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What is it about Aviva Premiership coaches not knowing when they’ve been beaten fair and square?
Back in October, Leinster squeaked past Saracens at Twickenham, and as we all know Venter’s comments afterwards were tame for him but still reeking of sour grapes nonetheless.
Yet fierce a competitor as he has always been, Richard Cockerill surprised me a bit when he went straight for the ref in his post match talk.
What say we leave him (and George Hook) with their delusions and get on with what actually happened, shall we?
Two things brought home the bacon. One, the try (main pic), took seconds, the other, our defence, took 80 minutes.
Before I thumb through my thesaurus for words I haven’t yet used this season to describe Isa, let’s look at the tries we DIDN’T score on the day. I may have had a few jars on me, but I was tearing my hair out at half time because we only had a 9-3 lead.
The facts of the first forty minutes were quite simple. When Leicester had an attack in our 22, we’d stop it (even when it was the marauding Manu – pic). When we had an attack in their 22, we’d drop it (the ball that is -it was left to them to drop their shorts!).
Just as I feared before this game, we seemed unwilling to take our time before going for the jugular. No doubt the tactical report showed that rather than go wide, our best chance of success was for someone wearing 11-15 to find a good line and cut back against the grain of a drift defence.
But why do it off the first or second phase? Did we have so little confidence in our forwards that we couldn’t at least have a go at crashing over the line first? Maybe they were trying to save the pack’s breath for their defensive duties?
I know I must have been driving the people sitting around me bonkers, but I probably shouted “keep it simple!” a dozen times. My apologies to everyone in Block 127.
And guess how we got the try that sealed the match? No slick passes, no sly behind-the-back offloads, just our mercurial (found one!) full-back sizing up the defence in front of him, shifting the ball from left arm to right arm to both hands at just the right moments to break through and seal the contest when for all extents and purposes he had no right to.
If you look at the try again, just check out the movement of Isa’s opposite number Scott Hamilton. A veteran of many a big Heineken Cup contest himself, he was so befuddled by the Fijian international’s motions while charging at him that he couldn’t even begin to know how to tackle him - he simply fell over!
So finally we had opened up a double-digit lead, but even when Sexton made it 17-3, you always had a notion that if the visitors could nick a quick score, we’d have a nail-biting last few minutes.
But as it turned out, even though they DID break through and get within a converted try, there was no earthly way they were doing it again as the infamous Leinster defence was able to regroup and run down the clock.
I’m nowhere near an expert on the technical aspects of how the modern game is played, but it was fascinating to watch from where we were sitting, two rows from the front on the 22. We’re fractionally below pitch level so you get a great angle to see the clearing out being done and the primary tackles being made.
And it seemed more often than not, Leinster’s primary tackler had the number 2 on his back.
It was more of a team effort by the pack, particularly in the lineouts where we completely ruled Cockerill’s roost (pic - click here for more from Ken Bohane who was sat beside me), but I was delighted Strauss got the man-of-the-match, probably because I’ve been harpin’ on about his importance to us in this competition since last November.
Elsewhere along the backline, things were solid enough, especially in the tackling department. As for Luke, well, he did drop one or two and there’s a very strong case for McFadden to be given his starting berth, but I’d be very surprised if that actually happened.
My assessment of the visitors? Well, their fans were great. They arrived in large numbers, and I was congratulated by several afterwards, so I don’t mean to offend anyone, but I was extremely disappointed by their heroes’ display given they are the best the English club game has to offer.
It took them till the final quarter to work out the only way to come at us was quickly – I would’ve thought a scan over the second half at Thomond Park the previous week would have them doing it from the start. And as for Ben Youngs and Toby Flood, I very much doubt they’ll fancy coming to Dublin again any time soon.
So now we face a rematch of last year’s semifinal, but under completely different circumstances. This time it’s on OUR patch, this time we’ve a new coach who knows a thing or six about playing and beating Toulouse (Clermont did the Top14 double over them last season) and this time, our young stars are a year smarter.
We must not even think about a trip to Cardiff until the full-time blows against Guy Noves’ men, but one thing is for sure…we’ll be a lot more confident than we were the last time we played a Heineken Cup semifinal in Dublin.
Once we can keep putting the “D” in “D4” I reckon we’ll do alright.
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Elsewhere in the Heineken Cup, it SHOULD have been a full house of home wins, but I guess only Biarritz’ winger Ilikena Bolakoro knows why he dove over the line rather than go for an easier conversion after his side gradually pegged back the reigning champions. In extra time it’d take a brave man to bet against Toulouse. Perpignan were always going to make the most of their clear advantage over Toulon both in ground and experience, while Ulster fought bravely in Milton Keynes against the Saints but ran out of steam near the end. The Nordies are an interesting side to watch in that they only seem to click in to top gear when they’re losing. The move that created Trimble’s try was top-drawer stuff but that ability seemed to evaporate once they had the lead. But for Adam Darcy inexplicably dropping the ball towards the end they could have pinched this one. No disrespect to the Saints who were literally scrappy in the pack thanks to Hartley and Lawes but I have to say I fancy the Catalans to prevail in their semi based on what I saw at the weekend.
