Castres-22 Leinster-29

MAÎTRES D

 I know a large part of Castres centre Remi Lamerat’s disappointment at the end of this thrilling tussle comes from the ending of his side’s long home unbeaten stretch, but it also surely must have to do with the fact that they let the 3-times European Champs peg them back when they were there for the taking.

Which definitely begs the question…how can we even consider an entire rugby season without a pan-European club competition when it means so much to the players?  But I harped on that particular topic enough last week…

This was as unworthy a match of Sky’s red button as you’ll get before a ball was even kicked, and it most certainly did not disappoint.  There were so many key moments that the word “key” isn’t really justified…the simplest way I can put it is that the match was an 80-minute bout of turnover tennis where Leinster proved far better at cleaning up their own messes.

Rather than being a game of two halves, this was more like a game of four quarters, which is probably the best way to approach the writeup.

1ST QUARTER - PRECISION GAMEPLAN

Any doubts about the Top 14 champions’ ambitions in this contest were put to rest in the opening few minutes.  It was clear as day that coach Serge Milhas & his team had done their homework in all the right places, namely Leinster’s scrum and more importantly, our defensive structures.

For me the difference in the two number 7s was at the heart of the 14-0 lead being established.  Jordi Murphy had earned this Heineken Cup start by right, but it didn’t take him long to learn just what a big step up it is from the Pro12 when faced with the likes of Ibrahim Diarra.

The Castres openside was turning up everywhere particularly in that opening 20 minutes…the first try by Richie Gray came after Diarra took full advantage of both his opposite number and Gordon DArcy going high in the tackle by laying off an innovative offload to Lamerat who’s perfect line took him deep into Leinster’s scramble defence and they made no mistake setting up Gray for the finish.

Then we had the start of our scrum woes…many of these came from the battle between Mike Ross and Castres loosehead Yannick Forestier which the latter was winning.  More on the scrums later.

But it certainly wasn’t one-way traffic in the opening stages - Leinster’s offence were finding gaps as well and a burst from Heaslip followed by a great support line from Sean Cronin got us to the try line only for that man Diarra to force the turnover…whether he came through the gate is debatable, but so were other calls that went both ways on the day.

There was nothing wrong with his being first to pounce on a mistake from Murphy at the 20-minute mark after a seemingly routine Leinster lineout…Castres were quick to make hay from the transition as not for the first time outside centre Seremaia Bai put the visitors’ D on the back foot and once again there was key involvement from Lamerat as he bounced off (the once more way too high) challenges of O’Driscoll and Dave Kearney to create the space for Max Evans to charge down the line and slip a sweet inside pass to Dulin who stunned the travelling support with try number two.

2ND QUARTER - THE FIGHTBACK

Again we looked decent enough going forward but as the clock got closer to the 30 minute mark I began to wonder if we were going to get anything before the break, especially when Jordi got close to the line only for it to be stripped off of him.  Luckily the call was for a 5m scrum to Leinster and Messrs Reddan & Gopperth, not often a starting pairing this season, had something in their box of tricks.

Crucially, this one scrum gave us a decent platform and a decoy run from Dave Kearney plus Reddan’s body position drew the Castres scrumhalf Garcia right the way around the scrum providing the space for the Kiwi number 10 to crash over the line and hey presto we had a ball game again. 

The Leinster & Ireland scrum-half had a great shift overall, taking advantage of his reputation as a quick-passing 9 by running through pillar gaps often for huge gains.  He lost points with me for a ridiculous no-look pass in his own 22 at one stage but luckily it didn’t cost us.

But then the scrum gremlins began to hit us again.  I was a prop in my day but I won’t profess to know anything about the modern game…it’s just that every time I see the ball go into a Leinster scrum without the ball being hooked I cringe.  It would be harsh to entirely blame Sean Cronin for this as it is surely part of some grand design, but I can’t see the logic in it and this has not been the only match this season where it has cost us at crucial moments.  Particularly with the new laws, hookers gotta hook!

It was ironically when Castres re-stretched their lead to 10 thanks to a Garcia penalty that the cracks began to show for them.  When their number 8 caught the restart the clock read 39:28.  Simple thing to do was run out the half and take the much-deserved margin into the dressing room, but Jack McGrath had other ideas.

