Bristol 12
Leinster 35
DOWN TO 13 men and having just conceded the opening try to Bristol in what was a turgid first half of rugby, there was one stage where Leinster appeared to be in trouble at Ashton Gate.
Yet they showed steel in the 10 minutes that followed, grabbing a try of their own through Jordan Larmour to make it 7-7 at the break, and always knew they had a very good chance of finishing strong against the Bears.
They did more than that as they battered Bristol in the second half, finally clicking in cold, wet weather as their bomb squad bench made a huge impact to help them to a bonus-point win in their opening Champions Cup game.
When your bench is loaded with Andrew Porter, Caelan Doris, RG Snyman, and Jordie Barrett, there must be a sense that any first-half bother can be overcome. Barrett was duly sent on at half time for his debut at inside centre, with the other three following soon after.
Barrett was pure class, laying on one try and scoring another, while the power and skill of Snyman, Doris, and Porter were to the fore.
21-year-old out-half Sam Prendergast added to his growing reputation with two confident, quick finishes as he ended up with 20 points in total on his first start in this competition, while the outstanding Josh van der Flier added another score.
There will be plenty that Leinster pick out for improvement from their first-half showing but their effort after the break made for compelling viewing as they blew Bristol away. Leo Cullen’s men can look forward to next Saturday’s home clash against Clermont with confidence. A six-day turnaround shouldn’t cause much hassle given their depth.
The Irish side began aggressively as Garry Ringrose levelled fellow Dublin native AJ MacGinty in a perfectly legal tackle that forced the Bristol out-half off for a HIA he never returned from.
But the game struggled to get flowing in the wet conditions and amid a scrappy set-piece battle that saw Leinster free-kicked twice before Rabah Slimani won a penalty on their five-metre line after some excellent maul defence by Joe McCarthy and James Ryan denied the Bears.
Three minutes later, Leinster had a chance down the other end after Jack Conan’s superb breakdown penalty saw them kick down the left. Van der Flier surged down the shortside after an exchange with hooker Rónan Kelleher off the lineout, but he was just stopped by Jack Bates and referee Pierre Brousset called a knock-on against the Irish province.
Slimani was soon pinged at the scrum and then Prendergast’s spiralled 50:22 attempt went out on the full, inviting pressure onto the visitors.
Bristol fired up their maul to devastating effect as Jack Boyle and Kelleher were penalised for illegally halting it twice in quick succession, the Leinster hooker binned as Brousset lost patience in a half that saw Cullen’s men give up nine penalties in total.
Despite the maul dominance, Bristol opted against going into the corner and tapped their five-metre penalty, knocking on under the Leinster posts.
But they flooded back at Leinster a minute later and Max Deegan was shown yellow for a trip on Bristol skipper Fitz Harding as he threatened to break clear. There was cover closing in so it wasn’t a penalty try but Bristol did score off the back of it.
Number eight Bill Mata went close off the lineout before tighthead Max Lahiff burrowed over for a try converted by Benhard Janse van Rensburg, who moved from centre to out-half when MacGinty was forced off.
Leinster appeared to be in real trouble but they mustered an impressive response while down to 13 men.
Larmour gathered the restart after Bristol spilt it, van der Flier’s powerful carry gave momentum, then Jamison Gibson-Park cleverly bought penalty advantage by running at tackler Mata when he was offside.
Prendergast put the advantage to good use as he chipped in behind, with Bristol fullback Richard Lane unable to gather the ball as he slid in, allowing Larmour to pinch it and dart over for a converted score.
A muscular van der Flier turnover in the tackle soon gave Leinster a counter-attacking chance but the half ended with the scores level as Prendergast tangled with England international Ellis Genge off the ball.
Leinster appeared to be in more bother straight off the restart as the match officials looked at a trip by McCarthy on Harry Randall but it was deemed to be a penalty only.
Brousset soon marched Leinster 10 metres back after they disputed a scrum penalty and the Frenchman followed up by sin-binning Lahiff and Andrew Porter – on as a replacement only two minutes before – when another scrum went to ground. Both teams had to send on props, Boyle returning for Leinster, and Bristol won another penalty as the frustrating scrum shenanigans continued.
But Leinster’s bench muscle was beginning to tell and they soon barged upfield, earning a scrum on the left-hand side near the Bristol 22. They struck beautifully on first phase.
Gibson-Park ripped a pass to Barrett, whose perfectly-timed ball out the back found Prendergast. The out-half dummied and accelerated inside Gabriel Ibitoye for the initial break, then calmly dummied again in behind to finish a cracking try.
