LEINSTER WON’T BE getting ahead of themselves in any way. They’re well aware that it was a poor Stade Français team they faced last night in Dublin.

Laurent Labit left lots of important players out of his side and Leinster were duly able to take them apart in a 43-7 win.

There was plenty for Leinster to be frustrated with, including their poor lineout in the first half and 13 penalty concessions. 

Yet there was much for the Irish province to take encouragement from too. Their defence was strong and with the weather favourable for attacking rugby, Leinster will have enjoyed making 12 linebreaks and running in seven tries. This area of their game wasn’t perfect but attack coach Andrew Goodman – who joins the Ireland set-up as backs coach at the end of this season – will be pleased with large parts of it.

Some of their simple plans allowed the Leinster players to prosper. Take Ryan Baird’s big second-half linebreak, one of the most memorable moments of the game. It was as much about Baird’s incredible athleticism as anything but let’s look at how Leinster’s smart play helped to free him. 

They’ve just received a restart from Stade Français and look set to use a standard pod of three forwards on the next phase.

To the left of scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park, we can see Joe McCarthy, Andrew Porter, and Dan Sheehan in that pod, with out-half Sam Prendergast ‘in the boot’ behind.

It’s a shape we see countless times in rugby these days.

Generally, the pass goes to Porter in the middle of the pod and he can either carry the ball himself [red below], throw a tip-on outside to Sheehan [yellow], sweep a pass out the back to Prendergast [blue], or pop a tip-in pass inside to McCarthy [black].

So those are the options Stade are expecting to have to deal with when this shape is seemingly presented to them.

But Leinster surprise the French side by using a different play.

Gibson-Park bypasses Porter completely, hitting Sheehan with a fizzing pass, and the hooker throws a tip-on to free Baird.

Sheehan has another option here as Prendergast [blue below] darts from his dummy slot in behind Porter to instead offer Sheehan an outlet out the back of Baird.

But the gap in front of Baird is obvious and Sheehan hits the front door to send the athletic blindside flanker hurtling into space. It’s poor Stade defence and Leinster take full advantage.

With the ball in two hands as he bursts upfield, Baird searches for any passing options once he’s in behind, but then backs himself to beat the two closest defenders and makes it all the way into Stade’s 22.

Three phases later, Caelan Doris smashes over for a Leinster try. 

While Leinster’s lineout malfunctions in the opening half denied them chances to attack on several occasions, there was some sharp stuff when the set-piece fired.

Their very first launch of the game from a lineout saw them cut Stade down the right-hand side.

The play begins with McCarthy winning Sheehan’s lineout throw before the hooker loops around from the touchline to take a transfer from Josh van der Flier as he runs infield.

That means Gibson-Park [blue below] can break out beyond the 15-metre line to be part of the backline attack, ensuring Leinster can use the width of the scrum-half’s passing to their benefit.

Gibson-Park throws a long pass across the face of Robbie Henshaw to number eight Doris as the Stade defence advances.

With Doris [red below] receiving the ball so close to their defence, Stade expect him to simply carry the ball here, looking to get to the gainline on first phase.

We can see that out-half Ciarán Frawley and left wing James Lowe [yellow above] are working hard to swing out behind Doris and that’s where the ball goes next.

It takes great skill from Doris to catch, take two steps at the defence, then flash what is pretty much a blind pass out the back to Frawley, but he pulls it off skillfully.

With Stade inside centre Noah Nene having bitten down on Doris, lured by the carry threat, his midfield partner Stephane Ahmed [yellow below] then turns in on Frawley.

Frawley has the front-door option of Garry Ringrose here but opts to go out the back to Lowe and the Leinster wing breaks through, throwing a dummy as Stade wing Kylan Hamdaoui sits off.

Lowe finds Hugo Keenan after drawing in Stade fullback Leo Monin and though he has Larmour outside him, Keenan opts to continue carrying himself as he feels covering Stade right wing Peniasi Dakuwaqa will drift onto Larmour, leaving Keenan to sprint home himself.

