A WIN IS a win.
Except, it’s not really, is it?
A 9-6 home win isn’t the way Leinster have gone about their business for the past two years.
No, Saturday was not black and white. It wasn’t even pink and blue. It was decidedly grey.
Facing the media afterwards, neither coach could straighten the result out in their head.
Were they disappointed? Yes. Were they pleased? Well… yes.
Leinster head coach Joe Schmidt was quick to signal his disapproval despite the win. On Thursday he was asked if the opposite of his ‘performance and process, not results’ mantra may hold sway in the opening game of the European competition.
“No, I don’t think it’s ever the opposite,” was his emphatic answer.
Having watched Jonathan Sexton knock over three penalties to give the eastern province the finest edge, he was left to sweat Igacio Mieres last-gasp attempt from 45 metres.
However, behind the many negative aspects of being dominated at breakdown and set-piece by a a club brand new to this level of the game, Schmidt did – eventually – find some silver lining, three reasons to be cheerful.
“One real positive is that it’s the first game we’ve played (this season) that the opposition haven’t scored a try.” Said the Kiwi. “That is a real positive to take out of it. Obviously, if we had of conceded one then we wouldn’t have won.”
Indeed, not only did Leinster (by fair means or foul) keep their try-line untainted, but only Saracens conceded less points in the competition this weekend.
“I think you’ve got to start on a couple of positives and a couple of work-ons,” Schmidt added, “we’ll be taking a sample of those during the week and try to work our way through them.”
The newly-contracted coach reiterated his hope that a spell of continuity in his team would pay dividends after an opening month of the season when change was the only familiarity.
The full package
The team chosen to face Exeter showed only two changes from the much more effective display against Munster – neither of them enforced. From a decent attacking display in that inter-pro at the Aviva to a good defensive display against Exeter Chiefs; in theory the pull package will be ready for delivery to Parc y Scarlets.
“The more we actually play, the more confident I’d be that we can put better performances together. Leo (Cullen) hasn’t played for a couple of weeks, Cian Healy hadn’t played for a couple of weeks and there is nothing like match-conditioning. There’s nothing like match-play to be well coordinated.
“Exeter,” he continued, “there’s a number of segments of that team that played every game this year. They’re still fresh, but they’re well conditioned enough to have a little bit more organisation and continuity than we did. That was evident at times.”
It is that Ex(eter) factor which may just play into Irish favour. The Chiefs made it perfectly clear that they are not in the Heineken Cup to act like Castres, they are not in the group of death to be sacrificial lambs laid out for the giants of Leinster, Clermont and Llanelli. The French club, you sense, will get a dose of their own medicine next week when the earth under Sandy Park will quake until the home side get their way.
Yet Leinster have their own journey to go on. Scarlets were mightily impressive under impossible circumstances in Stade Marcel Michelin before Peter Fitzgibbon made two odd decisions resulting in Morgan Stoddart’s red card.
Perhaps next week will provide an exception. On a pivotal Saturday in pool 5, a win for any team may actually be a win.
