A STUNNING fight back bought Leinster a 37-28 win over Edinburgh at the RDS on Sunday evening and a home Magners League semifinal against Munster at the RDS this Saturday at 8pm.
The Irish rugby fans appetite for Munster-Leinster clashes is unequalled and despite the fact that this is our fourth encounter in 12 months tickets will be like gold dust.
This was the first year the Magners League introduced play offs and despite the fact any other year we would already be crowned champions by virtue of finishing first I think they are a good initiative.
I never remember a final weekend having so much drama as the various potential match ups changed with each score from around the ground.
A bonus point victory for Edinburgh could have leapfrogged them into fourth place over Cardiff and Munster. It would have given us an away fixture at Glasgow which would have been hard to take having been seven points clear a month ago.
Munster hung on for a losing bonus point in what was a brave performance in the end.
The drama in the Edinburgh match started before kick off when our starting out half Shaun Beirne pulled a muscle in the warm up and was declared unfit to play.
That led to a quick reshuffle with Isa Nacewa moving from the wing to outhalf and Girvan Dempsey from the bench to the wing.
We always bring a utility forward and a utility back to warm up in case of such a circumstance and young academy star Ian Madigan came on to the bench.
It shows the quality that Isa has that he won the man of the match award despite this late switch.
He kicked seven from seven and our kicking coach Richie Murphy deserves a lot of credit because, of our last 29 kicks, we have only missed three and we have used six different kickers which is incredible.
We needed two late converted tries from replacement flanker Stephen Keogh and full-back Rob Kearney to get the win and we had found ourselves 14 points down at one stage in the first half.
The winning of the game this week was our dominance in the scrum whereas against Toulouse it had been an important part in losing the match.
As an eight our pack showed a real hunger to destroy Edinburgh at every scrum and we were able to win ball and penalties in this area all evening.
Our fitness really told towards the end and with two players in the sin bin we were all over them in the final few minutes.
The crowd of 11,000 really enjoyed what was a really fast paced exciting game and it’s only the third time this season we have managed to get the bonus point for four tries which is unusual for us.
We suffered a couple of injuries with Leo Cullen(shoulder) looking the most serious but it looks like Sean O’Brien, Johnny Sexton and Shane Jennings will be returning this week.
People said no one beats Munster twice but we have beaten them on the last three occasions.
I believe it means we are one step closer to losing to them and we got home by only a point in our last encounter.
At this stage of the season it’s the team who is the freshest mentally and physically that prevails and the buzz word this week in both camps will be recovery.
Training sessions will be cut down as much as possible and the fitness coaches will ensure all speed and gym work is all about sharpness and power.
I can’t see this match been a free fl owing all out running type of game and it will probably come down to discipline and place kicking.
We need to keep our focus and if we do we will hopefully keep on track for a silverware-winning finish to Michael Cheika’s coaching tenure.
Unfortunately I won’t be involved this week or probably not in the final either. In fact there is a good chance that I have played my last game ever.
I have been struggling for over 18 months with knee problems and despite various treatments and top class medical care they have continued to give me trouble.
Recently I haven’t been able to train on the field at all and have been confined to bike sessions in the gym.
I am so lame at the moment that I can’t run at more than 60% speed and a visit to my surgeon last week told me that there is no treatment left that will improve the situation.
I have had a good career and a very enjoyable one too.
I would love to get a second Magners league medal even though I will probably be sitting in the stand during it.