LEINSTER HEAD COACH Matt O’Connor pointed to Aseli Tikoirotuma’s intercept try for Harlequins as the key moment in his side’s 24-18 defeat in London this evening.
The eastern province failed to score a try of their own as Conor O’Shea’s men crossed the whitewash twice, although six penalties from the boot of Ian Madigan allowed Leinster to at least claim a losing bonus point.
“It’s disappointing,” said O’Connor post-match at the Twickenham Stoop. “Full credit to ‘Quins, I thought they played very, very well.
“We were a bit off in the first half. I thought we fought our way back into it quite well, and then the intercept was instrumental. It was a bit too big of a hill to climb.”
Ultimately, that Tikoirotuma score did prove to be vital for ‘Quins, even if Leinster looked to be building momentum heading into the final 10 minutes, after two Madigan penalties brought them back to within three points at 21-18.
However, handling errors and a kick into touch on the full from Isaac Boss stymied the Leinster progress and Danny Care’s clever drop goal with six minutes remaining sealed the deal for the Premiership outfit.
It appeared that Leinster made some poor calls in their use of possession at the Stoop, although O’Connor felt there were failures in execution, rather than ideas.
“I wouldn’t say it was decision-making; I thought our execution was off in the first half. We had opportunities to build pressure and we didn’t look after the ball.
“They slowed our release and we made errors which meant we didn’t put them under enough pressure in the first half. We were not unhappy at half time, but it got away from us when they got the intercept.”
The scrum was a disappointment overall for Leinster, even if they did win one important penalty at the set-piece. Joe Marler and ‘Quins were dominant in that area for the majority of that first-half, however, leading to referee Jérôme Garcès pinging the Leinster front row three times in the opening quarter.
We didn’t control set-piece,” admitted O’Connor, “we didn’t get any dominance at the set-piece. With a French referee away from home that’s massive, and we spoke a lot about it this week.
“It’s disappointing because we thought it would have been a lot closer of a contest up there. The beauty of sport is that we’ve got a week to fix it.”
It’s not just the scrum that needs fixing over the coming days, but O’Connor will have confidence that his side can turn things around before Saturday’s return leg in Dublin.
