Leinster-36 Scarlets-19

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BACK INTO FOCUS

“Well, what did you make of last Sunday?”

How many times were you asked that last week?  I lost count by Monday afternoon.  It does show just how many people watched that epic contest as most of those who posed the question wouldn’t normally follow the rugby.

But hey…it’s time to put all that behind us and thankfully we had rugby back at the RDS to help take our minds off of things, and with a monumental back-to-back Heineken Cup series around the corner, we needed to get back into focus quickly.

We could have scarcely picked a better time to face the Scarlets - it was our sixth meeting with the Llanelli outfit in just fifteen months, and between injuries and outside-test-window call-ups they were bound to be there for the taking, and sure enough Leinster took them pretty handily.

After all that went on last week I’m not going to harp on how we let our opposition in for three second half tries … well - I may use the last one to help make one particular point later on in the writeup, but overall when we had a thoroughly-deserved 22-0 cushion going into the break surely the lads can be forgiven for having physical-damage-limitation on their minds to see it home.

That lead was built on a solid foundation of rugged red zone defence in the opening minutes as the visitors, who to their credit played to the fullest from start to finish, pummelled our line for 27 phases before we forced a knock-on.

Then the gulf between the two sides was shown when we started making our way into their 22 - a Jennings break led to a penalty to give us the lead, then the first sign of gaps out wide led to Brendan Macken making one of his characteristic bursts for the tryline to make it 8-0.

I watched this match back with the red-button English-language commentary provided by S4C (any fear TG4 doing that?) and from the moment our first try went over both Welshmen in the box began spelling out all the reasons why this Leinster matchday 23 was bound to be miles better than their opposition…the test in Cardiff, the quality of our Academy, our glut of trophies in recent seasons…I think they even compared us to the All Blacks at one point!  Clearly they felt a storm of tries was a-comin.

Well we may not have quite made it to the landmark “fifty-burger” as we have with other Welsh regions in the past, but then again we didn’t really need to on the night so I certainly won’t have many complaints on that score.

The second try came from sheer domination in the scrum, but first we had a taste of exactly what Zane Kirchner can bring to our lineup.  We put in a commanding performance throughout, and his little dummy-pop-pass was my highlight of the match, even if it didn’t directly lead to a try as he himself was held up as he got it over the line.

But courtesy of Martin Moore’s owning his opposite prop and Jordi Murphy’s skill at holding the ball in at the base, we forced a penalty try and given our opponents were clad in scarlet not black, I reckon the three-score cushion at the end of the first quarter was safe enough.

The forwards weren’t done quite yet however and a series of pick and goes on 25m got us over for try number 3 courtesy of Jack McGrath, who during the week was linked with a move to Ulster (shame if it happens but definitely a good move for him, the northerners AND Ireland).  Credit to Eoin Reddan in that move as well for stealing back the ball after we almost lost it in the series of phases.

I wonder if Leo Cullen’s yellow for three successive penalties were him just wanting an early half-time breather on his first outing of the season?  We’ll probably never know, though if repeated penalties were considered card-able I’m wondering why the Scarlets scrum didn’t get an early warning or two.

Ironically it was a scrum on our line which finally got the visitors on the board, but Shane Jennings had actually pinched it from them only to hand it back via a knockon and the Scarlets’ scrum-half best player on the night IMO Gareth Davies who did well to finish.

The game rather fizzled out from there…and to be honest our biggest worry was always going to be in the injury department, and on that score there was plenty for us to worry about for today’s squad update.  Moore went off early on, D’Arcy was set to go off with what looked like a wrist injury just as the Scarlets made an impressive break down the field for Maule to go over and reduce the gap to 10 points, and Jennings needed to go off towards the end.  Hopefully there’s nothing too serious in that lot. [EDIT 2:30pm - very happy to see the words “no major injury concerns” in the squad update!]

Thankfully Leinster were still able to go back up a gear and it was the introduction of Sean Cronin’s pace which helped us go straight back into their 22 for eventually man-of-the-match Eoin Reddan to go over for the bonus point try.

Darcy going off meant Jimmy Gopperth was brought on to out-half and Ian Madigan put to 12.  The “Mad-Dog’s” body-language didn’t suggest he was happy with the move as the Kiwi jogged into position but when the two are on the park it is probably the best alignment to have them in.

The fifth try was finished by Kirchner after good quick runs & passes by both Tuqiri and Gopperth put him through.  In that final five minutes on Saturday I reckon we got a good taste of the best and the worst of Lote - he was as impressive going forward as he had been the previous week in Treviso, but I feared his chasing & tackling aren’t up to scratch, at least for the standard Matt O’Connor is trying to set at Leinster.  The way Scarlets centre Adam Warren bounced off of him for the try to end the match makes me feel his contract, which was up on Sunday, wasn’t really worth renewing.

On Madigan’s display, the out-of-hand kicking still wasn’t ideal overall, but then again Gopperth has had issues on that score as well.  We certainly can’t fault his boot off the tee, however as he nailed two second-half beauties from the touchline.  I’d be inclined to start with Ian against the Saints though I wouldn’t bat an eyelid nor be overly concerned for the result if O’Connor goes with Jimmy.

