Rugby is one of the most efficient team sports when it comes to blogging about your favourite team on a regular basis, because it’s easy enough to get into a weekly routine.
Soccer teams usually play twice a week, while GAA counties have been known to go a month between matches so your posting can be all over the place.
In egg-chasing however, each club invariably has just the one game every weekend, which means that for the midweek in between, you can spend the Monday & Tuesday reviewing the previous match, Wednesday & Thursday looking ahead to the next one, before you get to the weekend.
But the week just gone was anything but normal, particularly for Leinster fans. Last Monday I published my writeup of the comprehensive victory over Biarritz at noon like I always do, and a mere eighteen minutes later, the IRFU announces online that Joe Schmidt has been appointed the new Ireland coach.
It may have been no surprise to Irish fans, but that announcement plus the press conference that followed later that afternoon still became the story everyone was talking about. But even that big news wasn’t going to survive for long in the media cycle.
Tuesday at 11am we had the small matter of the announcement of the Lions squad, and once again it’s significant for Leinster as we had as many as six players named to travel…something of a strange irony that the two most represented clubs in the squad (Leicester being the other) both finished runners-up in their domestic leagues, since the Lions certainly don’t want to finish second!
So all this early-week news meant that we had to forget the previous weekend and digest the new announcements through to the weekend’s fixture, which this time around was a rare Friday night outing for Leinster. Only even then, I had something added to my personal schedule before kickoff.
I was invited along with a group of fellow bloggers to be shown around the RDS facilities by none other than the Leinster Rugby Media & Communications Manager Peter Breen himself. It was great to see behind the scenes like the press room, the referees changing room, the coaches’ box, out on the pitch itself, and to cap it all, a seat up in the press box for the match.
It was excellent hospitality, well above and beyond expectations, and it was great for us keyboard warriors to receive some official recognition for what we do, and something I’m pretty sure none of us imagined when we started doing it.
But after all this midweek activity, there actually was a match to report on as well, so I best get to it!
Whether they were in playoff contention or not, you don’t need to tell a Leinster fan that you can never consider those pesky Ospreys as beaten until the final whistle has blown. We did however catch a break or two long before kickoff, starting back in late March to be precise.
When they beat us in the Liberty Stadium back in November, I noted three major reasons for their success : (1) winger Eli Walker, (2) scrum-half Kahn Fotuali’i (who only came on for the final quarter but still had an impact) and (3) failure to do the simple things to hold on to an early lead. Sure, there was a dodgy quick line-out as well but I still reckon we deserved to lose that day.
Walker was ruled out for the rest of the season due to a back injury sustained while training for the Welsh Six Nations squad. Then Fotuali’i, already bound for Northampton next season, was forced to sit out this match with a thigh strain.
And to compound these absences, their replacements didn’t have the best nights in the office…scrum-half Rhys Webb went off injured after just 16 minutes while Ross Jones wearing 11 probably should have joined him going to the line then, he had such a bad night.
It’s at this stage of the writeup I reckon I should apologize to Andrew Conway. He might think it’s bitterness on my part that I’m only mentioning his name here, seeing how he’s a “Rock boy” bound for Thomond Park next season!
I mean normally a player scoring a hat-trick of tries against the reigning champions gets their name in the headline, let alone the opening paragraph, but as I already pointed out, this was no ordinary week!
Still though, his man-of-the-match award was fully deserved [edit – it was actually Sean O’Brien who won it…thanks to Aoife for correcting me in the comments, truth be told I didn’t catch the announcement on the night and made an assumption!!! Maybe I don’t belong in the press box after all ;-)] – not only did he get the three tries but he also played a part in laying on Cian Healy for the fourth. His tally was the result of a simple yet effective strategy by the home side, shipping it quickly out wide if there were no visible gaps in the defence and then kicking it forward when it got to the wing.
For the most part the Ospreys, and Ross Jones in particular, had no answer to this approach and it led to all four of our tries.
But when they themselves had the ball, the Welshmen were dangerous throughout…Alun-Wyn Jones and Joe Bearman showed their usual strength going forward and offloading, and back three players NOT wearing 11 were all potent threats.
