LEINSTER SEEMINGLY had the winning of Saturday’s 11-all draw at Twickenham only to let London Irish off the hook. The Exiles then appeared to have the win secured and, with it, a place in the last eight at Northampton’s expense, only for them to do likewise and thus even miss out on the consolation of a place in the Amlin Challenge Cup.
Perhaps understandably then, Leinster weren’t of a mind to be doing cartwheels even though they had earned a home quarter-final. “That’s the nature of the team,” said Leo Cullen. “We wanted to win the game, we set our stall out to win the game. Looking at the bigger picture, we have to be pretty satisfied with the draw because that was what we needed to do the job, to get us into the position to get a home quarter. A lot of players were a bit disappointed that we didn’t win the game, but when you look back on it guys will realise it was a hard-earned point. It was a similar situation last year when we came over here to the same ground, played against Wasps and got a point out of the game.”
Explaining why the Leinster on-field brains trust declined a shot at goal nearing the hour in a low-scoring game (they led 8-3 at the time) to move two scores ahead by instead going to the corner, Cullen said: “It was a pretty tough kick. It was one of those marginal calls. It was between Sexto and myself and we went for the corner. It was a pretty tough kick, right on the five-metre line. It would have been different if it was from the initial lineout, the 10- or 15-metre line, but it was on the five-metre line.”
It had also been a decidedly mixed bag of a performance, as coach Michael Cheika accepted: “I thought we did some really good things but made some poor decisions at crucial moments. Last-gasp passes, we went for the million-dollar pass too many times when we could have just nudged it in, got a lineout from five metres or held on for another phase. I thought our scrum was outstanding because London Irish are a good scrum. The boys have worked hard all week and I’d say we pretty much got the try out of it. That was a real big improvement for us and that set the standard in an area we’ve got to continue throughout the season.”
London Irish coach Toby Booth was proud of his team’s performance, if disappointed with their fate, over the two games with Leinster, whom he said had “got steadily better as the competition goes on. I’m on record before about how centrally-contracted controlled players lend themselves to this tournament because it’s almost like an international format.
“You can pick and choose, and you can work people over in terms of them being fresh for the competition. So I think the structure they play gives them an advantage over the French and English clubs. What I like about Leinster and the way they play, they play front-foot rugby, simple, effective rugby with a lot of flair. They are not afraid to push it around. Our mantra is attack, good over evil beats defence.
“But the best sides that win championships defend well. And what you’ve seen in this game is a fantastic defensive performance and I think that will hold them in good stead.”
Cheika disputed Booth’s claim that the Irish system is advantageous. “What do you prefer, do you prefer your players not playing lots of games and being fresh, or do you prefer not having any lead-time into matches?”
Pointing to the lack of match time Leinster and Munster had prior to their round-one defeats, he added: “Each system has its benefits and its disadvantages and I think you’ve just got to roll with the punches and prepare for what you’ve got. We’ve got to play a lot of games without players in the league, and our league is very important to us.”