Overall it was a good night to be a Leinster fan, and an even better one to be a Leinster blogger, as us online-types were kindly invited for a tour behind the scenes before the match as well as a spot up in the press box - many thanks again to Peter Breen, Pearce Corcoran and all who were involved in making that happen.  It was also great to finally meet the people behind such awesome sites as Whiff of Cordite, Action81, TNT24.ie and many others.

Now Matt & the lads must get to work and with the help of the returning internationals, come up with a plan to get the maximum return possible from two massive clashes with the Northampton Saints.  It will be by no means an easy task, but with them sitting first in the pool and second on the Pro12 table, there is every reason to feel like they can maintain their focus over there.  JLP

There’s a year’s subscription to Emerald Rugby Magazine up for grabs in the latest HarpinOnRugby “unriggable raffle” click here for details

Also this weekend

Ospreys 16 - 28 Glasgow

Dragons 14 - 18 Munster

Edinburgh 43 - 10 Connacht

Zebre 11 - 19 Ulster

Benetton Treviso 26 - 26 Cardiff Blues

	TEAM	PLD	PTS	W	PD	T	PF	TD
1	MUNSTER	9	35	8	79	20	212	12
2	LEINSTER	9	31	6	52	22	222	7
3	GLASGOW	9	29	7	23	14	149	8
4	ULSTER	9	29	6	70	19	196	9
5	OSPREYS	9	27	5	77	22	228	11
6	SCARLETS	9	20	4	-12	15	171	-3
7	NG DRAGONS	9	19	4	4	12	163	-1
8	EDINBURGH	9	17	4	-54	16	175	-10
9	CARDIFF BLUES	9	16	3	-33	12	184	-9
10	TREVISO	9	14	2	-22	-7	166	-7
11	ZEBRE	9	8	1	-76	15	161	-6
12	CONNACHT	9	7	1	-96	11	127	-9

NB - after “matches played”, stats on the table are listed from left to right in order of priority

Next Pro12 matches

Fri 20, Cardiff Blues v Ospreys, Cardiff Arms Park, 19:05

Fri 20, Ulster v Zebre, Ravenhill, Belfast, 19:05

Fri 20, Edinburgh v Leinster, Murrayfield, Edinburgh, 19:35

Fri 20, Glasgow v Benetton Treviso, Scotstoun Stadium, 19:35

Sat 21, Connacht v Dragons, Galway Sportsground, 17:00

Sat 21, Munster v Scarlets, Musgrave Park, Cork, 19:15

Scarlets-19 Leinster-42

FEEDING FRENZY

Having success against Leinster hinges on how you handle their defence, and it would seem there are various ways that clubs decide to approach it.

Teams that managed it last season like Clérmont and Ulster operated legally by setting themselves up like a coiled spring ready to pounce whenever there was transition ball and the defensive structure was yet to be set.

Others, it seems, have chosen to go the “dark arts” route by simply grabbing pillar and/or post defenders and dragging them out of position altogether creating some space for the ball carriers to attack, as you can see Scarlet prop Phil John is doing to Daragh Fanning in the picture. This is the move that led to the home side's only “try” (more on that later) by skipper Rob McCusker and wasn't the only thing missed by referee John Lacey on the night, or even in this passage of play for that matter.

Of course the fact that Llanelli raced into an early 13-0 lead wasn't merely down to this tactic, though it certainly helped. Nor was it the fact that Lacey was having trouble understanding his new TMO powers.

Simon Easterby's Scarlets were also finding some genuine gaps (some aided by Dave Keanrey's unnecessary high tackle and binning) in the Leinster defence with flanker Aaron Shingler breaking the line more often than not and although the visitors had yet to have a decent opportunity with the ball themselves it looked to all intents and purposes that a repeat of last year's opening day drubbing was on the cards.

But you couldn't really say anything about the match as a contest until Leinster had some red zone possession, and as soon as they did, things really did look ominous for the Welsh region. Penalty kicked to the corner, lineout, maul, Martin Moore try. All way, way too easy for a first attempt and whatever about the way the Scarlets were dealing with Leinster's defence, it seemed they had many issues of their own to consider.

Plus there's the fact that Leinster's strength without the ball isn't just about setting a string of tacklers across the pitch either – it's a multi-faceted system that can thwart you in different ways, and the sparse Parc y Scarlets crowd was given a textbook demonstration of the choke tackle more than once in the first half and although it wasn't until the second that Leinster got themselves the lead, you could already see they were getting a stranglehold on the match.

Still, all was not perfect for the Pro12 champs and Matt O'Connor will have much to work on during the week, not least the scrum. I can't for the life of me understand what was going on between Eoin Reddan and Sean Cronin. Both have experience at the highest level of the game, and although that was gained in a era when crooked feeds and zero actual hooking were commonplace, you'd have thought that this would have all been sorted in the preseason, yet they proceeded as if somehow the laws didn't apply to them, and in turn subs Isaac Boss and Aaron Dundon did more or less the same when they came on.

