First published by the Irish Examiner on Tuesday April 1st, 2014: http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/rugby/aviva-signals-indicate-big-two-need-more-imagination-263860.html

Ahead of Saturday’s match at Lansdowne Road, Leinster and Munster occupied the top two slots in the Pro 12 table and their scoring stats had been eerily similar: 24 points scored per game, 2.5 tries per game, 2.5 penalty goals per game, 2.1 conversions per game.

Around the field, more similarities abounded: 23 kicks in play per game, five and a half line breaks, 14 and a half turnovers conceded and 95% ruck retention.

The first half was frustrating for the home crowd with Leinster conceding 12 turnovers and three scrum penalties in that period. Whatever was said at half time seemed to have an impact as Leinster didn’t concede a single scrum penalty in the second forty, even staying stable enough to allow scrum half Eoin Reddan to launch a superb blind side break.

Munster fly half Ian Keatley made little of his 66% kicking accuracy in the Pro 12 by nailing six from six from the tee, with the first four drawing Munster out to a 12-3 lead in the first half.

In the pack Leinster made hay at the lineout hitting 16 of 18 and spreading around their targets between Mike McCarthy, Devin Toner, Kevin McLaughlin, Jamie Heaslip and substitute Leo Cullen. Munster had just four lineouts, all successful, and Paul O’Connell also came up with an important steal.

Munster’s first half had been limited in attack with just one Leinster defender beaten in that opening period. By full time, however, Simon Zebo and Casey Laulala had become much more involved. Zebo racked up 146 metres with ball in hand with 107 of those from kick returns.

Laulala’s 21 metres from eight carries might not seem notable but his evasiveness caused big defensive issues for Leinster. The centre’s impressive footwork made the first man miss more often than not, beating six defenders and completing three successful offloads.

Munster tackled at a decent 89% success rate on the day (135 of 151) with Leinster’s a slightly disappointing 84%.

In the Munster pack O’Connell made 13 tackles from 13 attempts with BJ Botha making 12 from 13. In the backs Denis Hurley and Laulala each made 12 from 14 attempts with Keatley inside them chipping in with 10 of 12.

In this season’s Pro 12 Leinster had averaged almost two minutes more active possession per game than Munster and 18 more carries.

Leinster carried 34 more times than the visitors on Saturday and had an extra three and a half minutes of active possession (17:51 to 14:12). This was nullified to an extent by Leinster’s own errors, making 18 turnovers of which six were dropped balls, and that good Munster tackling.

This was a reasonable tune-up for this weekend’s Heineken Cup action, but in both Thomond and Toulon a little more discipline and imagination might go a long way.

Credit: All statistics courtesy of Opta.