Leinster were in the mood now, even winning a scrum penalty to allow them back down into Bears territory. Gibson-Park’s sniping break then took them within striking range and this time, Barrett dummied a pass out the back before darting over to finish himself.
Leinster struck again off the restart, Doris’ tip-in pass finding Porter, who offloaded outside to Snyman, sending the Springbok lock galloping up into the Bristol half where he popped to Prendergast. The out-half showed great speed again as he fended Randall to seal a superb third try.
Just like that, Leinster were 28-7 to the good with the bonus point secured before the final quarter.
Van der Flier was next over, his power to the fore once again as he finished from a clever back peel play, his score confirmed by the TMO.
The home side did grab a 73rd-minute consolation try as former Connacht and Ireland scrum-half Kieran Marmion cleverly grubber kicked into acres of space in the backfield for Ibitoye to gather and finish at a canter.
But it couldn’t distract from the phenomenal impact of the Leinster bench as Cullen’s side got their quest for the province’s fifth title up and running.
Bristol scorers:
Tries: Max Lahiff, Gabriel Ibitoye
Conversions: Benhard Janse van Rensburg [1 from 2]
Leinster scorers:
Tries: Jordan Larmour, Sam Prendergast [2], Jordie Barrett, Josh van der Flier
Conversions: Sam Prendergast [5 from 5]
LEINSTER: Ciarán Frawley (Jordie Barrett ‘HT); Jordan Larmour (Gus McCarthy ’38 to ’39) (Ross Byrne ’66), Garry Ringrose, Robbie Henshaw; Jimmy O’Brien; Sam Prendergast, Jamison Gibson-Park (Luke McGrath ’71); Jack Boyle (Andrew Porter ’45 (yellow card ’47)), Rónan Kelleher (yellow card ’28) (Gus McCarthy ’62), Rabah Slimani (Thomas Clarkson ’45); Joe McCarthy (RG Snyman ’45), James Ryan; Max Deegan (yellow card ’30) (Caelan Doris ’45), Josh van der Flier, Jack Conan (captain) (Jack Boyle ’47 to ’57).
BRISTOL: Rich Lane; Jack Bates, Benhard Janse van Rensburg, Kalaveti Ravouvou (Lovejoy Chawatama ’47), Gabriel Ibitoye; AJ MacGinty (Joe Jenkins ’5), Harry Randall (Kieran Marmion ’63); Ellis Genge (Jake Woolmore ’47), Harry Thacker (Gabriel Oghre ’54), Max Lahiff (yellow card ’47) (Lovejoy Chawatama ’57 – reversal ’77); James Dun (Steven Luatua ’47), Joe Owen; Santiago Grondona (Benjamin Grondona ’76), Fitz Harding (captain), Bill Mata (Harry Thacker ’80).
Replacement not used: Benjamin Elizalde.
Referee: Pierre Brousset [France].
“Arsenal- have been regarded, over the years as one of the best attacking teams in europe.
Seriously…
Seriously? The comment is fair. The philosophy of Wenger has always been very attack minded, some of his teams played exquisite ball. The current batch just need a world class striker to carry on the tradition. And even without one they can still occasionally deliver.
Yes attack minded but not one of the best attacking teams in europe
Unknown have to agree, they have not been that good in the attacking department! Attack minded yes but not achieving end product!!
Moyes going to United and being replaced by Martinez was the best thing to ever happen to Everton in a while. They’ve improved so much since he was put in charge.
Could have the bragging rights in Liverpool next may, hopefully
Don’t like that prediction for Villa. They really need to pick up 3 points, after this game they have last season’s top 5 all in a row. Could quite easily be bottom of the league by the end of October.
Seriously unlucky fixtures for Villa. Hopefully they stay up I have a soft spot for them because my mate supports them. Maybe they can pull off a few shock results (as long as it’s not against Liverpool ;) )
A lot of people seem to have a soft spot for Villa. Not sure if it is the handy guaranteed 6 points or the whole Italia 90 thing with lots of Irish players in the Villa team at the time (my reason for supporting them).
Anyway, hopefully Benteke will be back soon and in time for the Liverpool game, he seems to enjoy that fixture ; )
Great to see someone comin through the ranks. As s villa fan am a bit sick and tired of 2 to 6 million signings promising much but delivering nothing. At least if he doesnt fulfill his massive potential we wont be too much out of pocket. My biggest fear is that he will be all people are hyping him up to be and will be sold for big money which will be invested in another round of 3 million pound players who just aint up to it. At least this year we might have someone to get the holte end out of their seats.