I can have absolutely no complaints about the crooked feed calls that went against us on the night and we were lucky not to be punished more, both on the scoreboard and by yellow cards. I am firmly in favour of what these laws are trying to achieve, and perhaps the IRB can go a bit further by providing a more technical definition when it comes to the put-in.

Much the way the forward pass laws have been tweaked to give us something to look for as the pass is taking place (ie the hands going backwards) I reckon we could have a clearer definition of what constitutes the “channel” down which the ball must go in the scrum. Once the two front rows come together they form a line of six heads right above said channel and surely the ball must at least touch the ground immediately under it before it can move towards the back of the scrum. But even without this type of clarity we should have been better on the put-ins and hopefully this will be sorted out by next week.

But the scrum protocols were a doddle compared to the new use of the TMO. Rob McCusker did not ground the ball for his try. Sure, I didn't notice because I was too busy raging about Phil John's infraction, not to mention the blatant missed knock-on that came before the opening penalty kick. And it seems Lacey didn't notice it either as he only asked for the final pass to be looked at. Had he added a “try yes or no” to his query, McCusker's obvious fumble would have been spotted.

I guess we have to give everyone involved a few weeks of competitive action to get used to the new laws...hopefully it will all be sorted by the time the Heineken Cup kicks off.

As for positive individual displays for Leinster, Jimmy Gopperth was well deserving of his man-of-the-match award...some excellent strikes from the tee, great positioning, support play which led to his try, tackling, and strong accurate passing as well; all in all a superb 80-minute shift.

There were also good outings from other Leinster new-boys, particularly Darragh Fanning on the wing who must surely retain his place for a home debut next Saturday. Every involvement had a positive outcome for us, and he was particularly strong in the choke-tackle situations.

But the real key to our success, especially in the second half, was our back row. The Scarlets fell foul of the “knock-on gremlins” that we have been all too familiar with ourselves in Septembers past, and this was mostly down to the efforts of Rhys Ruddock, Shane Jennings and most of all Jordi Murphy.

Jenno hasn't impressed me as a captain before this season but over the past couple of matches he really seems to be getting stuck into his role as a leader by motivation as well as example.

Jordi may not thank me for saying this, but on the evidence of his second half display, although he was at number 8 on the night, he seems to approach the breakdown area with an intelligence that reminds me of a certain well known All Black number 7. The ability of a back rower to turn the wrong place into the right one is a priceless skill in this sport and if he continues to play like this he'll be banging on the door of the HCup starting XV for sure.

We weren't without our full-on brainfarts...Kearney's early high tackle was “bettered” by Darren Hudson who's jump into Kevin Bacon Liam Williams was inexplicable. Still though, both repaid their debts with five-pointers towards the end. And Eoin Reddan didn't just have me roaring at the telly at scrum-time...taking a quick tap pen at halfway when the lead was still just the one point belied his position as the province's presumptive started and there is plenty of number 9 talent waiting in the wings whould he fail to improve.

Then there's Luke's departure on 42 minutes. I almost don't know what to say.

We were always mindful of his picking up an injury, but I'm sure all of us thought it would at least come from some form of contact. After a good first half, all he was doing was running a support line for a break by Dave Kearney before he pulled up and had to be substituted. All we can do now is cross our fingers, eyes and toes and wait for the Monday update, which I will post at the end of this report once it appears.

Perhaps O'Connor & his staff had a word with John Lacey at halftime about the Scarlets' attempts to thwart our defensive setup because McCusker himself was pinged for it as his side threatened our line towards the end. But either way, despite the bright start it just wasn't to be for the home side and fair play to the BBC Wales commentary team (including Jonathan “Numbaz!” Davies) who were full of praise for the visitors throughout the second half especially.

So it has only been 80 minutes and already Matt has done better with the Leinster reigns than Joe did at the same stage in 2010. We'll just see now how those pesky Ospreys plan to deal with our defence next Saturday at the RDS; should be a cracking encounter between the league's biggest cross-nation rivals.

As for the Scarlets, they will improve.  They certainly couldn’t have expected such a smooth overall start even from team just off a treble, and when they get the likes of Jonathan Davies back and get more from young starlets like Jordan Williams they will no doubt be challenging for top four honours once more this season despite the high-profile departures.

On a weekend where the soccer team's fortunes have fallen through the Trap door and the all-Ireland hype needlessly (in my opinion anyway – it was a great match but at LEAST have some extra time!!!) ended in stalemate, there can be no doubt that it was the rugby season's official kick-off that provided the most positive highlight of Ireland's sporting weekend. JLP

