The 2010-11 Celtic League Grand Final was the final match of the

2010–11 Celtic League The 2010–11 Magners League was the tenth Celtic League season and the fifth with Magners as title sponsor. The regular season began on 3 September 2010 and finished on the weekend of 6–8 May 2011. During these stages, each team played ever ...

season. The final was won by Munster who defeated Leinster by 19–9 at

Thomond Park Thomond Park is a stadium in Limerick in the Irish province of Munster. The stadium is owned by the Munster Rugby and has Shannon RFC and UL Bohemian RFC as tenants. Limerick FC played home games in Thomond Park from 2013 to 2015 in the Le ...

to claim their third

Celtic League The Celtic League is a pan-Celtic organization, founded in 1961, that aims to promote modern Celtic identity and culture in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man – referred to as the Celtic nations; it places pa ...

title.

Background and Build Up

2010-11 was the tenth Celtic League season and the fifth and final season with

Magners Magners Irish Cider is a brand of cider produced in County Tipperary in Ireland by the C&C Group. The product range includes the cider varieties: Original, Light, Berry, Pear and Rosé. The cider was originally produced as Bulmers Irish C ...

as title sponsor. It would also prove to be the final season before the league was rebranded as "Pro12" from 2011 to 2012. The regular season began on 3 September 2010 and finished on the weekend of 6–8 May 2011. During these stages, each team played every other team both home and away and were awarded points according to the standard bonus point system. This was the second season to follow the play-off structure to determine the Celtic League champion, with the top four teams qualifying for the semi-finals. The winner of each semi final advanced to the Grand Final, which took place 28 May and was hosted by the team that finished highest in the table following the regular season, which was Munster. The previous week on 21 May, Leinster had won the 2011 Heineken Cup. Munster fielded the same starting line-up from their 18-11 semi-final win against the Ospreys. An ankle injury sustained in the Heineken Cup Final prevented Leinster's Gordon D'Arcy's from starting, Fergus McFadden instead started alongside

Brian O'Driscoll Brian Gerard O'Driscoll (born 21 January 1979) is an Irish former professional rugby union player. He played at outside Centre (rugby union), centre for the Irish provincial team Leinster Rugby, Leinster and for Ireland national rugby union te ...

in the centre. Heinke van der Merwe and

Shane Jennings Shane Jennings (born 8 July 1981) is an Irish former professional rugby union player. He played at openside flanker for Leinster Rugby and Ireland. He was also registered to St Mary's College. Club career Jennings impressed for Leinster in the ...

also started for Leinster instead of

Cian Healy Cian Eoin James Healy (born 7 October 1987) is a former Irish people, Irish professional rugby union player who played as a Prop (rugby union), prop for Leinster Rugby, Leinster and for the Ireland national rugby union team, Ireland national tea ...

and Kevin McLaughlin from the Heineken Cup Final team. All tickets for the final sold out. The match was shown live on TV in Ireland by

RTÉ Two (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Republic of Ireland, Irish Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, television, RT� ...

and also by

TG4 TG4 (; , ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television channel. It launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on-demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond. TG4 was initially known as (TnaG), before bein ...

, in the UK the match was covered by

BBC Two Wales BBC Two Wales is a Welsh free-to-air television channel owned and operated by BBC Cymru Wales as a variation of the BBC Two network. It is broadcast from BBC Cymru Wales New Broadcasting House, Central Square in Cardiff with live continuity prov ...

and

BBC Alba BBC Alba is a Scottish Gaelic-language free-to-air public broadcast television channel jointly owned by the BBC and MG Alba. The channel was launched on 19 September 2008 and is on-air for up to seven hours a day. The name ' is the Scottish Gae ...

. Highlights were shown in Central and Northern Scotland on STV.

Route to the final

2010-11 Final Table

Under the standard bonus point system, points were awarded as follows: *4 points for a win *2 points for a draw *1 "bonus" point for scoring 4 tries (or more) (Try bonus) *1 "bonus" point for losing by 7 points (or fewer) (Losing bonus)

Previous 2010-11 Celtic League meetings

2011 Playoffs

Semi-finals

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Match

Summary

Ronan O'Gara Ronan John Ross O'Gara (born 7 March 1977) is an Irish former rugby union player and current coach. O'Gara played as a fly-half and is Ireland national rugby union team, Ireland's third most-capped player and second highest points scorer. He i ...

converted a

Doug Howlett Douglas Charles Howlett (born 21 September 1978) is a retired New Zealand professional rugby union player. He was primarily a wing, but he also sometimes played as a fullback. He played for Auckland, and the Highlanders, Hurricanes and Blues ...

try after twelve minutes before

Johnny Sexton Jonathan Jeremiah Sexton (born 11 July 1985) is an Irish former professional rugby union player who played as a Fly-half (rugby union), fly-half and Captain (sports), captained the Ireland national rugby union team, Ireland national team from ...

responded with a penalty for Leinster after twenty nine minutes to leave Munster 7-3 ahead at half time. The Munster try, which Howlett scored in the corner was the first Munster scored against Leinster since 2009. In the second half Donncha O'Callaghan was sin-binned for not rolling away and Sexton scored from the resulting penalty. After sixty six minutes O'Gara found Keith Earls with a cross-field kick to the corner which the winger caught before stretching to ground the ball with one hand. Munster were awarded a penalty try with one minute remaining, which O'Gara converted to leave the final score at 19–9.

Details

Reaction

Leinster coach Josef Schmidt felt that fatigue may have been a factor in their defeat to Munster in the Final. He felt that coming only a week after their Heineken Cup win their energy levels may not have been a high as Munster's, "To be honest, I kind of felt that Munster needed it more than we wanted it. They showed a lot of character, and that made it difficult for us to really keep our tempo, and play the game that we wanted to play" he said. Munster coach

Tony McGahan Tony McGahan is an Australian rugby union coach who is currently Head of Sport at St. Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace and a former assistant coach at the Queensland Reds. Early career Born in Queensland, Australia, a teacher by profession, a ...

was delighted with his team's win saying "It’s huge for everyone right across the board, from the playing group, the management and the organisation to the development officers and young players coming through, and more important to the supporters. They can walk around with a smile on their faces, knowing that we have done something very important in the context of the Magners League season". Munster captain

Paul O'Connell Paul Jeremiah O'Connell (born 20 October 1979) is an Irish rugby union coach and former player. When he retired, he was Ireland's third most-capped player (108) and the eighteenth most-capped international player in rugby union history. Duri ...

said that the game was a very good thing for Irish rugby, "Both sides have a lot of leadership, and no little skill, people talk about this being a good era for Ireland". Munster's John Hayes noted that it was important to win the knock out matches, saying "We were disappointing in Europe, but good in the Magners, you can finish the League phase of the competition on top of the table, but it doesn’t get you anything, it is important to win the knock-out matches".

References

External links

2011 Magners League Grand Final Official Website
(Archived)
2011 Magners League Grand Final Photo Gallery
(Archived) {{DEFAULTSORT:Grand Final 2010–11 Celtic League 2010–11 in Irish rugby union

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

Leinster Rugby matches Munster Rugby matches