Gareth the Irish team in Italia 90 was Bonner, Morris, McCarthy, Moran, Staunton, Houghton, Townsend, McGrath, Sheedy, Aldridge and Quinn. McGrath was the only Villa player at the time …. dunno what your talking about !!!
Four of those players ended up as Villans, don’t be such a flute!
Sorry football history nerd, the other 3 must have signed soon thereafter. As I said the reason I start supporting them was because of the number of Irish players in the team (it wasn’t because of all the recent trophies they had won), it quite possibly was a couple of years after Italia 90 that I start taking an interest in English football.
Hope that clears that up for you.
There’s a flute here ok, surname Killilea. Ur argument would be equivalent to someone becoming a Spurs fan in 1987 because Gazza, Lineker and Paul Stewart were their heroes. Jes*s wept !!!!!
Gareth – I know who played for Ireland in Italia 90, their clubs at the time and that makes me a nerd. Hmm strange
How long did it take you to google that anyway. Yeah, at least I’ve the balls not to hide behind some stupid name calling out people pretending you know some fact that you actually googled. Good lad, fair play to Ya
Didn’t have to google anything. I remember Italia 90 with great affection and those who played are indelibly affixed in my consciousness
No, not at all, I was wrong, congratulations on knowing which Irish was playing for what club in 1990.
Fair play to u Mr Killilea – all contributors using a pseudonym are demeaned. Sleep easy having the ‘balls’ to use ur real name. A real act of bravery !
Very fond, why are you being a knob to people on here?? No reason for it!
Daithi I reckon ur in conjunction with the other 2. Is ur surname O Sé perhaps?
Spurs beat Southampton home and away last season so no reason they shouldn’t win on Sunday.
Leopold, sneaky, like it, like it alot
Spurs have a great chance of a top 4 finish this year
And then you woke up covered in a cold sweat
Bookies have United at 1000/1 to be relegated. Looks like good value now, worth a fiver.
They’ll have the red carpet out for ya in paddy power Alan and be hoping you leave for than a fiver with them
I’m not that foolish with my money Declan, just winding up the united fans is all. It’s fun to throw in a United are muck comment every now and then and sit back and watch as they lose the plot :)
Especially for you and other Scouse- ham- ton ( all 3 rolled into one ) supporters
Given the way that his team crumbled against League One opposition three nights ago, Van Gaal has is used to proving his critics wrong. Went unbeaten at Ajax through a whole season with a young team full of nobody’s winning the dutch league and champions league . At Barcelona, the club stood tenth after 14 games of the 1998/99 season but ended as champions. With Bayern Munich Van Gaal’s side were seventh after 13 matches but won the Bundesliga. And not two months ago Van Gaal defied a wave of public pessimism to lead the Netherlands to the semi-finals of the FIFA World Cup™, where they lost on penalties to Argentina.
Bazinga if you make up a clever name (in your head anyway) then there should be no need to explain that name. How is it 3 rolled into 1 could you explain I can only make out a reference to Liverpool and Southampton, where is the 3rd team referenced?
Scouse for obvious reasons, Totten(HAM) Southamp(TON) =
Scousehampton !
Couldn’t agree more Alan , it’s our duty to take the pi$$ and is all in the name of good banter , some are really good at giving it but terrible at taking it on sides ,all good fun but it’s the vile ones who take it to a different level on twitter that spoil it
What a load of tomfoolery!
Liverpool 4
Tottenham 0
Burnley 3
Man U 1
Spurs 3 – 1 Liverpool : Burnley 0 – Man U 2
I wonder who you support
Who do u reckon I support Leopold ?
I was referring to Sean Lee, you nicked in ahead of me with your comment.
Ahhh Motley where have you been hiding ?
Ferguson in the end left man utd with a poor team. He never got rid of poor players like Nani and Anderson. Moyes want given a chance and bought badly. LVG is finally removing and selling the dregs of united’s squad. Unfortunately there are too many dregs in the squad that he inherited
Charles, if David Moyes got the same results as v Gaal in his 3 games do you think you would be so positive?
Charles they were not bad players when they came to the club first , Anderson believe it or not bossed the midfield in a CL final against Chelsea , Nani had more goals and assists in his first two season the Ronaldo did in his first two
How come predictions are always utterly predictable? Put all the top sides as winning unless they face each other – then do a draw and then do all the sides below that a bit random as no one cares anyway. It’s likely at least one of city, arsenal, United or Chelsea will lose but nobody doing predictions will even attempt to predict that. How boring.
Liverham !