FOLLOW THIS LINK FOR THE SQUAD UPDATE, DOESN’T SEEM SO BAD…

ALSO THIS WEEKEND

Dragons 15 - 8 Ulster

Glasgow 22 - 15 Cardiff Blues

Connacht 25 - 16 Zebre

Benetton Treviso 19 - 24 Ospreys

Munster 34 - 23 Edinburgh

	TEAM	PLD	PTS	W	PD	T	PF	TD
1	LEINSTER	1	5	1	23	5	42	4
2	MUNSTER	1	5	1	11	5	34	3
3	CONNACHT	1	4	1	9	3	25	2
4	GLASGOW	1	4	1	7	1	22	1
5	NG DRAGONS	1	4	1	7	0	15	-1
6	OSPREYS	1	4	1	5	2	24	1
7	TREVISO	1	1	0	-5	1	19	-1
8	ULSTER	1	1	0	-7	1	8	1
9	CARDIFF BLUES	1	1	0	-7	0	15	-1
10	ZEBRE	1	0	0	-9	1	16	-2
11	EDINBURGH	1	0	0	-11	2	23	-3
12	SCARLETS	1	0	0	-23	1	19	-4

stats on the table are presented in order of importance from left to right, ie if match points level then it’s wins, then pts difference, tries scored, points for and try difference

Leinster-32 Scarlets-5

Every Wednesday morning at 9am we dip into the HoR archives…over the off-season we have been going month-by-month through Leinster’s 2013/14 campaign.  This week we’re in February - as Ireland’s Six Nations campaign went from good to bad to worse, Leinster were quietly putting together a decent string of results to atone for the disappointment of falling just short in the Heineken Cup.  This match at the RDS also came right after the news of Jonathan Sexton’s move to France.

I GOT THIS

The coaching staff from the four provinces are meant to know their place when it comes to the mother ship, but sometimes I wonder if they manage to find a way to make a point without actually saying it publicly.

A few weeks ago Ulster head coach Mark Anscombe named Tom Court to the tight-head position on the same weekend as Ireland played Wales, as if to suggest that the answer to Declan Kidney's problems in that area were right under his nose despite what happened at Twickenham last March.

Last night at the RDS I got the impression Joe Schmidt's Leinster were determined to show the Irish brains trust exactly what they were missing when they decided that Ian Madigan's only worth to the full test squad was to hold tackle bags for a week. And they did so by presenting viewers with the ultimate “game of two halves”.

The Scarlets have never been an easy team for us to put away in Dublin – it took a last-gasp McFadden penalty last season to get the job done. And after their win over Munster last week, they certainly must have felt they could come away with something from this encounter.

But going by their approach on the night, it seemed they were more interested in damage limitation – setting a defensive cordon and making things as difficult for the home side as they could. With Leinster's defence as reliable as ever, Llanelli’s only hope of a five-pointer would be to ship it out wide quickly and hope for a break and sure enough that's how they found the space for Andy Fenby's try.

The reason Leinster were a bit off guard, however, was that they had just broken through for a score themselves, with Andrew Goodman taking Conway's “Hail Mary” pass and crashing through Owen Williams to touch down.

And although the New Zealand import didn't exactly light things up from the kicking tee with three misses added to Noel Reid's one in the first half, he still did well to account for all out first half points and once he had a more accomplished out-half inside him he could focus more on his vital role in the centre with Eoin O'Malley which I feel has been the corner-stone of Leinster's shipping just 5 points in two successive matches.

But after an indifferent first half, we saw Ian Madigan trotting out of the dressing room taking his place at the centre to start the second. When news of Jonny Sexton's departure to France broke, a picture soon emerged on the net suggesting all was not lost at Leinster for next season thanks to the former Rock boy.

Well with all due respect to Noel Reid, the situation simply couldn't have been teed up more for the “Mad-dog” to show everyone what his presence on the pitch can do to a rugby team.

Now I'm not going to suggest his actual performance was perfect on the night...a pass or two went astray, a penalty or two didn't find touch, a place kick was missed. But although there were some great performances elsewhere on the park, particularly in the Leinster pack, there was an “x-factor” needed to turn those performances into points and you really can't deny that Madigan brought it.

To single out some of those displays by Leinster forwards, I have to highlight Jordi Murphy. Aaron Dundon got the nod for Man of the Match and certainly played well enough to show he belongs at this level (as do Jack McGrath and Ben Marshall I must add), but I would have given the award to Jordi for putting in what can only be described as a performance at Number 8 Jamie Heaslip would be proud of. Tackles, crash ball, steady-ness at the base of the scrum and of course the third try.

And it wasn't just the youngsters who were producing...watching back the action you have to love the way both Leo Cullen and Shane Jennings were pumped up for the occasion. The skipper was right on the ball to be sure that the ref asked “question number two” for that second TMO decision for the Dundon try, while during Leinster's fruitless 10-minute with the extra man Jenno was constantly screaming at the time-wasting Scarlets to hurry up at set-pieces.

Speaking of Jennings...what was that TMO on for that try which he wouldn't award? There was one angle that proved our number 7 got the ball down. There was another that proved he was over the line. Nuff said!

And speaking of set-pieces...with all the talk about the danger of Cian Healy's stamp on Dan Cole and how dangerous that could be, I wonder how the Welsh fans feel about what George Earle did to Dominic Ryan to earn his yellow card in the first half. True, the lifters may have held Jordi up for longer than is legal. But to take out a lifter like that is the type of action that can end a player's career. Hopefully a citing will follow despite the card.