The St Mary’s loosehead stripped the ball from his opposite number and from that position about 30m from the Castres line Leinster managed to work over a dozen phases including big gains from Heaslip, Cronin and Fitzgerald before once again it was Mr Twinkletoes himself Gopperth who got himself under the tackle of Richie Gray to plant the ball down and not only halve the lead before the break but also provide a massive confidence boost.

3RD QUARTER - WHO SCORES NEXT?

How on earth the answer to that question turned out to be Leinster I’ll never know.

In the very first minute of the second half we once again saw Castres make fools of our defensive line-runners - not the clearest screengrab I know but basically DArcy is staring at his opposite man as Kirkpatrick, the man he should be focusing on, sails by him.

But there was something different about Leinster in the second half…yes, the line was being broken more often than not leading Castres into our 22.  This time, however, we were not only well able to scramble and hold them out, and not only were we able to clear our lines, but also I believe our kick chasing proved to be what finally closed that 14-point deficit for good.

That the side which had the wind behind them won either half made it a significant factor, but sometimes it was a hindrance more than a help, like when O’Driscoll caught a clearance kick too well putting it out on the full and his side right back under pressure in his own half.

But if I had to pick one “key” moment out of the entire contest it had to be the turnover forced on his own line by BOD himself to more than make up for the over-cooked punt (try saying THAT ten times fast!). 

Bai and Kirkpatrick had combined to get from the 22 to the tryline but somehow O’Driscoll hauled down the sub outhalf, got to his feet and assumed the proper jackling position before the clearout brigade could arrive.  Try for Castres there and it could well have been game over.

Then came the kick chasing, which was clearly frustrating the home side, once to the point of Garcia planting his studs firmly into the thigh of Mike McCarthy in a ruck more than once which rightly drew the ire of O’Driscoll.  This led to the penalty which unbelievably gave the visitors the first score of the half, and when Rob Kearney’s opportunism took full advantage of both the wind and a poor Castres clearance to land a drop goal, suddenly we had the lead.

Watching this match a second time I am wondering if there could be a possible citing for Luke Fitzgerald for a tip tackle on Dulin at 58 minutes…but shortly after that Gopperth was stretching our lead to 7 points with one that fell the right way off the upright.

4TH QUARTER - DIGGING DEEP, AND I MEAN DEEEEEP

In many ways it did appear as though the rugby gods were smiling on Leinster for this match…beforehand Castres were denied their South African-born match-winners Kockott and Claasens and then one by one by injury or design the very players who were doing the most damage seemed to be trudging off…Tales, Bai and even Diarra, who was still causing problems for us in the second half particularly at restarts.

For our part, it appeared as though we wanted to see out the game by way of a 40-minute defensive drill.  Like the last thing we wanted was actual possession, and we even made things a little more interesting by going down a man for the final ten minutes as Cronin inexplicably went around the side of a ruck too early and slowed down a Castres attack and rightly saw yellow.  Sheer lunacy at that stage of the game.

And what’s more we were extremely lucky not to go another man down as Jordi Murphy did virtually the same thing on our own tryline.  As he moved I thought the game was lost…thankfully Nigel Owens was a little more forgiving (maybe we deserved that break after the Garcia no-call?  Not sure ABLs will agree somehow) but we had a hell of a lot of work still to do.

By thunder, did we get that work done in spades.  Hard to single one player out for us on the day defensively…McGrath & McCarthy forced multiple turnovers throughout but late on it was subs Healy and Jennings who put themselves in the right places when it mattered.

Man of the match for Leinster though had to be Gopperth (overall I’d lean towards Diarra) - if the 24pts including two tries weren’t enough for you, his jackled steal which led to the Jordi Murphy try was made all the more remarkable by the fact that it came after a hard 76 minutes of action.  Ian Madigan & Cian Healy also played key roles in getting the ball out to him and the score killed the match. 

In the lead photo you see Lamerat reacting to the result even though his try pinched a much-deserved bonus point for his side right at the death; thankfully our slackness late in a period wasn’t quite so costly as that of the home side.

