THIRTEEN TRIES, ONE red card, a number of injuries and even a couple of angry exchanges between the two teams; Leinster’s 54-34 defeat of the Sharks on Saturday, as Leo Cullen put it, “had pretty much everything in it.”
We’ll start with the good. Some of Leinster’s attacking play as they struck for eight tries was sublime. Johnny Sexton, making his first start of the season, ran the show at out-half, the timing and quality of his passing repeatedly slicing the visitors open. Garry Ringrose, who came on as an early first-half substitute, was a constant threat out wide, crossing for two tries, while the likes of Robbie Henshaw, Jason Jenkins and Will Connors also delivered high-quality moments.
“There are so many pieces of the game flashing through my mind at the moment from some of the decisions [by the referee], some of our play – both good and patchy bits as well – but we scored some great tries I thought,” said Leinster boss Leo Cullen, speaking shortly after the final whistle.
“We had attacking intent – that’s the way you want to play the game isn’t it? That’s what the crowd want to come and see so hopefully people got value for money from the contest.
“I think that’s what the crowd want to see – all action performances. A huge amount of work goes into the referring of the game and refs are under a lot of pressure but that’s I think the game you want to see. There’s tries – last week [against Ulster] it was very difficult with the conditions in Ravenhill so when you get a nice day like today you want to see a good entertaining game and get people to come back and watch it again.”
The bad? Leinster will be frustrated at how the Sharks managed to stretch their defence and create space in behind. They also conceded 10 turnovers during a contest which rumbled along at a ferocious pace and at times struggled to stay on the right side of referee Craig Evans.
After a gripping first-half in which Leinster struggled to contain an ambitious, lively Sharks side, the home team led by one point. Come full-time, they had stretched that advantage out to 20.
“The message at half time was a bit more around composure – that was the big thing,” Cullen continued.
We knew we were in for a game at half time so it was just making sure we stick to our plan. We couldn’t quite get into our flow, at the start I think there was three different lineouts where we were trying to go in and get a bit of tempo and it was just disjointed.
“But Sharks came into the game and they attacked well and took us around the fringes, and they’ve got some great speed as well in their backs.
“They have that good balance with [Rohan Janse] van Rensburg, [Ben] Tapaui, a bit of power in the middle. [Aphelele] Fassi is very quick, [Thaakir] Abrahams showed great speed for his try. They are a constant threat.”
It would be fascinating to see the two sides go toe-to-toe when both are at full strength, with the Sharks putting up a good fight despite travelling to Dublin without their Springbok internationals.
The Sharks were the first South African outfit to visit the RDS since the Bulls dumped Cullen’s team out of the URC at the semi-final stages last season. The Leinster boss believes the strength of the URC’s South African sides can only be a good thing for the rest of the league.
“It is great to see this type of test now. [The Sharks had] A lot of Springboks sitting back in Durban getting ready for a game against Glasgow next week. It’s a proper competition, a proper test, they [South African teams] have to go through Europe now as well which they did not have to do last year.
“If you think back to the start of the season last year, they were coming up to Europe and not going particularly well. Every trip they do they are getting better and better, the familiarity. We only do one trip going down to South Africa so it is a totally different experience for the South African teams coming up here; they get better with the trips.
When you are in South Africa it is the number one game in terms of where does rugby sit as a team sport when you compare it to soccer, Gaelic football and hurling, whereas it’s one, two, three and four down there. They live and breathe it. You can see some of the size profile, the speed profile, the skill, jackallers over the ball, some of the frontrowers that they have, it is a proper challenge.”
This weekend sees Leinster head to Galway for a Friday night interpro derby with Connacht.
The province are due to provide an injury update on their squad today, but Cullen is expecting to be without Jordan Larmour, who limped out during the first half against the Sharks with an ankle injury. Speaking post-game, Cullen said Ryan Baird was ‘ok’ after a heavy fall which resulted in the flanker being removed on a medical cart.
Jack Conan was pulled from the starting lineup before kick-off, while Rhys Ruddock [HIA] and Luke McGrath [chest/head] were also forced off.
Leinster will also likely have to plan without their Emerging Ireland contingent this weekend, with those players on the South Africa tour only returning tomorrow.
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