But anyway...what was already a satisfying victory became one with a crucial bonus point after Jamie Hagan pounced on a loose ball in midfield with the clock at 79:54. The ball was shipped out wide and Dave Kearney took full advantage of the knackered Scarlet defence to get the ball near the tryline and the ever-improving John Cooney proved the hero by diving under Jordi's armpit over the line for try number four.

It was a freezing cold night at the RDS with a few snow flurries for good measure, but with a display that certainly negated the hammering we took from these Scarlets on opening day, the Leinster faithful who braved the weather were certainly well rewarded.   And the “Mad-dog” popping over the conversion from the corner was the cherry on the icing on the cake.

If Paddy Jackson can take the Ireland reins today with a fraction of Madigan's confidence, he'll do just fine. JLP

Also this weekend

Cardiff Blues 22 - 26 Connacht

Glasgow 20 - 14 Ulster

Ospreys 24 - 7 Edinburgh

Benetton Treviso 34 - 10 Munster

Zebre 13 - 14 Dragons

Leinster-33 Scarlets-14

MORE LIKE IT

While I wouldn't exactly call myself an “ABU” supporter when it comes to football, there's one quality in the culture around Manchester United & a portion of their fans I certainly wouldn't want to see replicated in Leinster Rugby circles.

Backing yourself to consistently produce excellence is one thing, but assuming that positive results are somehow an automatic right is definitely another.

Leinster were out-gunned by Clermont Auvergne in the back-to-back series in December, plain and simple. That, together with just three tries scored in four matches put us in the situation we were in going into these final two matches against the Scarlets and Exeter.

As we have often heard in relation to the economy, “we are where we are” and all Joe Schmidt could do was lay out a gameplan that was designed to maximise the try-scoring return from both matches. This meant he needed a 160-minute strategy, not the regular 80-minute one, because no matter how many marquee players you have at your disposal, if you wear them out one week you risk being without some of them the next.

So if some Leinster fans want to bemoan the fact that we “only” scored five tries on Saturday evening, that is of course their right, but you won't hear anything like that from me. All I wanted from these two matches was for us to be seen to be going for it, and I for one am pleased to report it's job done so far with a bit left in the tank for the phase 2 in Devon next week.

Take Cian Healy, for example. In rounds 1-4 of the Heineken Cup this season he had been credited with 19 carries in 224 minutes. Last Saturday, he had 12 in the first half alone (including the crucial opening try), and then was taken off for the more-than-able replacement Heinke van der Merwe. I could be wrong, but I'd wager Church was told to go for broke in the first half rather than pace himself as players (especially props) are normally advised to do.

Maybe that wasn't the case, but still you can be sure that the coaching ticket had to think along those lines with the two matches in mind, I mean just look who he had wearing the number 23 jumper!

But despite all the planning and preparation, there's also the small matter of your opposition. They're never there to make up the numbers, and even if they are missing a number of key players much as Leinster were earlier in the season, you can be pretty sure that at Heineken Cup level they're going to have a few names who can do damage.

ESPN's statistician says the Scarlets defence had 193 tackles to make on the night. Not all of them were successful, not all of them were legal (will get to that later), but still that's a monumental effort for any team that's under the kosh from the very kickoff, and in players like Liam Williams (who no doubt Ireland will get to know shortly) and Sione Timani (who wasn't even supposed to start) the Welsh region certainly didn't roll over for us.

Now it's time to write about how the boys in blue played. Every ounce of the intensity from one to fifteen we showed in Murrayfield last week was still there, right from the opening kickoff. That first try was always going to be a crucial ice-breaker and it only took us seven minutes for Church to worm his way over the line. Despite the late withdrawal of Sean O'Brien, the forwards were also responsible for the second courtesy of Shane Jennings.

But surely the most welcome feast for the eyes of the RDS faithful was the man-of-the-match display by Luuuuuke Fitzgerald, and he certainly wasn't simply awarded it for scoring the third try. The restarts seemed to be magnetically drawn to him and he dealt with every one, the jinking runs are back and even the odd tackle around his neck area (dangerous for anyone but particularly Luke given his recent history) couldn't stop him.

Another man who couldn't be put down was Jonathan Sexton. I tend not to mention him too much in writeups because it's easy to take his abilities for granted. But it's not just the general running of the offensive pace that deserves a mention...you can almost put your house on him being first in with a tackle moments after receiving treatment, and it's not often his misses one either.

Final Leinster player I'm singling out is Jamie Heaslip. There's a very lazy analysis going around the ruggersphere about him that he's “invisible”. Those who say that need to open their eyes and watch Leinster's Heineken Cup campaign to date. 54 successful tackles in a row altogether, 24 carries on Saturday, a more-than-handy lineout option and to those who think he's no good at number 8, look how much front-foot ball we got off the back of scrums and think again.

OK now I run the risk of contradicting myself. Leinster were on a mission to score tries, but the referee's job is certainly not to help that happen. So some may say that for Joe Schmidt to go down to the tunnel and meet Jerome Garces at halftime to complain about the amount of penalties the Scarlets were shipping in their own 22 was a move on a par with Sir Alex Ferguson.