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Definitely not a perfect performance from Matt O’Connor’s men - and we need to work on our defensive set-up because it does look as though opponents are starting to work it out, at least in midfield. 

But having said that, it was our play without the ball that has largely gotten us to this position in what has been an extremely difficult Pool One, and although we owe a debt of gratitude to the Ospreys for doing Castres over at the Liberty Stadium, it is one we cannot afford to repay them for this Friday.

For now, I’m going to leave you with a couple of dates - May 1, 2010 : the last time Leinster lost away in the Heineken Cup to a team that wasn’t in the midst of a 70-match unbeaten home run, and January 17, 2009, the last time we lost away in the Heineken Cup to a team that wasn’t French.  Not a bad record in this great competition I reckon, and something to dine out on for the five-day turnaround. JLP

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Also this weekend

Racing Metro 13 - 19 Scarlets

Ulster 27 - 16 Montpellier

Benetton Treviso 19 - 34 Leicester Tigers

Harlequins 13 - 16 Clermont Auvergne

Exeter Chiefs 10 - 15 Glasgow

Connacht 20 - 3 Zebre

Toulon 43 - 20 Cardiff Blues

Edinburgh 27 - 16 Perpignan

Gloucester Rugby 7 - 20 Munster

Ospreys 17 - 29 Northampton Saints

Toulouse 21 - 11 Saracens

POOL ONE	PLD	W	D	L	F	A	BP	PTS
LEINSTER	5	4	0	1	116	63	1	17
NORTHAMPTON	5	3	0	2	94	101	1	13
CASTRES	5	2	0	3	75	91	1	9
OSPREYS	5	1	0	4	72	102	1	5

British & Irish Cup

Leinster A 23-13 Moseley

POOL ONE	PLD	W	D	L	F	A	BP	PTS
LEINSTER A	5	5	0	0	157	57	3	23
CROSS KEYS	5	3	0	2	88	102	2	14
MOSELEY	5	1	0	4	97	98	3	7
EALING TRAILFINDERS	5	1	0	4	64	149	0	4

Leinster-19 Castres-7

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CASTRES ASIDE

We have a saying here in Dublin for a match like this…it was a “quare one”.

Even the weather was crazy…around lunchtime the heavens opened yet by kickoff the sun was splitting the skies over the RDS, a stadium that clearly wasn’t designed for a 3:40pm kickoff; just ask the residents of the Anglesea Stand who spent the entire contest shielding their eyes.

And when it came to the rugby, the madness continued…for example, Leinster found it difficult to get their offence going yet were good for all of  their 19 points, while on the defensive side, bar one moment of slumber, our standards were about as high as always yet you feel the visiting French champions deserved at least enough to earn a losing bonus.

But of all the elements of this contest that left me scratching my head, the one that gets me most of all is Shane Horgan’s awarding of “Man of the Match” to Jimmy Gopperth.

I have nothing against the Kiwi and I’m certainly not one of those who feels it’s more important to play Ian Madigan…the selection for this match was rightly based on form.  But as it wore on, not only was it clear the Leinster offence needed a spark, Gopperth was making more than one glaring mistake and if our standards are such that we want to another star to our jersey, we can’t be rewarding that type of display.

For me Dave Kearney would have been a better choice, though I don’t see why subs can’t be taken into consideration for the honour and he could have picked Luke Fitzgerald or Eoin Reddan for Leinster and on the Castres side prop Saimone Taumoepeau because their introduction certainly made a huge difference to their side’s respective fortunes.

But before I get to the contributions from the bench, let me first backtrack and show why they were needed.  Leinster started impressively, putting patient phases together and getting themselves into attacking positions and they were rewarded with three penalties which Gopperth converted as expected to put us into a 9-0 lead. 

We were then unlucky in that a bounce went against Rob Kearney otherwise he would have been over, but by the same token a break by the visitors down the other end showed what they’re capable of and had Romain Cabannes held on to the ball instead of grubbering in our 22 they too could have had a 5-pointer.  But all told the 9-point cushion at the end of the first quarter was about right.

