Leinster beat their domestic rivals Munster by 23-17 at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday to continue their solid start to the new Guinness PRO14 Championship season.
Former Munster flanker Alan Quinlan questioned the decision for Munster re-arrange their backline and speaking to Off the Ball's Oisin Langan afterwards, he said: "I think there's certainly a lot of questions and a fair bit of disappointment at losing the game. I think the gamble coming in was playing Bleyendaal at 12 and JJ Hanrahan at full-back and Keatley at 10.
"I think in some senses it worked on occasions but I think the problem for Munster today was probably up-front getting enough primary possession, clean primary possession, particularly off line-outs and they lost a little bit of shape in the second half.
"You have got to give credit to Leinster for the pressure they put on them and the execution. There's a lot of positives - defensively Munster forced a lot of turnovers early on when they were under pressure, exactly what you want to do - keep your shape, keep your composure but ultimately I think Leinster were slightly better.
Leinster’s Johnny Sexton tackled by Rhys Marshall of Munster. Image: ©INPHO/Dan Sheridan
"Sexton was really strong and he isolated their wingers on occasions, on a number of occasions, with good cross-field kicks. So did the gamble pay off? It was a risk from Rassie Erasmus and the biggest concern as I've said is that they're down three second-rows: Jean Kleyn, Grobler and Darren O'Shea and they're big strong men and they're tall guys and I think Fardy and Toner put a lot of pressure on that area today.
"It affected the flow of Munster so I think you've got to give them credit for the ambition. They tried to move the ball around and you just think the way Keith Earls is at the moment on his first game back - he looked electric. He looked really dangerous If you could get more quality ball to a guy like that - he can score tries."
The full post-match podcast with further analysis and interviews from both camps can be heard here:
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