LEINSTER GOT THE win but after speaking all week about the need for a performance they must be disappointed with what they served up in their 14-13 victory over Harlequins at the Aviva last night.
Leinster captain Jamie Heaslip preferred to focus on the positives afterwards, even though it was put to him that Brian O’Driscoll said on BT that the feeling in the Leinster changing room would be one of relief.
Heaslip credited Quins for making Leinster work for the four points, but also lamented the fact that Leinster didn’t score more when they were in the ascendancy in the first half.
“The group is happy with the win,” Heaslip said.
“We realise it was in the balance. For a lot of guys who haven’t played a lot of games at this level, it will show them what happens when you make errors against a side like Harlequins. If you give teams chances to score in this competition they will put you under the pump and force you to defend well. And at times we didn’t. In the first half with all the possession and territory that we had we felt we probably should have had a bit more scores. There is a little bit of relief as Brian said but we are happy.”
One reason Leinster didn’t score more in the opening half was because the Quins back row – and in particular Nick Easter and Luke Wallace – disrupted Leinster’s ball masterfully.
Easter bulldozed through the gate to snag both Eoin Reddan and Isaac Boss while Luke Wallace was like a magnet on the ball when Leinster took it into contact.
The visitors forced three turnovers in their own 22 in the first 40 but Heaslip thinks they were helped by some lenient refereeing from Romain Poite.
“I think they were on the line in terms of legal and illegal like a good back row,” Heaslip said.
“They got in at times and disrupted it but I thought they got away with a lot at the same time. We got in and disrupted their ball too. You could say it was fairly even. I thought Romain reffed the game fairly well and let it flow for the majority of it. They have a lot of guys that are very good on the ground. If we weren’t first in to win the space, they were very quick to get in there and slow the ball down.”
Leinster had been held tryless in their last two games as well as in their last two Champions Cup encounters but that drought ended last night with Isaac Boss’ five-pointer. Jamie Heaslip got the assist after the scrum wheeled enough to neutralise the defensive presence of blindside flanker Luke Wallace.
Heaslip credited the pack’s effort at that scrum in what was a tough outing overall for Leinster in that area.
“I felt that we got it up on Rossy’s side and it felt to me that it was whipping around from the left,” Heaslip said.
“I didn’t hear any advantage call or use it call and I got it out. Because it had whipped up so much I knew their flanker was gone and I could hear Bossy behind me and I knew we had a two on one situation.
“When you get a two vs one, you back your drill and I heard Bossy and he went over in the corner.”
Somewhere Phil Kearns is having an absolute meltdown about the unfairness of it all…
Great to see Jaguares win, hope they can follow up next week.
Argentina are 50-1 for the world cup! Insane odds given how well the Jaguares are going. Plus they always underperform in the Rugby Championship cos of the distances they have to travel. Given Ireland are 5-1, this seems pretty long for the Argies.
@Farzad Saadat: Pool C will see a big faller at the 1st. France, England and Argentina will be interesting. You’d think France could be the one to miss out but they’ve been ruthless with their squad selection, brought in O’Gara and you only have to look at 2011 when they had no chance and made the final. England could find themselves in a similar fate to 2015, after a great start under Jones they had an awful run of loses. Argentina always peak at world cup time. Exciting!
@RabidHorizon: Did they bring in O’Gara in the end? I thought that was all just rumours in the end
@Eddie Hekenui: No they didn’t in the end
@Ciaran Twomey: Cheers. Thought I might’ve missed the news he’d taken a role with them.
@Farzad Saadat: Madness considering they have knocked us out of 3 of the last 5 RWCs.
@RabidHorizon: they didn’t bring in O’Gara
@RabidHorizon: France brought in much better coaches than O’Gara, they should get a real boost – Labit and Galthié – they picked the right squad, too. I think England could be the team to miss out..
Brumbies should never have made it to a semi. Awful team but get lucky because of how weak their conference is.
@#JUSTICE4NOEL:
Aussie Rugby is in a bad place right now.
Unreal for the sport!! Makes the competition a whole lot more competitive! Will be interesting to see how far Argentina go at the WC.
@Aaron Tynan: Further than us, I fear.
@Bluepoolroad: draw kinder to them I think than Ireland – SA or NZ is a tough 1/4
The second semi just finished. Cracking game. 30-26 crusaders.
That jaguares kit is lovely
@Eoin Murphy: i wonder where one could buy it?
@Tony Stack: https://www.elverys.ie/elverys/en/search?text=jaguares
Great. When Argentina played in the November series against Ireland. Which i went too. It was the Jaguares team.
Jags play flat and pass wonderfully, it’s great to watch. The crowd was brilliant too.
I think the Crusaders will have too much for them at home, but I’d love to see the Jags win it.
Where’s the final taking place?
@Bluepoolroad: crusaders ground
@Bluepoolroad: Crusaders home stadium in Christchurch, super rugby needs to start playing them in neutral venues, even if it’s in the higher ranked clubs home country. Home stadium advantage is a bit much for a final.
@Con Al: The problem is distances. Say Cape Town was this year’s venue, how many Jaguares and Crusaders supporters are going to make it at a weeks notice? Stadium would be near empty. At least in the current system, one set of supporters see the final and home advantage is based on merit earned during the season. Not perfect, but understandable system