Sorry the picture isn’t of Man of the Match Nacewa to go with my headline…if Colin Heyburn isn’t at the RDS it’s very difficult to get pictures the next day and I can’t seem one of him from the night.
Instead you see a snap taken by my iPhone moments before Leinster registered their last points of the evening…Fergus McFadden’s conversion of Dempsey’s try right before halftime was to hit the left upright and drop over making him a perfect 4 for 4 with the boot to go with his own earlier touchdown.
But he wouldn’t have had his try were it not for a mesmerising line break from Nacewa followed by a slide-rule offload. The Kiwi has been incredible since things kicked off last August, and if the decision were to be made right now I’d say he has to be our Player of the Season. It would be easy to pick out one of our Ireland internationals but truth be told were it not for Nacewa’s consistency our Magners League position wouldn’t be nearly as strong as it is now.
It was also clear to see just how Michael Cheika has played a part in getting us where we are. Since our XV lineup changes from game to game even more so that usual this time of year, it’s extremely hard to find cohesion on the attacking front, yet when any Leinster XV of his is on defence, particularly on the goal-line, he has everyone fully drilled as to what to do, and damn, they’re all good at doing it.
And despite his position on the wing, Nacewa was one of the top tacklers on the night.
The only reason Glasgow got the first 5-pointer was because Simon Keogh was slow getting back to his position after his fly-hack forward came to nothing, which left Shaun Berne hopelessly mismatched against the wonderfully-named Hefin O’Hare who did a Highland dance all the way to the line for an impressive finish.
But even when Nigel Owens was playing silly beggars at the death letting the visitors retain possession after the clock went to red with them only six points behind, you always had the sense that we had plenty on the park to bring home the four points if not quite the five. Besides, it would have been tough on Glasgow had they been denied their own bonus so the result was a fitting one all round.
Nine Magners League wins out of twelve, four points clear with a game in hand and a home Heineken Cup quarterfinal to come (my ticket arrived yesterday woo-hoo!)? Yeah, I’d have taken that position when full time was blown on our opening day defeat to the Scarlets that’s for sure!
Yes folks, that’s right, we lost to the SCARLETS on opening day. Had to check the archives to confirm it, but it did happen.
