BY GEORGE I THINK THEY GOT IT!
I guess if you can't beat em, you may as well join em.
The online opinion down here seems to be that George Clancy was responsible for Ulster getting their first win over Leinster in Dublin since 1999, so that gives me license to go for the pun in my headline.
Thing is though...the Ulster fans are moaning about him just as much, even photoshopping him in a Leinster jersey, so I guess if you had to give him credit for anything it'd be consistency in pissing off both sets of fans.
Sure, his performance deserves to go under the microscope, but to make the report all about that would be unfair to these two sides who combined to provide a thriller of an interpro battle, one that shows this league could well have reached the most competitive level since its inception.
This was a game of two halves, but they weren't separated by the halftime interval.
The first 75 minutes of play followed a very clear pattern. When Leinster had the ball, we couldn't get it into their 22. When Ulster had it, they often got into ours. That the home side had a lead as big as 15-8 with half an hour left was down to what would happen to bring the attacking progress to a halt.
Paddy Jackson just about shaded the battle of the outhalves on the night as he had a part to play in both Ulster tries, and although Madigan was perfect from the tee, it was a rare tryless night for his team at the RDS. Jackson did have a slight advantage though...the biggest weakness in his game, his placekicking, was being done for him while Madigan still can't get to grips with kicking the ball from his hand and this cost his side in several attacking situations.
That wasn't the only reason Leinster shot themselves in the foot going forward...the “greatest hits” were also there with full effect, like knockons and crooked lineout throws. It didn't help that we had to play more than half the match with a completely different centre pairing than the one we named at Friday lunchtime, but a 3-time Heineken Cup winner certainly can't call on that as an excuse.
It would also be unfair not to credit the Ulster defence, which from start to finish was on a par with that which undid Munster in Thomond almost a year to the day before. But while tough tackling and Leinster’s mistakes were big factors in stopping at the 22, so was the concession of penalties, seven of them in all within kicking distance.
When Ulster had the ball, much like Glasgow last week they showed no fear when it came to handling the Leinster defence. Olding and Cave played beyond their combined years in midfield while on the wing Trimble showed some justification for his central contract by outplaying his team-mate Gilroy.
More often than not it was quick thinking that broke the Leinster line and this is how they got both their tries – first Nick Williams spotted a gap between Mike Ross and Devin Toner before a super long pass from Jackson found Diack out wide to go over, then in the second half Ruan Pienaar was quick to spot that Madigan was slow getting into position after emerging from a maul and got it to Henderson it time for him to dive over.
The fact that both Ulster's dot-downs were in the corner shows just how hard they were to come by on the day, though the events for the final 5 minutes of “real” time showed it even more.
That seventh Leinster penalty I spoke of earlier was won thanks to our domination in the the scrum which was much more acute in the second half. Ricky Lutton did a decent enough job early on but when down to their bench props of Black and McCall, Leinster were able to get themselves an edge.
The four-point deficit on the scoreboard gave us a tricky call, but I think we made the right one in opting for the lineout/maul. Attacking ball in their 22 wasn't just scarce it was non-existent and given we're one of the league's leading try-scorers we had to back ourselves to go over in that situation.
And it was from that lineout onwards that Clancy put himself under the spotlight (or threw himself under the bus if you'd prefer). The Ulster fans' beef is that he kept calling penalties against them. You can get into the technicalities about transgressions at the breakdown all day long. The majority of ones that are given by any ref could have been let go, and the same goes vice versa.
But when you remember those seven earlier penalties, for Clancy to then ping the visitors on 76m, 78m AND 81m only to reach for his pocket on instructions of his assistant on 84m makes absolutely no sense. And surely the award for Ironic Referee Moment Of the Season has to go to him for not actually being able to remove the yellow from his wallet to send Payne to the bin. For a minute there I thought he had a GAA ref's set of cards by mistake!
A warning about all the penalties had been issued to the Ulster team early in the second half, and while it would have been harsh to produce a card for the scrum penalty on 75m I really do think the ref bottled it by not doing so for at least the second if not the first penalty in their 22. We will never know whether or not Leinster would have gone over for the winning score with an extra man, but that is kind of the point.
Of course George saved his best until last by calling full-time only to then consult the TMO for the last play of the game, but it was at scrum-time where I felt he did himself the fewest favours. Whatever you feel about the new scrum laws, my interpretation of their spirit is to force the refs to make quick decisions and to minimize the amount of resets. Which means if you have a lot of them anyway it shows the ref is bottling it – and this guy is meant to be tier one?
As for Leinster well it's pretty easy to find some silver linings. Twelve months prior it took a home defeat to those pesky Ospreys to snap a Leinster winning streak and it gave us the wake-up call we needed prepare for the big end-of-season battle which saw us get one placekick away from an historic double.
Now although the defeat does knock us back, we still have time to regroup and prepare for the trip to Adams Park next week. Hopefully the Darcys and O'Briens will be back to give us a lineup that will remind our hosts just why we have three stars above our crest.
My biggest worry is in our second row. Quinn Roux got tagged for 3 missed tackles to go on top of the 5 from last week and once more he couldn't last the 80 minutes. I can only assume Cullen and Toner will start against Wasps but I wonder if it would be better to have both Ruddock & McLaughlin on the bench as cover. I wouldn't quite say Roux should be “sent to Coventry”, just Bristol for Leinster A's B&I Cup quarterfinal will do for now.
So congrats to the Ulstermen, the win down here was a long time in coming but it was well earned and it can only be good for Irish rugby overall. There's loads of exciting rugby left in this season, we'll see where the silverware ends up when the fat lady sings. JLP
Also this weekend…
Benetton Treviso P v P Connacht