It was then that the frailties in our offence were starting to show.  It suited us in Swansea to let the other team play with the ball but at the RDS the expectations are much different.  We don’t need to be seeing champagne rugby all the time, but we do expect something of a cohesive plan going forward and it was never evident throughout the 80 minutes.

And when I say Gopperth was undeserving of MotM that doesn’t mean I pin entire responsibility on him…actually I think that in our last three matches we have been too protective of our 13 position.  Of course BOD’s shoes are ginormous but that doesn’t mean we have to ignore those who fill them altogether…and seeing how the likes of Darcy, Kearney and McFadden were willing to run at the gainline I don’t see why Brendan Macken couldn’t have been involved more often as that is something he has shown he can do well.

But as well as the limited options it has to be said our out-half was below his best.  A knockon, a long pass thrown straight to a Castres player, quite possibly the worst restart kick ever seen in Ballsbridge, plus the (admittedly rare) missed placekick before halftime all must stand against him.

Of course he wasn’t on his own with the boo-boos; Devin Toner and Jamie Heaslip both misjudged a couple of restarts, Sean O’Brien went for the odd offload when he didn’t need to and the gremlins were returning to Sean Cronin’s darts.  Again…all of them did well last week it’s true, but at Heineken Cup level you have to start with a clean slate every time.

The more we failed with the ball, the more our visitors grew in confidence.  I saw on social media a few comparisons made between this match and our home opener last year against Exeter - I couldn’t disagree more.  That day we struggled going forward but there was no way the Chiefs were going to cross our line either.  This time we were up against the French champs who for once sent an elite matchday 23 to foreign soil.

And not only did they come to play, their coach Serge Milhas was a lot faster on the day to identify what was going wrong; where Castres needed change most was in their front row. Then Taumoepeau took the field and we had a whole new ball game.

Who knows what actually goes on in there…I was on the receiving end of a mischievous tighthead or two in my day but whatever it was the former All Black prop transformed the scrum and suddenly the French side had a set-piece they could make hay from, and that is exactly what they did.

I am constantly amazed by how easy they make their set-piece moves look and even more so by how we (both Leinster & Ireland) seem either unwilling or unable to try something similar.  And I don’t just mean scrums, I have been harping on for ages about the need for us to add the odd “hooker-number one-hooker” lineout move to our repertoire.

But on the half-hour mark a scrum over by the touchline saw the Castres tight eight wheel us with almost clockwork precision for Antoine Claasens to take the ball from the base and hey presto they have a two-on-one against Fergus McFadden down the touchline and the grin on Rory Kockott’s face as he strolled over the line said it all.  The best defence in European club rugby had just been made look like  a Junior 4ths team.  I even looked to see if our flanker was being held and it wasn’t so…we just didn’t cop that this move was even on.

So the halftime whistle came, we had but a two point lead, and things began to look even more ominous in the second half as our error count continued.  The infield kicks (which were understandably a feature of the afternoon given the sun position) were being allowed to bounce far too frequently and one fell kindly for Dulin who really should have scored only for an impressive smother tackle by Dave Kearney which allowed the defence to regroup before an attempted crossfield kick from Tales went a fraction too long.

Finally around the 47 minute mark the Leinster coaching ticket saw the need to make changes.  Eoin Reddan came on for Isaac Boss and Luuuuuuuuuke was brought in to replace Macken.  Both gave us the initial injection of pace we needed to our offence but by this stage Castres were getting a strong whiff of victory so were still able to thwart us.  We badly needed them to somehow shoot themselves in the foot more than once.  Enter  Remy Lamerat and Julien Thomas.

On one of the rare occasions we got the ball out wide Dave Kearney found himself in a bit of space and fired up the jets.  Now when I say a “bit” of space I mean it…his best result would have been to set up some phases at the Castres 22, possibly just inside.  So why Lamerat decided to come across and charge at him with a raised arm rather than attempt a legal tackle is beyond me.  Whatever his reasons, referee Greg Garner had no choice but to go to his pocket.

Since Matt O’Connor didn’t see fit to introduce Madigan at out-half, this extra man proved to be what we needed to get over the French line, though the ten-minute spell didn’t begin well as we threw away the attacking lineout resulting from the penalty.

