The powerful presence of the Leinster back row of Colm Treston, David O'Brien and Jonathan Rockett was the most telling factor in their Schools Interprovincial defeat of Munster at Donnybrook yesterday.
On a windy afternoon, this game was always going to be decided at the set piece, around the fringes and at the breakdown.
It looked as though the first half would end scoreless until Leinster flanker Colm Treston wriggled out of a tackle and scrambled to the posts.
Leinster scrumhalf David Connellan had no trouble adding the points to make it 7-0 at the break.
Both sides returned to the nitty-gritty detail around the fringes with Treston, O'Brien and Rockett providing a commanding presence for Leinster, and centres John Hearty and Ken Copeland threatening to pick their way through an uncertain Munster defence.
Connellan confidently scored from penalties in the 49th and 51st minutes to make it 13-0.
Munster resorted to desperate measures, including two attempted intercepts just outside their own 22 metre line. Each time the ball was spilled forward.
Five minutes from the end of normal time, replacement outhalf Brian O'Shea cut through on the right and his high pass was expertly taken by Paul Hurley.
The right wing had the presence of mind to sprint in along the endline to give full back David Kingston every chance to land the conversion. However, his effort drifted wide.
Leinster and Ulster will now meet in a winner-takes-all encounter at Ravenhill on Wednesday evening.
LEINSTER SCHOOLS: R McCarron (Gonzaga College); S Grissing (St Mary's College), J Hearty (Blackrock College), K Copeland (Blackrock College), M Hewitt (Belvedere College); C Sharpe (Blackrock College), D Connellan (Clongowes Wood College); C O'Byrne (St Mary's College), D Gavin (St Michael's College), K Doyle (CBC Monkstown), K McLaughlin (Gonzaga College), A Houlihan (Clongowes Wood College), C Treston (Blackrock College), D O'Brien (Belvedere College), J Rockett (St Michael's College). Replacements: J Mannion (Blackrock College) for Gavin (58 mins), E O'Meara (Belvedere College) for O'Byrne, M Hayes (Belvedere College) for Doyle (both 52).
MUNSTER SCHOOLS: D Kingston (PBC Cork); P Hurley (CBC Cork), C McNaughton (Rockwell College), C Reddan (Crescent College), B Deady (St Munchin's College); B Keeshan (PBC Cork), T O'Leary (CBC Cork); J Mackesy (Rockwell College), D Fogarty (Rockwell College), D Cronin (CBC Cork), R Noonan (CBC Cork), D Murnane (St Munchin's College), D Upton (Crescent College), E Griffin (Crescent College), M Melbourne (Rockwell College). Replacements: L Quaid (CBC Cork) for Upton 43; B O'Shea (Crescent College) for Keeshan, A Guiry (St Munchin's College) for Mackesy, D Varley (St Munchin's College) for Cronin all 50; R Carroll (Midleton College) for Deady, D O'Kane (Crescent College) for Kingston, S Costello (Crescent College) for Fogarty all 69.
Referee: G Greer, (Ulster)