Rugby

Weakened Leinster and Munster likely to face off in Pro14 final

Sides likely to be down players due to scheduling between Six Nations and Champions Cup

Leinster’s head coach Leo Cullen will face a balancing act for the Pro14 final. Photo: James Crombie/Inpho

Gerry Thornley's face
Gerry Thornley
Mon Mar 8 2021 - 06:00

The 2020-21 Guinness Pro14 final between Leinster and Munster, shoehorned into an ill-fitting March 27th slot in three weeks’ time so as to find space for the Rainbow Cup, will almost certainly take place at the RDS.

Although there have been, as yet, no indications from the tournament organisers, home advantage in the final will presumably go to the conference winners who have accumulated most points.

Leinster, who already have 65 points, are sure to finish with more than Munster (54) with two rounds remaining. But, as the Aviva Stadium is hosting the Republic of Ireland v Luxembourg World Cup qualifying game at 7.45pm on March 27th, not only would that make the RDS the only viable alternative, but the Pro14 final will most likely be in mid-afternoon.

The final is also being sandwiched seven days after Ireland’s concluding Six Nations game against England and a week before the two provinces host round of 16 ties in the Heineken Champions Cup, the draw for which will be made in Switzerland tomorrow morning.

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In all probability, therefore, Leinster and Munster will not be at full-strength. Of the two, it will assuredly be a more difficult balancing act for Leo Cullen.

“We’ll see. Like we always do, we’re watching these games, even the message to guys heading away is that we’re watching these games closely. We knew there was the potential of a final, we obviously had to do a hell of a lot of work to get there in the first place.

“But credit to everyone, both players and staff, to get the guys in the shape that they’re in, plus there’s players away with Ireland as well, so a lot of work has got into that to make it work.

“So now we’ll make some calls with the guys that are going to get the chance to perform here over the next couple of weeks, but we’ll also watch very closely what’s going on in the Irish camp as well. Thankfully we have a final and there’s the last 16 (in Europe), so it’s a very exciting block of games.

“Some of the international guys have had a break over this week, and prior to Italy as well, so even though they’ll have had two big Test matches they should be coming back in pretty good shape.

“I talked to a few of them last week and they’re all in good shape, so hopefully they’ll go well. They’ve a tight turnaround themselves with a six-day turnaround from Scotland on Sunday to England the following Saturday, so we’ll see.

“Munster will be in a similar situation in that week as well with certain key players so we’ll assess how we think everyone is travelling.

“The main thing is for the group that’s here and what’s in our control is trying to put in two decent performances to give themselves a shot at getting picked for what is going to be very, very big games hopefully.”

Sub-plots

Leinster will be seeking their fourth title in succession, whereas Munster will be seeking their first in a decade and will be contesting their first final in four years, after losing three successive semi-finals against their nemesis of recent years.

“We have played against them many times so the teams know each other pretty well at this stage,” said Cullen. “They will have a few personnel back as well so it should be an interesting game as always, with lots of little sub-plots amongst the big plot,” he added, with a chuckle.

The dozen players released back to their provinces for the weekend’s conference-deciding derbies all appeared to come through unscathed before the Irish squad reassembles tomorrow at their Carton House base in the build-up to Sunday’s Six Nations game against Scotland in Murrayfield.

The Irish management will confirm the players chosen for the final two rounds today.

With Scotland’s third round game against France having been cancelled, many of their players lined out for their regions or clubs over the weekend, with the exception of Richie Gray.

The lock made a good contribution to Scotland’s opening two games off the bench but missed Glasgow’s win with 13 men away to Zebre on Saturday due to the latest bout of concussion he suffered in their defeat by Leinster the week before.