But a look at the stats tells you 14 penalties in total were awarded in the first half. SIX were committed by the visitors when we had the ball in their 22. Of those, two were never taken because we scored tries, but I can't for the life of me understand why the ref didn't at least issue a warning.

And the most ironic thing of all? Impressive and all as the Scarlets move was that created their lone try on the halftime buzzer (14 phases followed by a crossfield kick), the extra space was there because we were down to 14 men as Fergus McFadden was receiving treatment down the other end of the park. Given the way were were constantly breaching the gainline when we had the ball I can only imagine how we would have done with the extra man ourselves.

Honourable mention in the performance department goes to Devin “part giraffe part lighthouse” Toner (courtesy of Sky's Mark Robson), who although still not exactly crushing all before him with the ball, certainly chipped in with a neat pass for Luke's try and got us on the front foot by snagging the second half restart that led almost directly to Rob Kearney's superbly taken try that locked down the bonus point.

It was fitting that Ian Madigan added a fifth dot-down at the death, one which we could well be thankful for when all is said and done. It's a crying shame that there's no foreseeable way to shoe-horn him into the starting lineup when everyone is available (some say scrum-half but Messrs Boss & Reddan haven't done much wrong to justify that drastic switch) but he is certainly the perfect man to bring on for the final quarter – if you really want to level criticism at Schmidt, maybe he could have come on earlier than the 71^st minute.

How do we approach next week? Well, if the coaching staff had a 160-minute strategy, I'd say there's no need to deviate from it whatsoever. Would I make changes in personnel? Well, although Aaron Dundon did extremely well in his cameo, it would of course be a huge boost to have Richardt Strauss back in the fray. Similar goes for Jordi Murphy when it comes to Sean O'Brien.

If our injury count is clear today and we get those two regular starters back next week, there's every chance we can equal or better this display. No doubt the Chiefs and their amazing (and vocal) fans will have something to say about it, but like I said, all we can do is deal with our side of the equation as best as we can. I do expect to see a lot less “molly-coddling” of the matchday squad next week...with key matches to take place on the following day elsewhere, all we can do is keep going and going until the final whistle and see where we land.

After that, all we will have left to do is pray. Perhaps when you've won three out of four Heineken Cups that's not where you want to be going into round six. But we must remember that when we won the first of those three titles, we lost two of our pool matches, finished on 20 points, and actually finished first, albeit as sixth seed overall.  That same total is what we are still desperately craving now yet it comes with no guarantees.

Such is the nature of this great competition and its complex pool phase. It's never about one team's quest for glory, it's about great squads all over Europe going at it for a place in the knockout stage. You can be sure nobody is ruling out the reigning champions just yet on this display. Here's hoping there's more like it to come. JLP

Also this weekend…

Northampton Saints 18 - 12 Castres

Sale Sharks 6 - 27 Montpellier

Ulster 23 - 6 Glasgow

Harlequins 47 - 8 Connacht

Toulon 45 - 25 Cardiff Blues

Zebre 6 - 32 Biarritz

Racing Metro 28 - 37 Saracens

Clermont Auvergne 46 - 3 Exeter Chiefs

Edinburgh 17 - 26 Munster

Ospreys 15 - 15 Leicester Tigers

Toulouse 35 - 14 Benetton Treviso

Scarlets-45 Leinster-20

FASHIONABLY LATE

If you're throwing a party and you tell guests the festivities start at 8pm, you certainly don't expect everyone to show up bang on eight bells.

It's an unwritten rule that you're meant to give at least an hour before you make your way there, hoping enough people take the invitation literally for there to be a decent buzz going on when you finally do make your grand entrance.

That the IRFU through their player management programme deprives the provinces of their internationals in the early weeks of the season is not unusual in world rugby – the actual policy itself may be unique, but unions generally have their own way of controlling the fitness of their players for the long haul, and yes, I'm including the English and French ones in that.

Trouble is, it's a bitter pill to swallow for the loyal fans who have spent the entire summer counting down the days till the new season only to see their heroes crushed on opening day in Wales for the second consecutive year.

You certainly cannot take anything away from the Scarlets – they chose to arrive at the Pro12 party right on time and were rewarded with five league points against the European Champions, and not just thanks to impressive contributions from their host of “recognised” talent either. Names like Liam Williams, Andy Fenby and Aaron Shingler will be long remembered by Leinster fans after this tortuous Saturday evening's viewing.

Whether new head coach Simon Easterby can keep his squad focused until the bigger Heineken party gets under way in October remains to be seen, but they were certainly well prepared for this one and there is no question who has the bragging rights in the Easterby family for the immediate future.

The way the two lineups stacked up before this contest, if Leinster were to get anything out of it, they needed a decent amount of points on the board in the first quarter. Instead, we had done to us what we inflicted on many a team last season.

I lost count of the games in the 2011/12 campaign where the opposition took a 3 or 7-0 lead before we had even gotten a decent attacking opportunity, only for us to hit right back with a score once we did. That is exactly what happened to us at Parc y Scarlets.

