THERE’S DIRTY WET days in Dublin, and then there’s days like today, where sodden match-goers stick their heads under the hand-dryers in Aviva Stadium in a desperate attempt to ease the damage inflicted on the walk into the ground.
Not ideal conditions for playing ball, but decent conditions for springing an upset. And if Ulster were to knock Leinster out of the Champions Cup today, you felt they would need a bit of help from above.
This round of 16 Champions Cup clash was always going to be a big ask for Dan McFarland’s side. It’s tough enough playing away from home when it comes to knockout rugby, but there’s few more daunting trips than coming to Dublin right now. Leinster’s starting XV today contained 13 players who had Six Nations’ medals on their neck when they last played here two weeks ago. That might not be the only trophy they collect in Dublin 4 this year.
Ulster are a good team who have reacted admirably to their worrying slump in form earlier this season, but this was a day where they could afford to give little away and would need to be deadly accurate whenever the chance to swing a punch came their way.
Briefly, it was going quite well for the visitors but that was as much about the greasy ball which did little to help a Leinster side looking to shake off those post-Grand Slam cobwebs.
In the first 10 minutes alone, Leinster gave away two soft penalties at the lineout as they invited Ulster to take the initiative. The chance eventually came gift-wrapped with a bow on top, Hugo Keenan uncharastically letting the ball slip forward off his fingers for Nathan Doak to kick Ulster into a 3-0 lead, only for Ross Byrne to immediately pull Leinster level from the next passage of play.
It was easy to focus on the challenge on Ulster’s hands but this was a test for Leinster too. Their squad depth is the envy of most clubs in Europe but any group would feel the loss of Johnny Sexton, Garry Ringrose and Caelan Doris.
Yet when key men slip out of this Leinster team, others tend to step up.
Ross Byrne has probably already secured his seat on the plan to the World Cup but with Sexton not expected to play again before the end of the season, he could be about to embark on the most memorable run of his club career – if Leinster can keep on winning, he’ll be the man in the 10 shirt as the province lift the Champions Cup and URC trophies in Dublin.
This was a big day for Byrne but he was as calm and confident as we’ve come to expect from a player who was always talented, but has grown over the past 12 months. He considered the conditions and guided his team smartly through the contest, opting for the sensible options when available and only really pushing the play when he had the security of penalty advantage behind him.
As Leinster settled into familiar patterns of play they favoured a very direct approach, Jamison Gibson-Park kicking to the skies and looking to land as many balls as possible on Ulster fullback Mike Lowry, with mixed results.
In the Leinster backrow, Jack Conan – impact sub extraordinaire for Andy Farrell’s Ireland – was dominant and destructive with 19 carries, while Ross Molony justified Leo Cullen’s decision to keep the heft of Jason Jenkins on the bench.
After a scrappy, tight opening quarter, Leinster began to seize control thanks to another player enjoying a bit of a moment.
What makes Ryan Baird one of the most exciting prospects in Irish rugby – he’s still only 23 – is the fact he’s yet to fully settle on the type of player he’s going to be. The athletic, rangy Baird who first burst onto the scene still pops up now and then but he’s now showing himself as a hard-edged, combative ball-carrier when the occasion asks for it.
Baird’s future could yet lie in the second row but this season he’s been looking increasingly comfortable at six. That was the number of his back today as he burst through on 20 minutes, leaving a cluster of yellow jerseys fumbling and falling all around him. Byrne converted to give Leinster a lead they would never let slip.
There’s going to be some interesting conversations around selection when Doris comes back into the equation.
By half-time the hosts led 16-8, Byrne adding a penalty after Ulster produced the most scintillating passage of attacking play of the game – James Hume stepping James Lowe to cross in the corner after a brilliant bit of individual play from Jacob Stockdale before Billy Burns stuck the ball on a postage stamp with a cross-field.
It was a wonderful score but sadly for Ulster, it was about as good as it got for them, and as they struggled to deal with Leinster’s physicality up front they never really looked like wrestling the momentum back.
Of all the regrets filling their heads on the drive back to Belfast, they’ll wonder how their pack didn’t make more of a mark.
Leinster added two more tries after the break – Jamison Gibson-Park racing through to land the sucker-punch after a slip from Byrne almost saw a Leinster attack fall apart, before Andrew Porter powered over from close range, either side of a trademark Ulster maul try, finished by Rob Herring.
Not for the first time, it feels like Leinster are attacking the business end of the season with plenty left in reserve. Next up it’s a quarter-final meeting with Leicester, and the Tigers will make the trip to Dublin next weekend in hope more than expectation.
The first day of April, just two weeks on from Grand Slam Saturday, and already the Irish interest in European Cup rugby this season has been slashed from four to one.
The Leinster machine chugs along.
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