But not for the first time we were able to count on our defence and an excellent steal from Eoin Reddan around our own 22 got things started.  Again we were able to ship it out wide and a couple more good carries by Dave Kearney got us into the 22 when eventually it was Jack McGrath, someone suddenly almost forgotten in all the recent (albeit justified) Martin Moore hype, who crashed over with ironically Reddan there to help him drive over from 5m out.

To all intents and purposes, that was game over, but the French must have felt they had the bonus point well within their sights before their substitute scrumhalf earned himself the softest yellow ever awarded.

I can only assume Rory Kockott was injured to be taken off at the 54m mark because apart from a couple of missed placekicks he was at the heart of everything positive for Castres.  His replacement Tomas didn’t seem to understand the importance of a straight put-in with the new scrum laws and again Garner had to flash the card after his third transgression…for me, it should have been shown after the second.

Yet even with the final quarter brainfarts, Castres still had a chance to pull within the 7 required for the losing bonus.  Our makeshift 10/12/13 combo of Gopperth/Madigan/Fitzgerald made a hames of what should be a routine loop move and before we knew it the French champions had a lineout in our 22.

Regarding the Wanneberg “try”…I watched it a gagillion times.  I did my best to be objective.  Gun to my head, I think the TMO should have given it because although you don’t actually see the ball touch the line, it must have at least brushed against a white blade of grass at some point.  For me, the official was hog-tied by the question “try or no try”.  Had it been the other one, the five points would have been rung up.

So to summarize, no - not an ideal performance from Leinster by any means, and we have many questions to answer.  But looking at the bigger picture, the eight points we have now are worth a heck of a lot more than the eight we had at the same stage last season.  This time we top the pool and although there are still some massive tests ahead, the task is a greater for those below us.

A slightly marked down report card for O’Connor & co but they now have time to regroup  before the back-to-back encounter with the Saints in December and I reckon they have plenty to work with.

Whatever you do, don’t let the George Hooks of this world get you down - this was a clean sweep weekend for the Irish provinces and let’s be proud of it.  JLP

Also this weekend

Saracens 16 - 17 Toulouse

Leicester Tigers 34 - 3 Benetton Treviso

Cardiff Blues 19 - 15 Toulon

Zebre 6 - 33 Connacht

Montpellier 8 - 25 Ulster

Munster 26 - 10 Gloucester Rugby

Scarlets 26 - 26 Racing Metro

Northampton Saints 27 - 16 Ospreys

Perpignan 31 - 14 Edinburgh

Glasgow 20 - 16 Exeter Chiefs

Clermont Auvergne 23 - 16 Harlequins

POOL ONE	PLD	W	D	L	F	A	BP	PTS
LEINSTER	2	2	0	0	38	16	0	8
NORTHAMPTON	2	1	0	1	40	35	1	5
CASTRES	2	1	0	1	26	32	0	4
OSPREYS	2	0	0	2	25	46	0	0

British & Irish Cup

Moseley 22-24 Leinster A

Ealing Trailfinders 15-24 Cross Keys

POOL ONE	PLD	W	D	L	F	A	BP	PTS
LEINSTER A	2	2	0	0	73	30	1	9
CROSS KEYS	2	2	0	0	44	31	1	9
MOSELEY	2	0	0	2	38	44	2	2
EALING TRAILFINDERS	2	0	0	2	23	73	0	0

Castres-18 Leinster-15

JECKYLL & HYDE RUGBY

I think reality is finally starting to hit me – this Leinster team cannot win the Heineken Cup.

I was in denial up to now, thinking that the draw with Cardiff and defeats to Munster, Connacht and Glasgow were all blips which didn’t really matter because, as my name for it suggests, the League itself was meaningless.

Last night, however, my eyes were opened, and finally I think I can see where the problem lies.

From this kickoff, it looked like Michael Cheika had done everything right. Leinster were fired up, the backs were hitting good lines, it looked to all intents and purposes like a five-point haul was on the cards, especially when Girvan Dempsey slapped down the opening try.