A brilliant scramble tackle by Stade number eight Giovanni Habel-Kuffner stops Keenen but it’s still a successful launch from Leinster and the ensuing pressure nearly leads to the opening try of the game.

The Irish province use a similar-looking lineout play to create their fourth try in this game soon after half time.

This time, Gibson-Park passes after getting the ball off the top from the back of the lineout but the set-up outside him is similar. Rather than skipping Henshaw to Doris, Gibson-Park hits the inside centre.

Henshaw has a few options. He can carry himself, pass short to Doris [red below] on his outside, sweep a pass back to Prendergast as he and Lowe [yellow] bounce out, or go across the face of Doris to Ringrose [blue].

Henshaw’s decision is made relatively easy by Stade outside centre Ahmed sliding off Ringrose early, leaving a huge space in midfield.

Henshaw makes the right call and sends Ringrose bursting through.

Ringrose is stopped just short but Gibson-Park seals the deal by floating a bridge pass over Hamdaoui to Larmour, even without penalty advantage playing.

Leinster could also have finished to their left here, with space beckoning on that side, but Gibson-Park’s pass is good enough to allow Larmour to dot down.

When Leinster cross for their first try in the 19th minute, some good work-rate from Ringrose and lock Jason Jenkins makes a difference. Watch below how Ringrose [yellow] and Jenkins [red] work to the far side of the ruck.

Once he gets around the corner, Jenkins straightens up and offers a short carrying option for Gibson-Park, which invites Habel-Kuffner [red below] to bite in on him.

But even before Habel-Kuffner bites in on Jenkins, Leinster know what they want to do here.

As Gibson-Park goes to lift the ball, the ref mic allows us to hear someone shout “Ringer,” calling for the scrum-half to hit Ringrose with a wider pass. It’s most likely out-half Frawley, who is also fading to the left-hand side.

Gibson-Park himself has also seen the opportunity and he lasers the ball across the face of Jenkins to send Ringrose into space. Ringrose finds Lowe for the try.

Ringrose also provided the assist for Leinster’s third try finished by Sheehan.

With penalty advantage playing, Ringrose uses the boot to find his hooker and Sheehan produces a brilliant finish.

It’s clever work from Ringrose to pick out the kick space at the end of a string of Leinster passes, which draw the Stade defence up.

Ringrose would have liked to get a little more on his kick and allow Sheehan an easier finish, but attack coach Goodman will surely have enjoyed the option-taking and the quality of the finish.

Leinster’s seventh and final try of the evening was a nice first-phase strike from a lineout on the right.

Larmour [red below] and scrum-half Luke McGrath [yellow] start tucked in 10 metres behind the lineout.

As the Leinster forwards nail their lineout drill, James Ryan taking Rónan Kelleher’s throw, watch how McGrath makes his move first.

McGrath’s dart into the shortside draws Stade left wing Hamdaoui into that channel and away from his starting position, which will be important to Larmour scoring.

Larmour [red below] does his best to remain hidden behind the lineout as hooker Rónan loops off the touchline to take the transfer from van der Flier – just as Sheehan did earlier in the game.

Larmour doesn’t want to show too early, giving Stade a defensive cue.

As Kelleher gets the ball from van der Flier coming infield, he’s a carrying threat to Stade hooker Mamoudou Meite [blue below], while number eight Jack Conan is coming on a short line outside Kelleher to attract Pierre-Henri Azagoh [pink].

Meanwhile, prop Cian Healy [grey below] swings up the left-hand side of the Leinster dummy maul to close off any Stade defenders from potentially getting away from that area to defend.

That all means that as Kelleher plays an inside pass to Larmour, the Leinster wing can cut through to score untouched.

Leinster’s attack was clunky on many occasions in this game, they missed some chances, and they’re sure to face much better defences than last night’s effort from Stade, but there was some nice stuff in there for Goodman to highlight too.