I am of course very grateful to all who offered a summary of the match! JLP
REPORT BY MICHAL SLAWSKI
(see his own great rugby blog “From The Bottom Of The Ruck”)
Donnybrook Stadium was the venue for Leinster’s last friendly before the start of the Rabodirect Pro 12. A big storm hit the ground before the match, so it was pretty slippery underfoot. But the sun shone for the whole match, and the dampish weather didn’t take away at all from the genial atmosphere amongst the 3900 spectators, including a decent few Saints supporters. An ideal opportunity to have a few pints, catch up with your mates and take in a bit of rugby.
The match was dominated by the Saints, not too badly affected by the absence of their England stars, and most of the match took place in the Leinster 22. Defense was the order of the day for Leinster, and they stuck at their task well, with a careless pass delivering the only try for Northampton. I hope the Irish team watches the highlights and sees how it’s done. Dominic Ryan deserved his man of the match award with sterling tackling and for making a pest of himself at the breakdown. The front row of van der Merwe, Cronin and Hagan made a good fist of holding their own against an impressive Saints front row through a series of fascinating scrum resets. Steven Sykes played well until he was subbed, and Boss was his usual lively self from the base of the scrum. Fionn Carr took his try well, and nearly got another from an earlier breakout. Berquist looks like he’s going to add a lot to the team, and his place kicking was impeccable.
Northampton were always in the lead, adding steadily to their total with a series of penalties. Now far be it for me to criticize the Saints, but do they really need to ship Myler and Lamb over to Dublin to get kicking practice? They could do with some attacking practice as their only try, by Paul Diggin, was handed to them on a plate. Leinster kicked everything they got down to the corner, turning down certain points in the first half. They finally got on the board in the last ten minutes with a well worked forward try from a line out, with Jason Harris-Wright crashing over with his first touch of the ball. Carr’s try meant the match ended on a high for the Leinstermen. They look in good nick to get their Pro 12 season underway.
REPORT BY DAMIAN SCOTT via Facebook
Very young team. Hard to call how the game went with so many changes. I think all 27 players got a run out. Carr, Cronin, Madigan and Fitzgerald stood out among the starters. Berquist was commanding when he came on. Very good kicker of the ball. Leo Auva'a had some very good bursts up the middle when he came on. He is a tank!!! Saints didn't threaten much overall and it was a good defensive display by Leinster. Their try was a mistake by Sheridan (pass across the line that was a bit far and easily intercepted 10 metres out). Good run out overall I think...
REPORT BY @kendoesracing via Twitter
“Leinster a bit rusty and a few silly mistakes. Thought we defended really well.”
“MUJATIGATE” by JLP
Seeing how I was out of town, I didn’t think it could be possible for me to be involved in reporting of this match but a certain Mr Brian Mujati saw to that! Apologies if you’re already understandably weary of this whole thing by now – it’s just this blog is meant to be a resource for posterity so I can’t let the write-up of this match go without mentioning it!
Once Leinster reached the Heineken Cup final I added as many Northampton Saints players to my timeline as I could. So last Saturday morning as I poured through my Twitter timeline I spied this tweet from their prop Mujati :
"Steven Sykes and Heinke van der Merwe were calling me a baboon during the scrums last night. Racism is still alive and things don't change."
So naturally I retweeted it as did others, and not long afterwards the tweet itself was taken down. Many were shocked at the allegations, others pointed out that the prop himself had tweeted several things about Irish people when he arrived in Dublin, expecting to see people drunk on Guinness & Leprechauns everywhere, stuff like that. Anyway – Leinster rugby released statements first on the same day that the matter would be “investigated”, then on the Sunday there was another one that read like this :
"Following the allegations made by a Northampton Saints player in the aftermath of Friday night's friendly between Leinster Rugby and Northampton Saints, Leinster Rugby acknowledge that there was an exchange during the match between two Leinster players which was misinterpreted...
It was regrettable that any offence was caused. Both clubs have agreed that the matter is now closed and will now focus on preparing for their respective league campaigns."
And that was that. Or so we thought. One eagle-eyed tweeter noticed Mujati had altered his Twitter profile, and this time I took a screengrab. After that did the rounds for an hour or so someone else spotted he had changed it back again!
Naturally I have no time for any type of racism in sport or anywhere. It goes without saying that any sporting organisation should act quickly and decisively when such allegations are made. But particularly in the professional era we find ourselves in, such matters will always be dealt with behind closed doors, and so they should, I say.
And this incident, together with others that have happened in the past (Matt Giteau’s early announcement that he wasn’t in RWC squad to name but one) make me wonder if the club’s powers-that-be won’t find some way to factor some kind of twitter control into contracts that are drawn up in the future.
Whatever the repercussions, it’s all a nasty business to have out there right before both a World Cup AND an exciting new domestic season are about to begin. JLP