Plus there was the fact that we made some poor decisions similar to those we made back in the Liberty Stadium. I feel a responsibility to try and keep Ian Madigan honest as he prepares to take on a massive role for next season. This means I can’t turn a blind eye when I see him do something I feel is wrong and with our having just gotten a 14-0 lead, whether he fluffed it or not his quick 22-drop out was ill-advised and it was just four minutes later that Dan Biggar cut his team’s deficit in half.
Then not too long afterwards it was another poor kick out of the 22, ironically this time by Conway, which helped the Ospreys level the try count courtesy of Ben John. The visitors were always there to pounce on any mistake by the home side and in the second quarter, we were handing them on a plate.
Luckily for us though, we were getting stand-out displays from names I’m pretty sure Welsh viewers had never heard before. I had two alternative headlines for this post “Keeping up with the Joneses” and “Ooh Ahh Two McGraths!”, and in scrum-half Luke and loose head Jack we had youngsters who should have a bright future in the game based on these displays.
Luke McGrath is officially fourth in the Leinster pecking order at 9 but I have a feeling he could comfortably be a regular starter for at least half the clubs in the Pro12. Of course there are areas of his game that need work but from the very kickoff he seemed at ease with our offensive approach and indeed was a key part in it – it was he who let in Conway for his second try.
Then we had Jack McGrath, who had our most challenging assignment in facing nailed-on Lions starter Adam Jones. With both “hair-bears” in their front row there was never going to be a straight-forward scrum set but despite their trying every trick at their disposal McGrath & Hagan more than held their own.
The game reached a critical phase as it ticked into the final quarter. Thanks in part to a Sexton conversion which grazed off the upright at the right angle to fall over, we enjoyed a 15-point cushion, but on 55 minutes Steve Tandy finally saw sense and replaced Ross Jones with Tom Isaacs and the winger had an immediate impact, crashing into the Leinster 22 to put his side on the front foot.
With news of the Scarlets getting a Treviso trouncing obviously having made it onto the pitch, the O’s proceeded to throw the kitchen sink at us despite the deficit, much like Wales did against Ireland in the Six Nations. This time, however, Leinster’s defence was able to hold them out. Sure enough it was Isaacs who eventually found the space out wide to coast over the line, but the 2 penalties/lineouts, 3 scrums and one free kick that led up to it meant the clock had ticked beyond 70 minutes and even with the conversion the visitors still needed two scores.
But still the RDS crowd (some of whom tried to get another “One More Year” chant going in the first half…not cool folks! Cheer the players on the pitch, not one on the bench!) heaved a sigh of relief when Conway’s offload fell kindly for Cian Healy to collect in full stride and pump his legs to the line and kill off the match and ensure once and for all that our away matches are done for another season.
Of course with Nigel Owens being the ref, the mic caught one or two of his gems, like when he spoke to AW Jones & Sean O’Brien after a scrap before half-time and said : “I hope you two won’t be sharing a room together on the tour!”. Not quite “this is not soccer” but worth a giggle. I wonder if the Ospreys fans were giggling at his penalizing their front row though…
Finally I have to credit the visitors for continuing to come at us even after that late Healy score. Their season was over at that point but even with summer tours around the corner they weren’t for quitting and that certainly speaks well for Welsh regional rugby whatever has been said about it. This Leinster/Ospreys rivalry is a vital one for the league and will no doubt continue to entertain at every turn.
And the off-field distractions didn’t end at full-time for Leinster…Saturday night saw their awards ball, plus the following night the RaboPro12 had their own…Ulster rightly took most of the gongs for their first-place finish but still we had Ian Madigan collecting a Golden Boot to go with his Leinster Player’s Player of the Year award the previous night.
That’s all well and good, but now Leinster’s path to a unique treble lies through four teams…Glasgow, Newcastle Falcons, Stade and I won’t name the fourth for fear of offending and/or jinxing. The squad seems to be in good nick, and the home advantage is secured – hopefully they can get down to cracking on and getting the job done.
But O, what a week that was. JLP
UPDATE – I think I’ll need to pick a new publishing time…for the second week in a row my thunder has been nicked by a coaching appointment! Matt O’Connor is confirmed as Leinster’s new coach for next season, I definitely wish him all the best. BUT! We still have Joe for now and there’s work to be done! What say we allow them get on with it!!!
Also this weekend
Scarlets 17 - 41 Benetton Treviso
