There’s only one rugby pundit I hate agreeing with more than George Hook, and that’s Sky’s Stu Barnes.
Unfortunately, he was right on the money with his appraisal of Leinster’s lot halfway through this titanic Heineken Cup quarter-final at the Stoop yesterday.
I can only paraphrase but the gist of what he was saying is that we’re too conscious of the “Galacticos” nature of our squad and we tend to go for the conventional option at times when perhaps the situation calls for something special.
What could possibly have proved this more than our second penalty kick, which although it came in the first half proved to be the winner, came on the back of yet another burst of genius from BOD which left him a width of a blade of grass short of the try line.
The reason I agree with Barnes is that, as I’ve stated on this blog before, our backline moves seem to be structured so as to only involve numbers 10, 12 and 13, while our back three can only contribute to the offence by collecting scraps.
The person who suffers most from this in the Leinster squad is Luke Fitzgerald. The boy is wasted out there, and I contend that if we are to bring our offence up to a level that will come near to matching the world class defence yesterday, we’ll need to be more creative in the backline.
I firmly believe that despite last week’s Thomond thrashing we are more than capable of beating of nemises in three weeks’ time.
It’s hard for me to go into too much more detail about the Quins match since with all its drama right to the final whistle it’s all a complete blur in my memory!!!
One thing I do recall is the inexplicable penalty Bernard Jackman gave away right at the death by blatantly coming in from the side of a ruck at his own 22. I let loose a string of every expletive I could think of at the TV screen, each one of them preceded by the word “baldy”. Let’s just say he’s forgiven by now!!!
Also it would be remiss not to praise the home side for their contribution on the day, even if their Director of Rugby Dean Richards was a bit ungracious in his post-match interview. They certainly played their part in a contest whose scoreline looked more like the result of a game of snooker than rugby.
All in all it was a relief to hear Nigel Owens blow that final whistle, and things are gearing up for an historic day for Irish rugby on May 2 which will not only be a Grand Slam celebration party but will also give the whole “rugby at Croke Park” experiment the sendoff it deserves. JLP
Note...this writeup was written before the whole "bloodgate" thing came to light.
