When Leinster Rugby revealed the design of their jersey for this season, there was much debate among fans over the wisdom of adding the two stars above the crest to represent their Heineken Cup triumphs.
The main concern of the doubters was that it may suggest an air of cockiness about the club. Now that may be true, but if that can be matched by the performances on the pitch, and more to the point if those performances produce the right results, then I say the decision to add the stars was absolutely right.
At the RDS on Sunday, for the first half at least, Joe Schmidt's men played with a level of arrogance that was beyond belief. As a Leinster fan, I'm certainly not complaining, even if it does make the rest of the continent grow to hate us in the way the “ABU” brigade has evolved in soccer.
I mean take our second try. You're leading by just four points, you've had a man sent to the bin, and you win a penalty directly in front of the posts. Absolutely positively the sensible call to make would be to go for the easy placekick, soaking up every available second on the clock in the process.
But not Leinster. We've got two stars on our jersey, you know. And you're in our house. We're going to back ourselves to score a try. We've got Luke Fitzgerald. And if he doesn't get over we’ve got Sean O'Brien. And if he doesn't get over we’ve got Isa Nacewa. And if he doesn't get over we’ve got Jamie Heaslip. And if none of them make it, there's a chap you may not have heard of, one Eoin O'Malley.
Towards the end of July I went to the Leinster open training session in Tallaght Stadium. One of the pictures I took was of O'Malley as he was having a headshot taken by a professional. Here's what I posted as a caption : “The photographer had to be told this was Eoin O'Malley. I have a feeling in a couple of years everyone will know his name.”
Scratch that, it's more like a couple of months. And when your THIRD choice outside centre can bag a couple of tries whilst making absolutely no difference to the potency of your backline's attacking force, then by all means, be as arrogant as you want!
Now just in case you think I was in any way über-confident upon my arrival to the RDS then you can think again.
I knew we had offensive issues from our visit to Montpellier last week. I knew the visitors were on a high not only from their last-gasp win over Bath but also their triumph at the very same Ballsbridge venue last September.
But as it turned out, the contest was to resemble more the meeting of the two sides back in May when Duncan Weir opened the scoring with an early penalty only to see his side swept aside from that moment onwards.
Jamie Heaslip won the man-of-the-match award and I was delighted to see him do so – no doubting this was his best display since the Toulouse semifinal in the Aviva. But although he was a powerhouse throughout (especially in the lineouts where we were totally spoiled for choice re: jumpers), I'd rather draw attention to some other cracking displays around the pitch because you don't clinch a bonus point victory before halftime in this tournament without a phenomenal team effort.
To go back to O'Malley for a moment, despite his two tries his real strength, for me anyway, is in the tackle. And whatever people might say about Gordon D'Arcy's form of late, it was of no harm to the youngster to have the Lion inside him.
And what about our back bloody three? All of them were immense. I was worried we might go back to the “wraparound hell” we were experiencing in Montpellier but instead Messrs Fitzgerald, Kearney and Nacewa were breaking the gainline with consummate ease and to be honest my headline for this writeup could easily have been “Shane who?”.
At scrum half while I was glad to see Isaac Boss get another try I felt the improved backline rhythm was down to Reddan starting and I reckon that is the order that they should play for us in this competition from here on in should they both remain fit.
Of course we must not forget our out-half. Took the game by the scruff of the neck and didn't let go. And still his restart radar is reaping rich rewards. Those first two tries came almost instantly after Glasgow's two first-half penalties were converted.
Now...for those who wish to pour scorn over the second half performance, I say...does that really matter? Rugby is a sport where you always have to have half a mind on the battles to come and if the five points are in the bag at the interval, then only a lunatic would expect the intensity to continue, and anyone who wants to call Joe Schmidt a lunatic will have to answer to me!
However...there was one moment when I thought our arrogance may cost us...Sexton got up gingerly after being crunched in a tackle in mid-second half yet stayed on the park. Wrong move in my book. Wrap him up, give Madigan some prolonged game time. He's another one I feel is ready for this stage. By leaving our starter on longer I am now anxiously awaiting the early-week “squad update” on the Leinster site when perhaps I don't need to.
So where does this leave Leinster? Let's see...joint top of the RaboDirectPRO12, top of their Heineken Cup pool, and all without O'Driscoll, Horgan & Berquist among others.
The home-and-away series with Bath to come in December won't be easy by any stretch of the imagination, but if Schmidt can somehow bottle Sunday’s arrogance and bring it over to the Rec, we may well show them why we have one more star above our crest than they do. JLP
Elsewhere in Europe…
First up, Galway may be a party town but seemingly Toulouse were fully intent on spoiling it for poor Connacht. I didn’t get to watch the game fully, and according to some accounts the home side “paid their visitors too much respect”. But I will say this…I remember last season, when my favourite soccer team Spurs reached the Champions League for the first time, they added to their squad with quality players like Rafa Van der Vaart. They certainly didn’t ship a bunch of their best players to neighbouring clubs. Not only did Connacht have to lose Cronin, Keatley, Hagan and Carr over the off-season, in a cruel twist of irony only one of those actually played a significant role in their new team’s opening two Heineken Cup matches. It was always going to be an uphill battle for them, and let’s hope they can get something from Gloucester in December.
As for Ulster, well they were also unlucky to be missing key players. Paul Marshall may have had a good outing at Welford Road but you’d have a hard time convincing me they wouldn’t have been better off with Pienaar. John Afoa as well could have added something to their front row but the biggest weakness was at full back where Danielli appeared all at sea and Jared Payne was badly needed. Once the Tigers worked out how effective the garryowen would be it was curtains for the Ulstermen. Though I haven’t seen that much of them this season, I would have thought D’Arcy would have been the better option to start in the 15 jersey but I could well be wrong.
And once again, we have those last-gasp ROG heroics. And once again, I have to tip my hat to him. I can’t think of an outhalf I’d rather have in that position when the clock goes red. Now…for the real question. Have Munster showed Heineken Cup-winning form yet? The answer is no, and in actual fact, none of the 24 teams have for the full 160 minutes each has played in the first two rounds. If I had to pick a form team, it would have to be the Scarlets, and guess who Tony McGahan’s men play in their next two matches? Should both teams reproduce their form from rounds 1 & 2 in December then O’Gara’s cool 11th hour temperament won’t be of any use. But still, two wins out of two is not to be sneezed at (it’s more than my arrogant Leinster have!) and you wouldn’t bet against them using those two incredible finishes as a springboard - I certainly wouldn’t put money on them failing to get out of that pool just yet.