You're on the road, you're 3-0 up, your team has just forced a turnover in your own half. If you choose at that moment to try a little dink over the man facing you at midfield, it's a monumental risk – if it comes off, it's genius, if it doesn't, it's stupidity. Sadly for Fionn Carr, the latter happened and not long after that Scott Williams was opening the Scarlets' account on the scoreboard.

But when the DVD session takes place at Leinster HQ this week and the seven Scarlet tries are examined, it won't be the chip kick that will be discussed, though I feel Carr will still find himself in the firing line. The foundation of Leinster's success since 2009 has been our defence, and when the positioning & first-hit tackling is so poor from positions 11 through 14 for eighty minutes, any team is going to struggle.

Some may say in Brendan Macken's defence in particular that he was thrown a block by referee Neil Patterson when attempting to make his tackle for the second try by Liam Williams. I'd be more inclined to say (also in his defence) that it was his lack of experience at this level that had his positioning so poor, not just at that stage, but at several key moments throughout the match, with his fellow centre Noel Reid in a similar situation.

And I can't really see how this vulnerability at 12 & 13 is going to improve over the coming weeks unless the likes of Reid, Macken & O'Shea can find their feet at this level quickly. It isn't just player management and injury that is hurting us; new signing Andrew Goodman would have slotted in perfectly at 12, sadly he remains with his Tasman Makos until they exit the ITM Cup – I fear he may not be as needed when he eventually does make the trip north even when the November internationals come around.

But it wasn't all negative from Leinster – I thought the pack did extremely well in every phase of the game. Lineouts were solid, we had the better of their scrum, and at very least we matched them at the breakdown. Although the tackling demons were there for all to see for what proved to be the decisive third try shortly after the break, Shane Jennings put in two massive tackles in the build up which shouldn't go unmentioned.

Jennings' backrow colleagues were equally active throughout, until of course poor, poor Dominic Ryan got the injury bug again...fingers crossed it won't turn out to be too serious.

Maybe, just maybe, if Leinster had an extra man at certain points, they could have stemmed the flow. A dangerous tackle in the air by Liam Williams on Isaac Boss went unnoticed by the officials - “that'll be in the referee's report on Monday” said an Irish accent in the crowd – not sure, but at least it's in mine!

Then in the second half before the margin got silly we were starting to look threatening and the Scarlets were giving away successive penalties at the breakdown – Patterson gave them a warning, telling them to warn even their substitutes, then did absolutely nothing at the next breakdown penalty they conceded shortly afterwards. But to be perfectly honest, I'm not so sure a couple of sin-binnings would have helped us with the result.

Ian Madigan had a couple of boo-boos but was one of the better tacklers and of course finished the game with a try. John Cooney looks a lot more ready for this level than he did 12 months ago, so I don't have half as many worries about the 9 & 10 positions as I do 11 through 14.

Next week, however, the Leinster action moves to the RDS for the first time this season. The Dragons, coming themselves off a big opening day win (albeit over a Zebre team still trying to earn their, er, stripes), will be under no illusions. We'll see how the boys in blue can pick themselves up and get this year's party started for real.

I finished my writeup of our defeat at Liberty Stadium last season with the following line...it seems to belong at the end of this one too.

“Besides – Leinster don't do opening day wins, it doesn't seem in our nature, and I reckon we have the right man at the helm to turn things around even more quickly than he did last year. “ JLP

Also last weekend…

Dragons 37 - 6 Zebre

Benetton Treviso 12 - 6 Ospreys

Ulster 18 - 10 Glasgow

Connacht 9 - 13 Cardiff Blues

Edinburgh 18 - 23 Munster

Leinster-16 Scarlets-13

[Update November 27, 2013] Archive time here at HoR…this Saturday’s meeting with the Scarlets will be Leinster’s SIXTH time facing the boys from Llanelli in the last 15 months, so I have gone a bit further afield to find a previous meeting.  This one came less than a week after that Six Nations match in Paris was frozen off at the last minute, and it was when I finally decided to use my website to highlight my biggest pet peeve at Leinster matches.

VALUE

I totally get that not everyone is into sports. What I don't get is why you would take the time to actually go to a sporting fixture without staying to the very end.

Yet there it was yet again at the RDS on Friday night. When there was as much as ten minutes left on the clock, people started making their way towards the exits. This baffles me every time, but even more so when the scores are deadlocked as they were.

I'm not just talking one or two people either, yet annoying as it is to see, at least there was some consolation for those of us who stayed in that they missed the pivotal moment of the match right at the end.

The exodus wasn't the only thing that happened before full-time that perhaps shouldn't have. For every Pro12 contest there is a “Man of the Match” award but clearly one of our national banks isn't happy with merely having its name on the Leinster jersey as well as all over the RDS hoardings – they'd also like their name called out over the loudspeaker towards the end of every match, whether or not the entire crowd is there to hear it!

Thus we also have The Bank Of Ireland Most Valuable Player Award, and for this match it was awarded to Devin Toner around the 75-minute mark. Now I reckon the big lad is having a good season, not enough to get him ahead of Donnacha Ryan in the Irish pecking order, but still good.

