Benetton Treviso-20 Leinster-30

THREE FOR TWO

Leinster's performance was a lot like Fergus McFadden's placekicks on the day at the Stadio Comunale di Monigo – not exactly conventional, but definitely enough to get the job done.

Also the final score has a symmetry about it as it reflects the progression of the match, since for every two points Treviso put on the board, their Heieneken Cup winning guests were comfortably able to find three.

It's interesting to see how the rugby community treats the Italian teams since they joined the league last season. In many ways it's similar to how we dealt with their national team joining the Six Nations – everyone wants them to do well and compete, but nobody wants to lose to them.

So you could see why RTEs commentators Ryle Nugent and Donal “Tremenjus” Lenihan were so keen to talk up the home side before the match, and one of the things they pointed out was the way Italian teams were trying to get away from their traditional comfort zone of a forwards-based game and adopting a more “expansive” style.

Well maybe that was true, but from the kickoff in this match anyway, the word expansive could also be applied to their defence as the opening try from Leo Auva'a after a mere 30 seconds of play was made look way, way too easy.

And even though the home side did manage to draw level in the second half, much like the match against Edinburgh a few weeks ago, you always knew Leinster would be able to find an extra gear and get the lead back again, this time with a scintillating line run by my clear favourite for the province's Player of the Month, Eoin O'Malley, which earned him the decisive try.

Still, you have to say Treviso had their tactical plan right in that they did their best to starve us of the ball – the only problem was, they weren't good enough defensively to keep us out on the few occasions we did have it.

One thing that did baffle me about the home side was the fact that they had their South African-born scrum half Tobias Botes doing the place-kicking when their number 10 Kris Burton was also playing and lying 3^rd in the RaboDirectPRO12 overall scoring charts. It reminded me of Brock James' shocker in the RDS for Clermont in 2010 when Morgan Parra was on the pitch having just kicked France to a Grand Slam.

Botes was perfect in the first half from the tee but after the confusion surrounding the conversion of the Italians' lone try (surely at this level every place-kicker should know the rules? He could have started his routine from the beginning) his confidence was shattered and had he made the relatively easy 8pts he missed in the second half the last ten minutes could've been a lot hairier for the visitors.

But any four points on the road are welcome – even though we got two early tries you certainly won't hear me moaning about a missed bonus. There were, however, a few below-par performances to mention.

First, there was Jamie Hagan. His first scrum was a shocker, he got his way back into the game, but then his first scrum in the second half was also a shocker. Sorry to be picky, but standards at the province are such that you don't really have the luxury of a scrum or two to settle in – I'm not sure the Toulouse pack would have allowed him to “get his way back into the game”. Nathan White's experience was needed and a huge defensive effort turned over a scrum on 71 minutes that virtually sealed the win.

I don't want to be too hard on Hagan however. Mike Ross didn't exactly blaze a trail in his first year at Leinster, and I think Joe Schmidt knew what he was doing bringing the former Waikato skipper up from New Zealand. I'd be happy for now to keep Jamie down the pecking order, giving him starts with the As together with some senior appearances during the Six Nations with a view to launching an assault on the first team next season. Oh, and it wouldn't hurt to grow the beard back.

Next on my list for finger-wagging is Ian Madigan. Again, it wasn't entirely his fault as his opportunities were limited thanks to the Treviso gameplan, but also again, the bar is set so high at Leinster these days you can't afford to be wasting restarts and penalties the way he did.

A few players weren't bad, but disappointingly quiet. Good and all as it was to see Fergus McFadden back from his dead leg, having seen him excel in the centre he really did seem lost on the wing, though it would have been harsh on O'Malley to drop him.

In the pack, Rhys Ruddock seemed to find the going tough and was way, way too slow reacting to the ball emerging from the scrum that led to the Treviso try. On the other side of the scrum I didn't see much to change my opinion that Shane Jennings is uncomfortable with the captain's armband either (a 75^th minute yellow card in a relatively tight encounter isn't exactly what you want from your skipper) .

There were some more good displays in blue – Leo Auva'a has been a breath of fresh air to our back row play and Devin Toner owned the few lineouts there were on the day. Finally I felt this was easily Fionn Carr's best display for us since he rejoined. Although he was renowned at Connacht as a “flying winger”, he seems to be making the right adjustments to his game to suit our style, and is even finding the tackles easier to manage to boot.


All in all a satisfying result for Leinster fans - still joint top of the league, and with both Ospreys and Friday's visitors to the RDS the Cardiff Blues set to be deprived of many stars thanks to the "rogue" Wales v Wallabies international next weekend, there's every chance we can be sole occupiers of 1st place going into the crucial Heineken Cup home-and-away series with Bath.

Reading back over that last paragraph it looks like the arrogance I spoke of last week is rubbing off on me! I suppose six league wins on the bounce will do that to you. JLP