“The Rabo is a very tough competition. You see that every year. People think it's easier, but it's not...It's more a case of how the Rabo is perceived and reported on; that it's a step down. But in reality it's not. As players, you have to realise that all week you'll be told that this game [against Cardiff] isn't as hard as last week -- but it probably will be.”
No doubt after Saturday night at the RDS, Eoin Reddan would like a chance to put his words from the Indo a little bit differently. Thing is...he was talking about the IRISH approach to the Rabo. Based on the evidence of this match, the perception of the competition of which he speaks seems to be spot on when it comes to our Celtic cousins.
First up, it has to be said that this mauling did not just come about because Cardiff were awful. Leinster were well up for this from the kickoff, and with successful offloads on the rise and frustrating knockons on the decline, I'd be pretty confident that they still would have won this game if the visitors actually remembered to bring their A game to Dublin with them.
But I'm not sure the alphabet has enough letters to describe the game the light blue jerseys showed at the RDS. And this is evidenced by Leinster's first of their nine tries. We had a scrum on our own 10m line and before you knew what was what, Richardt Strauss was stretching out to plant the ball down much as he had at the Aviva Stadium against Munster a few weeks ago.
Sure, there was great inside pass to the returning Dave Kearney who broke through the line, but it still took a few phases before the try was scored and when you look back at the replay you see half of the Cardiff pack still crossing the halfway line making absolutely no real attempt to put themselves in a position to thwart the Leinster attack.
And seeing how that was just in the second minute, you could say the writing was on the wall. At the risk of sounding more like a Cardiff Blues blog than a Leinster one, I have to wonder how they could have such quality in the park without having the performance to match it?
When we won by a similar scoreline last December, the reason was that the WRU had scheduled an international with the Wallabies outside the normal test window and thus it was virtually the Blues' second string. This time, that excuse doesn't wash.
But do you honestly think the likes of Warburton & Roberts will fail to make the national team based on this display? Absolutely not. In fact if anything I'd wonder if they were told NOT to tackle too hard just in case they were injured! There's simply a different approach to the game over there, with the national side not just being the main thing, but the only thing. And looking at their test results of late, it seems to be paying off.
Plus, although I'm not exactly privy to what goes on behind the scenes at the Blues, I'd have to question the wisdom of appointing a player who has recently retired to the position of defensive coach. Yes, I know Munster practically did the same with Foley, but even that has taken a few years to bear fruit, and when he started out, he was primarily with the “A” side.
Xavier Rush walked straight off the pitch into a coaching role that is becoming more and more important with each passing year, giving him responsibility over troops he fought alongside for many campaigns. Maybe this isn't a factor, but it is definitely worth investigating, because whenever Leinster had the ball, the opposition parted like a light blue sea with no apparent structure or purpose.
It was as though Cardiff went out with a mindset that only players with numbers on their backs of 14 or higher were allowed to give a damn. Cuthbert and Halfpenny seemed willing to try things, and once the bench came into play (like Robin Copeland) you saw some urgency, though this wasn't surprising since there will be starting places up for grabs in the coming weeks.
But when Sam Warburton is deservedly beaten to the man of the match award by his opposite number Jordi Murphy (any Welsh fans ever heard of him before the weekend?), you have to call into question just how much they care about regional rugby at any level in the principality. The passionate reaction on social media of the Pontypridd fans to their B&I Cup win over Leinster last week was further proof of this.
That's quite a bit of space devoted to Cardiff's woes I know, but when we look back over this match in years to come, I feel that has to be the central issue. Hopefully I don't take too much away from the performance of the home side, particularly Jordi's, as I thought of him before kickoff as a possible weak link and I am very happy to say he proved me wrong with a fine display of tackling & carrying that surely earned him the high praises of Shane Jennings afterwards.
Also we had our stars on song...O'Driscoll being foremost amongst them until he picked up his knock, playing a big role in tries number two and three. (sidenote – can the Leinster’s physios carry some chloroform or something with them so they can knock him out when he limps on when he doesn’t need to?) Jamie Heaslip was back scoring tries and getting more practice holding the ball in a scrum driving forward, while Johnny10 had some beauties in his seven successful placekicks. They say all good things come in threes, but not this time as every time he used the tee it was for a conversion.
Another area Sexton was excelling was in the restart, and I feel he is leading an evolution of the sport where this may one day be a set-piece where sides kicking off will be expecting to win as much as they would a line-out or a scrum. Though it could be argued that after Devin Toner nabbed the second half kickoff, a team with some defensive organisation would have prevented him doing it a second time – not only did Cardiff fail but Fionn Carr caught one as well.
Should I bemoan the fact that we allowed the Blues to come close to a totally undeserved try bonus point? I really don't think so. Yes, they are professionals and in an ideal world they should play at full throttle for the full 80 minutes every week, but when you're 40-3 up at the break and score a 7th try virtually from the start of the second half, given the way our season has gone offensively I can certainly forgive them for taking things down a gear or two towards the end.
If nothing else Cardiff's quasi-recovery gave a bit of an edge to the final few minutes and the home crowd (of which I wasn't a member for the first time in yonks due to thankfully non-critical family matters) were Leinstertained right to the end courtesy of that cross-field kick from Sexton which Fionn Carr somehow caught, then somehow managed to stay on his feet, then somehow managed to wrest the ball from Halfpenny's clutches to put the cherry on the icing on the cake.
So our Pro12 record now stands at 5 wins out of 7, we are in the top four, our points difference is finally in the positive, and although the Ulstermen are standing up atop the table, we still have two cracks at them to come. But next up, we must travel to face those pesky Ospreys, whom I feel will be a tad more up for a battle whatever the selection. JLP
Also this weekend