But since Leinster's main problem in the first half, and in turn the reason this game remained so close, was an inability to turn trips to the Scarlet 22 into points on the scoreboard, the fact that Toner had one glaring knockon plus a ball lost in contact towards halftime, surely should have put him out of the running.

And as it happened the “official” man-of-the-match was Leinster skipper on the night Kevin McLaughlin. It's true, he made some telling contributions throughout including a key turnover or two, but even in his case I'd wonder was it right to go for tries rather than points on the board early on with kickable penalties, plus the glaring (yet admittedly rare) gap in our defence which led to Daniel Newton's try stands to him in part. Though he had just made a tackle he still raised his hand declaring himself “pillar” of the next ruck even though (a) his back was turned towards the opposition and (b) there was clearly nobody guarding the crucial centre area, a fact the experienced Fijian World Cup captain Deacon Manu exploited to the full.

Maybe I'm being hard on Messrs Toner & McLaughlin especially as both featured in the buildup to the Leinster try right at the very start of the second half, but then again, such must be the standards at a club that's been so succesful of late.

For me, when you're talking about a teams most “valuable” player, you're talking about the one without whom you wouldn't have won. And while it doesn't always follow in rugby that the player who scores the actual points fits this bill, it certainly does in this case.

And whatever about the attacking momentum Leinster had when he received the ball, Fergus McFadden certainly had a lot of work to do to get over the line from where he was, yet with a shuffle of the feet and a determined drive to the line he gave his side the a second-half start that was reminiscent of last May in Cardiff.

But though his contribution there was important it was nothing compared to what happened at the end of the match while so many fans were shuffling down the Simmonscourt and Anglesea Roads.

Though going into the contest McFadden led the Pro12 in place-kicking with a 95% record, he had already missed a couple on the night and was by no means guaranteed making the penalty awarded by Nigel Owens on 79:41 for his pet peeve all night, playing the ball off your feet, with sub Scarlet prop Phil John the culprit this time.

So he had it all to do yet he made no alteration to his routine and stroked it clean over the bar to keep his side's impressive winning streak in the competition going. That, for me, was value for money.

Overall as a contest it wasn't exactly the most exciting one ever seen in Ballsbridge – as I have already said Leinster couldn't get things going with the ball in the first half though the Scarlets came to defend and for the most part made a good job of it – they certainly would have been delighted with the draw.

Players like Ian Madigan and even Isa Nacewa were quiet by their own recent standards. Leo Auva'a was his usual rampaging self when he came on at halftime and as for the scrum-half position it wasn't so much that Reddan had a bad outing, it just wasn't his style of game. What was needed was a 9 who was willing to steal yards off the fringes and Eoin didn't start really doing that until he spotted Boss on the sideline ready to come on at the 60-minute mark. I have a feeling if Isaac had started we could have gotten more on the board in the first half.

But that's enough of my nit-picking! If I'm not careful you'll stop reading this post before I get to the end!

Perhaps it wasn't perfect but when all was said and done Leinster got the win and with the Ospreys failing to get themselves a bonus point at home to Aironi, we maintain that impressive ten-point cushion at the top of the table.

With so many away matches left on the schedule for Joe Schmidt's men, including trips to both Thomond Park and Ravenhill, we might well find ourselves in May looking back and appreciating just how valuable Fergus' contribution really was. JLP

ALSO IN THIS ROUND

Cardiff Blues 21-14 Ulster

Ospreys 23-7 Aironi

Treviso 14-35 Munster

Dragons 21-10 Edinburgh

Connacht 13-13 Glasgow

Leinster-39 Scarlets-7

AWESOME v AWFUL

I can’t decide whether Leinster’s second bonus-point hammering of the Scarlets in as many weeks was a result of us being awesome or them being awful, so I guess I’ll have to go with a combination of both.

Sure, the visitors started brightly enough, yet despite being in our half for most of the first twenty minutes, they still found themselves ten-nil down.

And even though Rob Kearney had his worst outing at 15 this season, he still helped himself to two tries.

The backs got all the glory in the scoring department, with two more each from both Drico and Darce plus a post-interception sprint the length of the pitch for Shaggy.

As for detractors of Shaun Berne, well there were still some rumblings of discontent around where I was shivering/sitting in the new stand but the way I saw it, he had a big part to play in at least three of the seven tries and deserves as much credit for this outing as he did last week.

In fact there’s not much more you can say about this team performance in that they carried on where they left off at halftime in Parc y Scarlets, and got the job done.

Maybe the crucial difference between the two sides was the respective home support. Both squads had a few injuries, but Leinster were more than able to allow for them, and having full houses every week helps give you the financial clout to do it. Can’t say the same for the Welsh regions I’m afraid!

Out of respect to our vanquished opposition yesterday, I’ll keep this post short and include a picture from the one try they did score via Rhys Priestland, in the hope that they can bounce back and take some group points off the LettinOn Irish in the next round.

Anything to make our job easier at the Madjeski Stadium, where this Pool is bound to be decided.