LEINSTER’S WIN AT Welford Road yesterday was a good reminder that the stats don’t always tell the full story.
In front of a boisterous home support which at times felt almost pantomime – the locals booing Leinster captain Johnny Sexton as he left the field and giving referee Mathieu Raynal the same treatment post-game – Leicester Tigers enjoyed 72% of the territory, 57% of the possession, and made more passes, carries and beat more defenders than their visitors.
In the end though, the scoreboard displays the only numbers that count – Leicester 14 Leinster 23 – the damage done across a scintillating first-half display as Leo Cullen’s side totally outplayed the Premiership leaders in their own backyard.
Yet both sides left the ground with a sense of frustration surrounding the way things had played out. Leinster knew they should have wrapped things up earlier, building up a 20-0 lead by half time thanks to some superb rugby, only to allow the Tigers back into the game in the second period.
The home team felt they should have made a better job of staying within reach of the United Rugby Championship leaders, and while Tigers captain Ellis Genge made his frustration clear, he also knew there was little arguing with the result.
Next weekend’s meeting of Leinster and Toulouse in Dublin represents a blockbuster matchup between two star-studded teams, but the province know they’ll need to lift things another notch if they are to book their place in the 28 May decider in Marseille.
Hooker Dan Sheehan made that made much clear when asked if the Leicester win handed Leinster a blueprint for toppling Toulouse.
“Half the blueprint,” Sheehan shot back. “Second half, we’ll need a new blueprint I think, but we’ll find a way.
Their whole team is dangerous, basically. A lot of French internationals, a lot of big boys; a lot of big boys in the backline and then you have the sort of masters of the game in Duport and Ntamack who can rip it up and make something out of completely nothing.
“We’ll make sure that we are prepped and have all our boxes ticked.
That magical half-back pairing of Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack take most of the headlines when it comes to Toulouse, but the French giants also possess a brutal power game and strong setpiece which has the potential to really test Leinster, a team that have come up short in that department against both Saracens and La Rochelle in recent seasons.
“A lot of their stuff comes through them (Dupont and Ntamack) but they have a huge pack and they like to play a physical game up front, direct with scrum and lineout, and then once they get a bit of frontfoot ball they’ll try to spread it out the back and they have the pace to do so, so we’ll make sure we get out basics done,” Sheehan added.
I think it’s always going to be about the basics in big games, who makes the most dominant tackles, who makes the most dominant carries, I think that’s who’s going to win the game.”
Leinster are still unhappy with the way their path to this stage of the competition has played out, the province falling into the away team bracket for the quarter-finals having seen their cancelled pool stage game with Montpellier marked down as a 28-0 win for the French side.
Yet as Welford Road shook yesterday, you had to feel the occasion was a worthwhile experience for a team that have coasted through so many United Rugby Championship fixtures this season.
With a big win on the road under their belt, Leinster now return to the Aviva Stadium full of confidence.
And having watched Munster come agonisingly close to beating Toulouse, the four time European champions will be looking to make another fast start against Ugo Mola’s men.
“Hopefully (we can) close it earlier, in the 80 minutes,” Sheehan said.
“Make sure we impose our game in the first 20. I think if you give them a sniff they can run off with the game but if you start well and keep it going and have a solid 80 minute performance, I think we’ll be right in there.
“Our fans are always great at home. We actually got a decent reception here (in Leicester) as well, a lot of travelling support, and to have them all back at the Aviva next week will be a massive boost.
“We’re comfortable in the Aviva, that’s what we like, we get the crowd behind us and we feed off that for the whole game.
“We would have liked to close out the (Leicester) game earlier and not give them a second sniff at a chance to win the game. Happy with how the first half went, and then we just needed to manage the game in the second half and close it out, and keep playing our game. We don’t want to park the bus, we want to be able to keep pushing teams and put the foot on their throat.”
Originally published at 09.46
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