Fever in the Aviva 2: The Aftermath

Praise Lord Jesus, Hallalujah! So one of my predictions was right after all, it looks like the good Lord answered my prayers about Sexton's kicking abilities, the match was all about penalties including a penalty try awarded to Munster in the final dying minutes of the match. The game began as the usual scrappy affair, it didn't have the usual "Umph" that these historic clashes usually have, and within the first few minutes, Earlsy came out worst in what looked like a highball tackle and had to be carried off. I do feel sorry for the chap as he won't be running to Champion Sports any time soon to stock up on Nikey Air Maxs, poor soul! I do hope he has a speedy recovery however.
With Earlsy off, Danny Barnes came bouncing on and soon ROG was putting the first three points on the board, however this 3 point lead didn't last too long, the Leinster forwards made sure of that by punishing Munster into giving away a penalty and soon the boot of Sexton made it all square again.

With an infringement by Donnacha Ryan, Pascal Gauzere's whistle sounded once again, giving Sexton the chance to take the lead for Leinster, and that he did, his kicking was on form again last night, missing none of the seven penalties that Leinster were awarded, a complete turnaround from the RWC where he might as well have been pissing into the wind with the kicks he was producing. Last night saw Sexton and ROG play a game of cat and mouse, earning points for both their teams, mistakes were being made by both teams for being offside and scrums that couldn't handle the opposing front rows, this favoured in Sexton's advantage and he opened the gap to make it 15-9 at the halftime break.

The beauty about a match like this is that it's very rare it will go the full 80 minutes without the handbags being drawn and a few explicits being exchanged. Three cheers for Conor Murray trying to take on Sean "The Tullow Tank" O' Brien (seriously,what was he thinking!), a few more players get involved and you have yourself a grand old fisti-cuffs, tensions and passions are always at a maximum between these two teams but I fear that if Murray tries his luck with O'Brien the next time, he'll be found hanging by his cacks at the top of the posts...just a warning. ;)

The second half opened up with a firey start by Munster, Paulie O' Connell made yards for his province and Munster's fast paces began to put the Leinster defence under immense pressure, the whistle blew again and let ROG kick to make it 15-12. Lukey Fitz managed a great run which ended in a penalty going Leinster's way and Sexton's boot opened up the score to a six point lead once again at 18-12.

Nacewa, who was fairly silent (just like the crowd at the Aviva) during the first half, made a dash for the line in the second half, it looked promising for the flighty Fijian until he was battered by the Munster defence into the fair right corner, so close!

Munster brought on O'Mahoney and Coughlan with about half and hour to go to see if they could throw a spanner in the works, they didn't, and the possible highlight of the game came when the beautiful left foot of Rob Kearney smashed over a drop goal attempt from approx. 30 metres to throw another three points on the board for the home boys. Now Dublin City could finally hear the Aviva's Roar, Leo the Lion beat his drum to the echos of the crowd as finally, after about 55 minutes of play, something worthy of a cheer happened and Leinster were now leading 21-12.

A yellow card for Denis Leamy saw another penalty come Leinster's way with Sexton swinging it in the right direction, the gap now opening to 24-12. Minutes later, ROG suffered his first blow of the match by missing a penalty but squeaky bum time came when Munster got a penalty just yards from the Leinster line, ROG opted to kick it into the corner for a lineout, this happened about three times in succession for Munster but the Leinster defence held on strong although Heaslip and his fluorescent green boots (I'm still seeing spots in front of my eyes) were sent to the sin-bin, regardless of this mishap, Munster couldn't get to grips with the Leinster defence and were given a good old ass smacking when a penalty went against them and in Leinster's favour.

It wasn't all doom and gloom for the Red Army as they were awarded a penalty try with about five minutes to go before fulltime, Jamie Hagan came on for Mike Ross and the penalty try came just inches from the tryline with the Munster scrum bitch-slapping the Leinster one. ROG converted to make it a final score of 24-19.
All in all it wasn't a bad game, the rugby wasn't it's usual standard in my opinion and I reckon there's still a bit of RWC hangover looming over both sides. Whatever the reason, I know this much is true, the Heineken Cup campaign for Leinster kicks off next week against Montpellier and if they want to defend their title they are going to have to sober up and play more fluid and clever rugby, if there's one thing a French team can do it's play clever and entertaining rugby, let's just hope that the blue magic will be fully back so that they aren't given that chance :)
Until then....Allez Les Bleus!! ;)