Harlequins 24
Leinster 18
LEINSTER SLIPPED TO their first Champions Cup defeat of the season away to Conor O’Shea’s Harlequins, as they were outscored two tries to none.
Ian Madigan was 100% off the tee with six penalties, ensuring that Matt O’Connor’s side did at least secure a losing bonus point at the Twickenham Stoop. ‘Quins were powered by a superb showing from number eight Nick Easter, as they coped with the early loss of out-half Nick Evans to injury.
O’Shea’s men move to the summit of Pool 2 after their success on a chilly evening in London, although Leinster will back themselves to remedy that situation next weekend at the Aviva Stadium.
It was another stuttering Leinster showing, with handling errors, poor kicking and set-piece issues preventing them from stringing together a cohesive performance.
Leinster were first on the scoreboard as Madigan slotted a penalty after George Robson went off his feet 35 metres out from the ‘Quins tryline, but that early lead lasted just four minutes before Nick Evans drew the home side level, punishing a Jack McGrath infringement.
Matt O’Connor’s men lost Eoin Reddan to the concussion bin briefly, although ‘Quins suffered a greater blow as playmaker Evans was permanently replaced by Tim Swiel with just 13 minutes on the clock.
The former Natal Sharks out-half missed his first opportunity off the tee after referee Jérôme Garcès pinged Mike Ross for scooping the ball up in an offside position. Swiel did better with his second attempt, this time from straight in front of the sticks.
That penalty concession would have aggrieved O’Connor, as Jordi Murphy was penalised for gathering a Madigan spill, when the 22-metre line appeared to prove that the Leinster flanker was onside and fine to play the ball.
Leinster’s scrum struggled in the opening quarter, conceding three penalties for three different offences, but Jimmy Gopperth’s half-break and offload to Luke Fitzgerald allowed the Irish province to regain parity at 6-6.
‘Quins prop Marler lost his feet at a ruck as his side scrambled to cover that Leinster attacking thrust, with Madigan tapping over the subsequent penalty. Gopperth’s long-range effort from a penalty dropped short soon after, though the fact that the chance came from a Leinster scrum penalty was encouraging for Leo Cullen’s pack.
A clever Chris Robshaw turnover penalty allowed ‘Quins to build the platform for Swiel’s second successful penalty, as the replacement out-half struck from under the uprights after Leinster failed to roll away.
The sides went in at the interval level, however, when a dynamic Leinster maul drew Robson in from the side, providing Madigan with the circumstances from which to curl in his third penalty for a 9-9 scoreline.
Leinster moved 12-9 ahead early in the second half, following ‘Quins infringement in dragging a maul down. The Premiership side came back strongly though, as a subtle Easter pass slipped hooker Dave Ward into a hole and forced Leinster to concede a kickable penalty.
Conor O’Shea’s men opted against going for the posts, a decision that was rewarded with a try for Easter after a two-minute hammering of the Leinster tryline. The former England number eight stretched through McGrath’s tackle from close range, TMO Philippe Bonhoure confirming the grounding.
Swiel’s conversion moved ‘Quins 16-12 in front, and prompted Leinster head coach O’Connor to send Zane Kirchner on for Gordon D’Arcy, with Luke Fitzgerald moving into the outside centre berth.
With dark falling over the Stoop, that change had little effect as Aseli Tikoirotuma picked off a Rob Kearney pass intended for Kirchner to streak clear from 80 metres out. That the score came from a most promising Leinster attacking situation – Fanning initially gathering a Kearney bomb – made it all the more hurtful.
Madigan drew Leinster back to within six points with 67 minutes gone, knocking over a penalty from a central position. Two minutes later the ‘Quins’ lead was cut to three after another line-out offence from O’Shea’s side, Madigan on target again.
O’Connor’s charges enjoyed possession inside ‘Quins defensive third heading into the final 10 minutes, but a Cronin knock-on and a poor kick from replacement scrum-half Isaac Boss stunted two separate attacking passages.
The second error led to ‘Quins surging back downfield, with Danny Care eventually firing over an opportunistic drop goal as Garcès allowed a penalty advantage. Leinster couldn’t muster a late flurry of attacking progress, ‘Quins seeing out their 24-18 win to the delight of the Stoop.