And let me be the first to congratulate Jonny Sexton for his magnificent conversion from out wide. It was a kick Ronan O’Gara would be proud of.

Then for a short while after that score, we seemed to go a little flat. I was concerned.

But then I was convinced my worries were over when a series of drives, supporting and offloads led to Sexton crossing for a magnificent second score. Two tries in the first half, a poor opposition, everything was looking good.

And then it started again.

Sexton missed a conversion which was much easier than the first one.

From that moment to the final whistle, we couldn’t get phases going, we couldn’t throw into line-outs, we couldn’t scrum properly, we couldn’t catch high balls, we couldn’t kick tactically OR for points.

I’m not even sure how well our defence really played since our opponents were so average that I couldn’t be sure if they would have managed to cross our line in any circumstance.

So basically, we went into the match in the right frame of mind, yet we couldn’t sustain that level for eighty minutes. What can we put that down to?

You think I’m going to blame Sexton again, don’t you?

Well I’m not – I put our failure down to three words – LACK OF LEADERSHIP.

I suppose the obvious place to point the finger would be scrum half Chris Whittaker, since he was captain on the night, and you could hardly say he led from the front.

But it was all throughout the team, and each and every one of these players has shown this season they can do it. All the things I have listed above have been seen by Les Bleus this season, so we know they have the ability, just not the consistency it seems.

The moment that capped it all was Brian O’Driscoll’s inexplicable decision to kick the penalty himself in the dying minutes when there was plenty of time for the more polished Contepomi to find the line and give us one last chance to pinch it.

Right now, despite the fact that we creamed London Wasps back in October, I firmly believe that there is no way this Leinster squad can lift the Heineken Cup.

I guess it’s up to them to go to Twickenham in mid-January and prove me wrong.

One last point - I am sick to death of having to endure Sky's don't-give-a-damn-about-Ireland live rugby coverage of these matches.  Love him or hate him, we need Hooky!!!

Leinster-33 Castres-3

[update October 16, 2013] On Wednesdays here at HarpinOnRugby we look back to a previous Leinster meeting with our next opponents. We have to go all the way back to 2008 to find the last visit of Castres - we had no Heineken Cup victories yet but as you can see that didn’t stop this particular blogger from being a hard-ass! I have a feeling the Top14 outfit will pose a little more of a challenge this Saturday, what with them being champions and all…

18+ HANDLING ERRORS

I’m really sorry for being a doom and gloom merchant, but I have to use that statistic as my headline to put this scoreline in perspective.

Leinster had one goal and one goal only in this match as far as I was concerned, and that was to secure the bonus point. Therefore, they failed, and the aforementioned stat points the way to explaining the failure.

And what’s more, they didn’t even seem to give the 16,500 fans some sign that they had the four-try bonus as a priority.

With the score at 16-3 and over half an hour left to get three tries, we bizarrely chose to kick a penalty and missed, and then seven minutes later, we chose the same option and succeeded.

Purists may argue that conventional wisdom dictates that it was important to establish a lead of more than two converted tries to secure the victory.

Well to those who say that, I have a bit of extra conventional wisdom for you…CASTRES WERE CRAP!!! Never in a million years would they have crossed our line unless we somehow got fifteen yellow cards at once!!!

Now this may surprise you, but I actually think Sexton’s performance was his best of the season so far. I’d give him a C+. But that’s STILL not good enough for a side that claims to have designs on winning the Heineken Cup.

It has to be said – in the 60 minutes Sexton was at fly half, we scored but one try. In 20 with Holwell, we got two. Who could argue that if that ratio went the other way we’d be celebrating maximum Pool 2 points right now with sights firmly set on a Number 1 seeding for the knockout stages.

The word is the French are actually going to field a full strength team for the return match on Friday, and also they have a pitch that is practically a mud bath, so I may look more favourably on a narrow victory on the night.

But let’s be clear – Munster have set the bar pretty high for this tournament as far as Irish teams are concerned, and if we hope to be heading for Edinburgh at the end of May for the final, we need to play a hell of a lot better than this for 80 minutes.

At least we had strong showings from young guns like Devin Toner and Sean O’Brien to give us hope. JLP