For once I’ll forgive Leinster for a victory which came despite an underwhelming performance.
Basically we won this encounter because we have a deeper bench, and frankly, that’s good enough for me.
Plus there were a few encouraging factors on the night, none more so than the return of Gordon D’Arcy who put in the kind of performance we needed to see from his particularly on the defensive side of the ball. It was also good to finally see a man-of-the-match performance from Rocky Elsom; long may it continue.
It was your typical display from Les Blues this season – we started well, camping out on their 22, but never seemed able to finish off our moves by crossing the line; a penalty or a knock-on would normally ensue instead.
And so it was no surprise that they crossed the line first. Maybe I’m a bit harsh here, but I feel this was Darce’s one boo-boo on the night since he perhaps should have indicated to Dempsey that he had the winger covered so our full-back could have committed to tackling the onrushing Darren Cave rather than be caught in two minds.
But I suppose you can’t grumble too much about an away victory, particularly considering how things have gone for us of late, and with Munster also succumbing to Connacht, the Meaningless League seems a lot more wide open now.
