Munster beat Leinster to take big step towards retaining Women's Interpro title

Munster 26-17 Leinster

Munster took a giant leap towards retaining the Vodafone Women's Interprovincial Championship title thanks to a 26-17 bonus point win over Leinster at Musgrave Park.

Replacement Stephanie Carroll's last-minute try, set up by captain Nicole Cronin, moved Niamh Briggs' side five points clear at the top of the table ahead of next Saturday's final round trip to Connacht.

Jenny Murphy and Deirbhile Nic a Bháird ran in their third scores of the tournament in an explosive start in Cork, before prop Róisín Ormond's 22nd-minute effort from close range handed Munster a 14-7 half-time lead.

Referee Andrew Fogarty may have opted to keep his yellow card in his pocket had he had the benefit of TMO assistance, but he deemed Murphy's tackle on Aoife Corey to be late and sin-binned the Leinster centre just before the break.

Clodagh O'Halloran and Elise O'Byrne-White traded tries during a tit-for-tat third quarter, and Aoife Dalton capitalised on Maeve Óg O'Leary's sin-binning to bring Leinster within four points.

Despite losing Vodafone player-of-the-match O'Leary, Munster finished the stronger with replacement Ciara Farrell slicing through midfield before Carroll clinched a deserved victory via Cronin's long skip pass.

Two early penalties allowed Leinster to build initial pressure in sunny but cold conditions. Dannah O'Brien pulled the trigger with a neat pass on the switch to send Murphy powering over for a seven-pointer beside the posts.

Munster were level barely four minutes later, Nic a Bháird again providing the inspiration with a looping offload to Alana McInerney whose return pass sent the number 8 darting away from Molly Scuffil-McCabe to open the hosts' account.

Following Cronin's conversion, Leinster had some