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Jamie Heaslip was man of the match for Leinster at the RDS. Morgan Treacy/INPHO
Judgement

Error count a concern but O'Connor pleased with Leinster's second half

The Australian head coach was enthused by the performances of Darragh Fanning and the back row.

LEINSTER HEAD COACH pointed to his ever-changing starting XV as one of the reasons for a high error count in the 25-20 win over Wasps at the RDS.

The Australian was ultimately pleased with the four points, however, and praised the performances of captain Jamie Heaslip and two-try wing Darragh Fanning.

Leinster trailed 20-11 at the break after a disappointing display in which the province’s mistakes had resulted in tries for Alapati Leiua and Christian Wade, although the latter score required some sensational finishing prowess.

That’s the way Wasps play, that’s in their DNA, they play for those opportunities,” said O’Connor. “They’re very clinical when they get those opportunities, more often that not they take them.

“So that’s the game, you’ve got to deal with them. We didn’t deal with them in the first half. We were significantly better in the second half and we controlled large parts of the game, which was important.”

Asked for his thoughts on the high number of individual errors in Leinster’s performance, O’Connor indicated that the chopping and changing of his XV due to injuries has not been helpful.

Rhys Ruddock, Dominic Ryan and Darragh Fanning celebrate Rhys Ruddock, Dominic Ryan and Darragh Fanning all came in for praise from O'Connor. Morgan Treacy / INPHO Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO

“I think [it was] the occasion. It was a tough game of footy. As we say, there’s blokes coming in and out of that group. We probably haven’t had the luxury of building the combinations as strongly as we would have liked due to a number of reasons and as a result, we’re down on a few combinations and that leads to errors.

“But the resolve in the group was really positive. The bench was great for us, I think they added a lot and it was a pleasing result for us.”

Heaslip led the charge for the home side, getting through a remarkable workload, although O’Connor pointed to the performances of the Ireland No. 8′s fellow back rows as important.

The display of Fanning on his European debut was of further satisfaction.

Jamie was very, very good for us. His work rate was unbelievable, and he was quite well supported by Rhys and Ryan, who worked incredibly hard. I thought the three of them were outstanding against a very good back row.”

“[Fanning] scored one against Munster at the Aviva, scored two really important ones tonight and he’s played near on every minute this season. So he’s doing a great job, he did a great job for us last year.

Dominic Ryan scores a try Ryan broke away in the second half to stretch over for a try. Morgan Treacy / INPHO Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO

“He’s getting better and better the longer he spends in the environment. He works really hard off the field and I think he’s starting to be really, really comfortable at this level. He was good for us tonight and he’s been good all season.”

Leinster were again cut open on several occasions around the fringes of the rucks, as against Munster two weekends ago, but O’Connor rejected the notion that that area of his side’s defence was a concern moving forward.

It wasn’t much of a concern tonight,” answered the Leinster coach. “I think they went there when they lost shape, I think they went there because across the board we were pretty solid. That’s where they decided to go because we were probably a little stronger on the edges.

“We had to resource that area, because we didn’t want to give [Elliot] Daly, [Christian] Wade and [Sailosi] Tagicakibau opportunities on the edges, because that’s where they’re incredibly potent. They were left with nowhere else to go.”

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