RUGBY:TO THE victors the spoils; and, in this case, the spoils are significant. Munster roll on to their Heineken Cup home quarter-final against the Ospreys next Sunday with one hand on the Magners League trophy, with confidence sky high after seven successive wins and with competition for places bursting at the seams amid a clean bill of health.

Not so Leinster.

Aside from losing their grip on the league, a worrying knee injury to Bernard Jackman compounded the absence from Saturday night’s meeting of the sorely-missed Brian O’Driscoll, Luke Fitzgerald and CJ van der Linde in advance of their imposing trip to the Stoop to meet the high-flying Harlequins.

Leinster coach Michael Cheika conceded that Jackman was his most pressing concern. “He took a straight knock on his knee and it’s swollen now, so it’s a matter of how quickly that comes down. And the players who missed out this week. We’ll just see how they pull up.”

O’Driscoll (neck) and Fitzgerald (shoulder) will be assessed tomorrow.

“We’ll obviously be hopeful that all our players are available, we even have some slim hopes for CJ, he’s a possibility. But we’ll have a look at that on Tuesday again.

“I thought we were physically up for the game; we were able to get some turnover ball early,” said a disappointed Cheika. “The most disappointing aspect was not being able to take our chances when they came. It was a combination of kicking poorly and not taking opportunities, you only get a few a game against a quality outfit like Munster.

“It’s a step up in intensity from what we’ve been playing since January and it’s imperative we have that experience before we get to next week, because we’re going to be going in against the team that’s top of the Premiership, who play at an extremely fast pace, and the intensity will be right up because it’s a winner-takes-all at that stage.”

Cheika conceded retaining the league was now “a big ask”, and while his Munster counterpart Tony McGahan was not of a mind to concede that the title was theirs to lose, he had to be content with a seven-point lead heading into the last four games, three of which are at home.

“Yeah, look, it’s better than not being there. We’ll take it and move on from there.”

Admitting that “we couldn’t have asked for anything better, really”, there were also valuable contributions off the bench from Denis Fogarty, Barry Murphy and Peter Stringer, while Denis Leamy will be fit “at this stage”, though McGahan ruled out Rua Tipoki.

All of which will serve to make selection more difficult. “It’s always difficult, it’s a selection headache that you don’t like to make decisions on, but unfortunately that’s the position we’re in. At this stage we’re in pretty good health. It’s always muddy, I’ll have to look at the tape a few more times.”

Maintaining that Leinster and the Ospreys are “two very different sides”, he also deduced little from the Ospreys’ rain-drenched win in Ravenhill on Friday night.

“I saw a little bit of it. It was a wasted 35 minutes. It just wasn’t a good game to watch, was it?

“They’re a quality outfit and they have been for quite some time. They have been building a very good squad down there, they’re well organised and they’ve got some real world-class players who can turn a tackle. They’re a very solid defensive side and Friday night’s game will mean nothing. They were depleted and the conditions were bad. We’re expecting a very good Ospreys side to come to here, so that’s all we’re concerning ourselves with.”

McGahan praised Ian Dowling for the way he came through his first game since January and described Alan Quinlan’s performance as his best of the season. “Alan is certainly up for a challenge and he enjoys playing against someone like Rocky (Elsom). He’s certainly not worried about CVs, he’s worried about Munster and getting the job done and I thought he was a tremendous leader this evening.”

Aside from the bragging rights, the league points and the pointers towards next week, there were – with one eye on the Lions tour and the Irish sortie to Canada and the US – also the many individual skirmishes. Cian Healy, Stan Wright, Rocky Elsom and Girvan Dempsey had good games, but, individually, Munster had the more effective performers overall.

Jerry Flannery and Paul O’Connell were industry personified; Niall Ronan’s game rose another notch with another clever, all-round performance; the ultra-competitive Tomás O’Leary must have made half-a-dozen telling snipes, and Quinlan had one of his multi-purpose, all-action displays.

Claiming lineouts and restarts, carrying strongly and annoying a host of opponents – even the normally unflappable Rob Kearney – Quinlan came up with the big plays, such as a quick-witted rumble off the side of a ruck and an alert quick tap and 50-metre touchfinder, which went as far as anything to turning the tide midway through the first half.

And then there was the Earl of Thomond, simply the most potent player on view. It’s still worth reminding ourselves that Keith Earls only made his full debut in the seasonal opener, and there was a buzz of anticipation around the ground whenever he touched the ball, extending even to the home coaching box.

“I suppose there aren’t many players who have that ability,” said McGahan, “and you can just feel the anticipation, the crowd rise as soon as the ball is going out there. Not many players have that and he’s certainly lucky enough that he has it. We’re pleased with his performance tonight.”