the box seat, all the more so as tempers frayed - Donncha O'Callaghan taking exception to Shane Byrne as Stringer lay prostrate before Quinlan earned his yellow.
All changed, however, with the intervention of first the officials and then Foley.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 4 mins: Holwell pen 3-0; 6: Holwell pen 6-0; 9: Horan try, Burke con 6-7; 12: Holwell pen 9-7; 30: Holwell pen 12-7; 33: Burke pen 12-10 (half-time 12-10); 42: Burke pen 12-13; 48: Burke pen 12-16; 53: Dempsey try 17-16; 79: Foley try, Burke con 17-23.
LEINSTER: G Dempsey; S Horgan, B O'Driscoll, G D'Arcy, D Hickie; D Holwell, G Easterby; R Corrigan (capt), S Byrne, E Byrne, L Cullen, M O'Kelly, D Dillon, K Gleeson, V Costello. Replacements: S Jennngs for Gleeson (44 mins), A McCullen for Costello, D Quinlan for Hickie (both 72 mins), B O'Meara for Easterby (82 mins). Sinbinned: Horgan (33 mins). Sent off: Holwell (75 mins).
MUNSTER: S Payne; J Kelly, M Mullins, R Henderson, A Horgan; P Burke, P Stringer; M Horan, F Sheahan, J Hayes, D O'Callaghan, P O'Connell, A Quinlan, D Wallace, A Foley (capt). Replacements: P Devlin for Kelly (47 mins), D Leamy for Wallace (65 mins), G McIlwham for Hayes (73 mins). Sinbinned: Quinlan (69 mins).
Referee: Nigel Whitehouse (WRU).