Harlequins scorers:
Tries: Nick Easter, Aseli Tikoirotuma
Conversions: Tim Swiel [1 from 2]
Penalties: Nick Evans [1 from 1], Tim Swiel [2 from 3]
Drop goal: Danny Care
Leinster scorers:
Penalties: Ian Madigan [6 from 6], Jimmy Gopperth [0 from 1]
HARLEQUINS: Mike Brown; Marland Yarde, Matt Hopper (Tom Casson ’71), George Lowe, Aseli Tikoirotuma; Nick Evans (Tim Swiel ’13), Danny Care; Joe Marler (capt.) (Mark Lambert ’75), Dave Ward (Joe Gray ’67), Will Collier (Kyle Sinckler ’67); Charlie Matthews, George Robson; Luke Wallace (Jack Clifford ’62), Chris Robshaw, Nick Easter.
Replacements not used: Sam Twomey, Karl Dickson.
LEINSTER: Rob Kearney; Darragh Fanning, Gordon D’Arcy (Zane Kirchner ’56), Ian Madigan, Luke Fitzgerald; Jimmy Gopperth, Eoin Reddan (Isaac Boss ’4 – ’11, ’61); Jack McGrath, Sean Cronin, Mike Ross (Tadhg Furlong ’76); Devin Toner, Mike McCarthy ( Kane Douglas ’61); Rhys Ruddock, Jordi Murphy (Jack Conan ’61), Jamie Heaslip (capt.).
Replacements not used: Bryan Byrne, Michael Bent, Noel Reid.
Referee: Jérôme Garcès [FFR].
MOC out
So many bad decisions and handling errors.
This is not a badly coached team; it’s a non-coached team. Why was Fanning left on after butchering so many chances when Kirchner was on bench?
Gopperth’s pass to no one? Boss still ahead of Mc Grath?
This team is the majority of a team that won a Six Nations and beat SA and Aus yet this team doesn’t look like scoring a try against Mullingar RFC (No offence ‘Gar!)
It was ireland who won the six nations, beat south Africa and Australia not leinster
Good chap Mark! You can see colour properly! My point was that on average 15/16 out of 23 of the Ireland squad throughout the past year have been Leinster players yet they’re playing so poorly as a team and now that there’s zero threat of them scoring a try. Is that easy enough for you to follow now son?
Are you thick?
Get your facts right
Are you arguing with my point that a majority % of Ireland’s test team have been Leinster players? Because that’s fact.
So an average of 12/23 players over SA & Aus games. Apologies for exaggeration but it’s still a far bigger chunk than from other provinces. The point is that these players are performing massively under potential…
Absolute joke of a match, f*cking awful as per usual with O’connor. Gooperth had his first decent game in a while to be fair but his kicking out of hand and his passing leaves a lot to be desired albeit madigan didn’t have a great game he has to start at 10 especially when McFadden Is back, unfortunately darcy looks like he’s almost past it, both our centres and back three offered very little in attack, next week either Dave Kearney/Kirchner have to start ahead of fanning who was completely out of his depth with the other on the bench with fanning dropped. Don’t know what Caputo is doing with our scrum cause we were getting bossed in almost every scrum by one of if not the worst scrums in the aviva premiership. Schmidt built a kingdom out of leinster and O’connor has almost single handedly destroyed it, if I was on the leinster board I’d be giving Jono Gibbs/O’shea/jackman/McKenzie a call, don’t think I can stand to watch leinster play like this for another season and a half.
Ugly is fine but only if you can put win in front of it.
Really thought Leinster would win this one. Suprised.
Can’t say I’ve seen anything from Leo to say he’s a coach at all. Lineout and scrum very poor, why we don’t throw toner up on their ball I’ll never understand.
If like a total clear out of all first team coaching staff.
Leinster are a write off this season. Just got to bend over and take it for the rest of the campaign and hope the brains trust out in UCD have the balls to cut his contract early. We’re off the pace in the league, even with a few results going our way, we have lost to any fellow top half teams and even if we get out of our group in Europe, other teams would be falling over themselves to play us, I include Ulster and Munster in that.
Get this spoofer out. Don’t feel bad for him either, because I would pay a shit load of money to go to interview technique courses taught by this fella, cause how the fu*k he got this job I will never know.
Any one mentioned the most biased / condescending commentary on BT Sport by any chance. it was so bad that I thought if they showed a glimpse of the commentary box I’d see two English jerseys and one with his face painted in Harlequins colours.
Were you referring to Leo Cullen..
Shame. But all true.