I understand footage does actually exist of this match...a try or two made it onto RTE's coverage of Saturday evening's Munster/Ospreys clash, and I dare say they will also appear on tonight's Against the Head.
When it comes to the lack of TV coverage I know I have a tendency to harp on it whenever Leinster lose out, but I still need to point out that if there's any kind of cameras at the ground, the broadcasters should have found a way to let us watch, at very least by tape delay.
I don't care if the footage isn't from a full OB unit...I don't care if it's someone with a shaky hand holding their iPhone...there are over 14,000 Leinster season tickets holders so it's safe to say that number would be interested in watching them play, which means that number of eyes would get to see the RaboDirect, Bank of Ireland & Specsavers logos on the jerseys for an hour and a half, so somebody somewhere needs to sort this out for the future.
Anyway...back to the rugby...thanks to the regular tweeting of the official Leinster account as well as fans like @BarMcHugh, we got a decent sense of what was going on as we flicked back and forth between the Ulster & Connacht games on Friday evening.
Early on it seemed as though we were heading for a scoreline similar to Glasgow's at the same venue a couple of weeks ago, with a brace of Sean Cronin tries in the first 8 minutes followed by one from Kearney the Younger giving us a 19-3 lead after the first quarter.
But the bonus point try was to prove tough to get as the Dragons pushed us back, which of course was a good thing for the home fans and was the game entered its final 20 minutes and the score poised at 14-19 as it was, we Leinster fans were anxiously refreshing our twitter feeds more concerned with the mere win than the bonus point before finally the news came through of Dave Kearney's second.
The reports on Ian Madigan's display have been mixed...seemingly yet another penalty kick from his hand failed to find touch and he got mowed over by a Dragons lock at one point...but then again Paddy Jackson had a mistake or two on the night at Ravenhill and still got man of the match even though his team threw away the win, so it's probably all relative.
And there are some who would moan about the fact we conceded a late try to give the home side a losing bonus point...but by all accounts they deserved it for their display and what's more we had the full five points in the bag ourselves so it really shouldn't be of too much concern. I wouldn't be averse to a switch to the Top14 system, however, of the try bonus only being awarded to a team if they score three more than their opponents.
So where does that leave the Pro12 table now? Well Leinster sit in 3rd place, which ironically is where we were back on December 21st before we played Ulster in Ravenhill. But although defeat that evening dropped us to fifth at the halfway stage of the regular season, we have gone on since then to take 28 points out of a possible 30 to cut our margin behind the league leaders from 16 to just 2, with both teams above us set to visit the RDS in the next two rounds.
Nothing is certain of course, but certainly compared to where we were at Christmas Leinster's chances of silverware look a lot better now than they did at the turn of the year.
One minor point I'd like to make about the Pro12 table as it stands...since Glasgow and Ulster are level on points and “number of wins” is the first tie-breaker, I reckon the Ulstermen should be in first place because they have drawn one and thus have a better record. I blogged about this last summer – hopefully it doesn't cost someone a home semifinal or worse a place in the playoffs in May.
Now the Pro12 takes a two-week break while the Six Nations comes to a close, and last night Ireland announced an extended squad which included 15 from Leinster. If you add the RDS-bound Mike McCarthy and the injured Kevin McLaughlin you can actually make a full rugby team from those players which is a good sign.
Of course most of the water-cooler chat this morning is about the lack of Ronan O'Gara's name from the squad...depending on your source he has been everything from “left out” to “axed” by Declan Kidney. In some ways, taking him & Tom Court out of the squad can be construed as making them scapegoats for what happened in Murrayfield, but I'm pretty sure most rugby observers have the intelligence to see beyond that.
First, to deal with the O'Gara issue, the only thing more annoying than the few “deROGatory” online comments was the amount of his “defenders” highlighting them as if they were some overall representation of how non-Munster fans felt about him. As with any other issue, most people's views exist in the middle ground...his achievements in the game can never be called into question but his recent form is well short of what it was and the time has come for others to stake their claim in the national, and possibly even the Munster teams for the future.
This announcement may fall short of the clarification on Kidney's future I was calling for after the Scotland game (England one too actually), but since we were repeatedly told that ROG's inclusion in the squad was necessary because we “needed the win”, we have to assume the reverse is also true.
I wouldn't expect too many new names to be in Kidney's next matchday 23...we mustn't forget there are Lions spots still up for grabs...but should the likes of Sexton not be fit for next weekend it will certainly be heartening to see more youngsters in green ready to show what they can do at the highest level. Perhaps I should add that I would be totally in favour of Jackson retaining his starting position.
As for Kidney himself, with O'Gara making all the headlines the spotlight certainly seems to have gone off him somewhat...whether that's by accident or design we'll probably never know.
Still...once more I will be a lot more concerned with his team's performance on the pitch next weekend than with the actual selection of individual players – the winless French will be up for an 80-minute battle so it remains to be seen whether we can give them one. JLP
Also last weekend…
Ulster 29 - 29 Benetton Treviso
