So Leinster win on the road, have a try denied by the TMO and one of their players is involved in an incident which is missed by the officials where a seasoned international forward on the opposing side recklessly endangers the rest of his season, though thankfully he seems to be ok.
Now before you cry “would you ever let it go and move on” I should tell you I AM talking about this Zebre v Leinster match!!!
Normally I cringe at references to that Michael Caine movie by the media whenever an Irish team’s opposition hails from Italy, but when it comes to this match I figured “Italian Job Done” best described the result for Leinster so I ran it through Google translate to give it a bit of a twist for my headline.
Victory, four tries, no injuries was the remit. We await the Monday update to confirm the final one but on appearances it seems that was achieved. Of course it wasn’t all perfect, at some times it was far from it, but when ever is it in professional team sports?
I can only imagine what it’s like to be involved in the Zebre organisation right now. It’s hard enough to “create” a rugby team and sell it to the local public as it is without them going and losing 27 on the bounce from it’s maiden outing.
But it’s the business end of the season and Leinster have other things on their minds. Glasgow and Ulster both secured maximum points on the Friday so we had to match them and thus couldn’t afford to show any mercy.
When we won a kickable penalty in the opening minutes I was expecting a kick for the corner – instead the points were taken, probably to give Sexton the chance to settle after his layoff. It was more in our approach going forward that we showed our intention to secure the bonus point, and for our first two tries at least, it was definitely Leinstertainment at its very best.
If you gave me a million goes before Sunday I’d never find a way to compare Tom Denton to Simon Zebo other than that they both play rugby. But after crashing our way into the 22 and using the front-foot ball to it’s fullest, Andrew Goodman worked his way brilliantly into position to send a blind pass into Denton’s path to secure his first senior try for Leinster in a manner very similar to that BOD/Zebo exchange at the Millenium Stadium back in Feburary.
Not long afterwards we were in a similar position only this time the brilliance came from Sexton with a dummy to McFadden on one side then a no-look pass on the other to the same player who had crossed behind him and the Zebras were torn apart like a carcass on the Serengeti.
Easy peasy lemon squeezy for Leinster from then on, right? Yeah, not so much…I suppose it’s understandable to take your foot off the pedal when you get such easy scores but overall it’s a good thing for the league that even it’s worst team isn’t willing to lay down and die.
It was a long list of missed tackles that let to the tries from Sinoti and Nalangahu which levelled the scores at 17-17 by halftime…the culprits included Cooney, Ryan, Sexton, McGrath and McLaughlin. It wasn’t all about the tackling though…the tries were well taken by the home side plus our front row had a scrum turned over which gave them the chance for the first one.
Between the two tries we had the incident with Bergamasco I mention at the start. I understand O’Driscoll’s anger because he didn’t have the ball and the Italian didn’t let up in crashing him to the ground so there could have been serious repercussions. It should have been seen by an official and dealt with accordingly, but it would appear that it wasn’t. And since the Pro12 rules state a citing can only be made for a red card offence, nothing will be done.
So there we were at half time with much work still to do. With the entire Leinster squad required for two big semifinals next weekend, it was very important that we got the fourth try before the final quarter and we did so, albeit with a bit of luck.
Ryle Nugent and Ralph Keyes in the RTE commentary box didn’t mention anything wrong with our third and fourth tries…I reckon Isa was a shade ahead of Sexton for his kick into the 22 before Carr’s try, plus Ruddock’s pass to Ryan that set up the 4th was a tad forward, and going by the replays shown by the Italian TV director he agreed with me.
But those are the breaks I suppose and we were definitely finding our way into the Zebre 22 at that stage comfortably anyway and they were frequently tempting referee Neil Paterson’s cards from his pocket at the breakdown so it could be said justice was done.
For the final quarter the two sides exchanged tries but the result was in the bag…I have to question the home side’s wisdom in leaving Tebaldi and Orquera on the bench though perhaps they felt if they could keep it tight they could bring them on to help out in the final quarter. Thankfully for us, we kept them out.
I must also give a mention of John Cooney who I thought played a key role in our front-foot play. When you consider that in the opening Pro12 game of last season ball retention was our biggest issue in losing badly to the Ospreys, he has come on in leaps and bounds and I’d have no problem with him starting against the same opposition to end this one. Any kind of victory will do us – we all know how pesky they can be so I’m certainly happy we don’t need the four tries!
But we can’t look beyond next weekend. Clearly Leinster’s biggest debate will be over who will wear the number 10 jumper against Biarritz. Certainly Madigan has been outstanding but with 6/6 from the tee plus his trademark marshalling of the offence, Sexton must surely be in with more than a shout.
Of course when you take into account all the other things Joe Schmidt has on his mind, such decisions pale by comparison. One thing is for sure – Leinster are in a good place right now and it is mostly thanks to him. JLP
Also this weekend
Benetton Treviso 30 - 10 Edinburgh
