David Corkery on rugby: Munster without their key players are no match for a superb Leinster side

Out played, out muscled and out classed.

The effort from the Munster players was not to be found wanting on this occasion, but unless your accuracy is operating in the high nineties and your commitment to the game plan is unwavering, all it takes is for one missed tackle or one wayward pass and against a team like Leinster they will rip you open like a wet paper bag and take pleasure in doing so.

On a day when the rugby fraternity of the world took time out to watch one of the game’s greatest rivalry’s go at it head to head, it was the men in blue who took the spoils and for the first fifteen minutes of the game they made Munster look like they had lead in their boots.

This is now Munster’s 13th loss from 14 games against their nearest and dearest, and as I keep on saying unless they can somehow find a way to turn this tide of anguish, they will never regain the all commanding respect that they once held.

In front of a record breaking crowd in the consecrated home of the GAA I think we all believed that this game was going to be one hell of a cracker however, with just fifteen minutes having elapsed on the clock Leinster had crossed Munster’s try line on three separate occasions and if we are to call a spade a spade, you would have to say the game as a contest was done and dusted.

At that point and with the score board reading 21-0 anyone who was supporting Munster probably felt like leaving the ground or tearing their TV’s off the wall and stamping on them.

I have no idea what was said in the Munster dressing room in the moments before they took to the field, but whatever it was may I suggest to Tadgh Beirne that he seriously rethinks his post kick-off motivational dialogue.

Beirne, who was awarded the teams captaincy in place of Peter O’Mahony maybe one hell of a player, but I am yet to be convince of his captaining capabilities.

I have no issues with any side in the world conceding an early score, but to concede one try after six minutes, a second try after ten and a third after 15 is simply unacceptable.

This scenario somewhat reminds me of the saying, 'Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me' albeit, in this case there is a third time and I simply have no words to fill in the blanks.

Surely, there is enough experience and shrewdness within this Munster squad of players to realise that the only way you can beat Leinster is by upsetting their flow however, if you stand off them and fail to challenge them physically, they will hit your tackle line with unstoppable power and intricate lines of running that would confuse the greatest of mathematicians amongst us.

When you have players like Tadgh Furlong, Jack Conan, Andrew Porter and Caelan Doris receiving the ball in full flight it is almost impossible to win any kind of confrontational challenges and this is where Munster have to concentrate their efforts in the coming weeks.

As the Munster players stood on their try line after the first score you could see the look of bewilderment on their faces and instead of just standing there and feeling sorry for themselves, Beirne or someone like Jack Crowley should have circled the troops and given them a bollocking the likes of which they never had before.

Clearly this didn’t happen and the resulting consequences are that nine minutes later the game is over.

The very sad thing about all this is that this Munster team are not that bad and as the second-half score proves where Munster scored a try whilst keeping their hosts scoreless, their plight for ever improving permanence and relentless durability is not that far away.

To be very fair to Graham Rowntree he never really looks for excuses when his team loses and whilst I’m sure we don’t exactly get to hear what he’d like to say in the post-game interviews, his expressions and mannerisms paint a very clear picture for us.

Amazingly, Munster dominated in most the key statistics that are analysed during and after a game, but one particular stat that just stupefies me is that Stephen Archer a 36 year-old prop came out as Munster’s top tackler.

For as long as I’ve been playing and watching rugby I can never recall where a prop forward was deemed as the team’s top tackler and whilst it shows just how hard Archer worked in this game, it poses the question.

What the hell were the backrowers doing?

Next week Munster fly off the South Africa where they play back to back games against the DHL Stormers and the Hollywoodbets Sharks.

Neither of these sides are doing well, however when you arrive in South Africa on the back of a demoralising defeat, the task that lies ahead becomes that little bit harder.