Leinster-6 London Wasps-41

Click here to listen to the pre-match HarpinBoo “Wasps, Women & Wonga” [Included in the AudioBoo recording is the result of the recent poll for ideal starting Leinster XV]

STUNG II

Most ironic element of Leinster’s pre-season opening hiding at Donnybrook? The fact that Wasps exactly replicated the 41 points we put on them at the OarDeeEss in the Heineken Cup back in October ‘08 on our way to winning the trophy.

So I suppose, in some ways, you could call it a revenge of sorts…

But if you look at the two starting lineups you’ll see there could have been only one winner on the night.

Even with the return of Messrs Fitzgerald, O’Brien & Toner, our predominately-Academy XV was never going to be a match for the likes of Vickery, Betsen, Varndell & Houghton (seen touching down above). Basically we saw two squads at completely different levels of readiness for the new campaign and we can only hope coach Schmidt has enough time to get his boys in sync for the big kickoff in Glasgow on September 3.

The home side’s performance was everything a cynic would have expected from a Leinster team having just lost Kurt McQuilkin from the backroom…much like last season, we were unable to get anything going on the offensive side, only this time we were leaking tries as well.

Still, I’m pretty sure there was plenty of video footage for the technician perched on a cherry picker filming behind the goal at the Bective end (see pic) to show the likes of Madigan, Sheridan & O’Malley over the coming week, and the whole thing has to be chalked up to experience.

There were a couple of injury worries in the props department with the sight of Stan Wright limping off becoming worrying familiar and Mike Ross also picking up a knock, hopefully both will be able to return soon. [Update...a couple of hours after writing this post I learned that Stan is probably out for the whole season. Disaster! Gutted for him, he's a Leinster cult hero.]

Also a tad disconcerting was Joe Schmidt’s admission in his post-game interview that “this year will be difficult”, but that’s probably a case of a blogger reading too much into a throwaway remark. It is, isn’t it?

Anyway, from a spectator’s standpoint, it was still great to get back to watching live rugby, even if the ticket price was steep (€30 for the stand at Donnybrook, compared to Glasgow Warriors who hosted Sale Sharks at Firhill the same night and only asked for £10).

Let’s just say it was enough to make me look forward to receiving my season ticket in the post during the week. The rugby season is here, folks!

© JL Pagano 2010