Quarters for Leinster? Paris for Johnny? Keego ponders the atmosphere down the RDS…
So here we are at half time. Leinster is half way up the mountain.
I was lucky enough to be sitting in the grandstand on the half way line with the rich people last weekend. Some spot to watch a match. And it was a great match to take advantage of the view.
There were some mistakes in the early going. Probably down to knowing that tries where needed. The game is very different when you know you need to rack up a score. The Scarlets where never going to win this match, but Leinster still needed to make sure that all the pressure resulted in tries. Too many times this season, there have been spells of pressure with only 3 points (or none) in return. So there was some mistimed passes and over running in the very early stages.
Once the lads settled down and the volume of the blue army (who where immense on the day) increased a wee bit, Leinster put the passes away.
Scarlets took a 3-0 lead after 3 minutes, but that was the only time they had a sniff of a lead.
Healy smashed over for our first try. Church has been one of our most consistent players lately. Making some serious runs through opposition. Along with his bulk he appears to have taken some ballet lessons, twinkle toes where in full affect (along with us trying to start the ‘away in a manger’ song with full on Healy finish).
Word to the wise, singing Christmas carols in the middle of January leads to funny looks.
Once Leinster had the first try it was just a matter of how many. Scarlets mustered a drop goal, but spent the first 20 minutes hanging on. They did so for longer than I had expected. They were up for the fight in fairness. Jennings finished a well worked try after 23 minutes. This was another storming game from Jenno. If he was 7 years younger he would be putting on a green jersey every time. Thankfully that means we will get a few more years at the end of his career in a blue jersey.
32 minutes in and Lukey scored his first try in a century. I have given him some stick over the last while, but this was a great performance from him. He scared the jaysus out of the Scarlets every time he got the ball. He was calm, collected and looked to be match sharp after only one game back. It was great to see. Hopefully this is him back to his best……now where do we play him?
The cheer Luke got when he scored was heart-warming.
Then on 40 minutes Leinster had a brain fart that was akin to my whole leaving cert (many years ago) and Williams got in for a try from a fairly sexy cross field kick. It was 19-11 at half time. The Scarlets where hanging in there. It was a Leinster dominated half, but they were not out of sight yet. Which was slightly alarming while in the cue for empty pockets (mine is a classic + chips if you are heading up next time).
Healy was taken off 1 minute into the second half, after putting in a massive shift in the first. Heinke came in to batter people. He played well for the remainder of the game, showing the depth Leinster have in every row…….except the second.
Kearney scored two minutes later to put some daylight between the sides. A fearsome start to the half garnered a scrum under the posts, strong scrum followed by Jamie Heaslip passing to Kearney who sidestepped, spun and dove for the line. He is only feckin lethal! It is like he was never away.
There was a small bit of apprehension from Leinster under the high ball, a quite obvious drop in intensity which allowed Scarlets more possession. They couldn’t do very much with the ball, but we cannot do that against Exeter next week. The Leinster defence was operating at a high level all day which was great to see.
79 minutes and 21 seconds on the clock Madigan scored an absolute peach of a try. A try that might have Leinster thinking that Sexto going to France for a couple of years may not be a bad thing. His quick thinking and drop goal conversion before the 80 meant that the final score was 33-14.
This was the performance that could lead to us getting through to the knock outs of the Heineken cup. A real confidence builder. The permutations and combinations are displayed below….I think. There was a pre match conversation about what has to happen for Leinster to progress which I had to drink heavily to try and forget.
Next week against Exeter is another easy game for the players to get into. We know exactly what is needed, which may make the job easier. At no point is there to be a penalty taken, always kick to touch to set up a drive to the line. Exeter are tough, but the players are clicking well and will have had another week together to get the newer players back to 100%. Our defence was really good for most of the match last week, set piece was also good and the backline was on fire.
I thought I would talk about what is worrying every member of the blue army this week and that is the Johnny Sexton Racing Metro news. Some are saying that this is exactly what Drico and O’Gara along with others have done before. Would disagree. While Drico was at a Biarritz match, there was never any mention of more than one meeting about actually moving there. The news about Sexto is that he has had two meetings with the president. The money being mentioned is huge too. For me, the two sides to this story are, if he thinking of going now is the time. His value is at an all time high. He will get a multiple of the money that the IRFU can or will offer. He could go for 2 years, could be back and still be in his prime. The other side is, with Metro making their intentions known publicly, he is in a very powerful position to negotiate with the IRFU. They cannot meet the € figure, but he knows he can ask for more. Things like owning his name, having his own sponsorship along with knowing he will always be allowed put on the green jersey. If he was to move to France there is no guarantee that he would be released to play for Ireland or the Lions.
Finally....... the ROCK has........sorry wrong sport!
FINALLY....THE KIDNEY.....HAS NAMED HIS LAST (HOPEFULLY) IRELAND SQUAD!!!
This is a fairly strong squad in fairness to him. Some good new players. Madigan finally gets his chance. Fitzgerald gets back. Again the injuries have meant that Kidney has had to change from his expected selection. The only worry is that players like McFadden might miss out with Luke's return. There is no way he should lose his spot. Maybe a wolfhounds start for Luke?
So this is the last one, we can wave goodbye to the Kidney. The Kidney has been up and down, but at in the last 3 games he has finally started blooding new players.
We can kick on from the Argentina match and win. Surely we owe Wales a hiding at this stage!!??
As usual feel free to debate/abuse me on twitter @nkeegan.
Until next week…
Keego (@nkeegan): Newbie blogger, former professional wrestler, sometime attempted rugby player (@TheThirsty3rds), professional procrastinator and attempted musician with a fondness for long walks on the bar, tea and the couch. Opinionated Leinster fan and constant gardener.
