FOR A BRIEF moment, those who made the trip to Aviva Stadium yesterday might have feared the worst.
A week on from the province’s supremely impressive Champions Cup semi-final defeat of Toulouse, a Leinster side which showed nine changes to the starting XV fell behind to an early Sharks try in their URC quarter-final clash yesterday.
With the Aviva Stadium not even half-full, the mind wandered to thoughts of an unlikely Sharks upset.
Leinster quickly dispelled any such fears – racing into a 21-5 lead with just 25 minutes played – and aside from a few wobbles at the scrum the home side were utterly dominant, playing some superb rugby against a Sharks side who couldn’t live with the quality of Leinster’s attacking play.
“Credit to the players, they were good in terms of weathering that initial storm that Sharks came and they were very clear in what they were trying to do,” said Leinster head coach, Leo Cullen.
We talked a lot about some of those defensive pictures that the Sharks will present and it wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination but we were able to find where the space was pretty regularly and that’s what created some of the opportunities where the tries were scored.
“It was a great crossfield kick by Harry (Byrne) to Jordan Larmour. Caelan was good in how he took his try, we created some opportunities where we went the length of the field and then get the penalty and kicked to the corner. That gets stopped and there’s that tap and go sequence when we get in and Mikey Milne does well so there’s a good variety in there and guys are putting their hand up, and that’s what we want because it gives us some positive selection headaches.
“That’s what we want, we want it to be competitive, we want the group to be pushing each other on. We know we’ve two more weeks of enjoying each other’s time and hopefully we’ll have another week after that as well.”
While it was another high-scoring win for Leinster on home soil, the game didn’t have the usual big-game atmosphere.
With the RDS unavailable due to Bruce Springsteen’s three-night run of concerns, less than 15,000 supporters turned out at Aviva Stadium – a crowd which could create a lively atmosphere at the RDS, but gets lost in the bigger stadium. That there was next to no travelling support didn’t help things either. The province will expect a more lively crowd when Munster come to Dublin for next Saturday’s semi-final.
“We talked about that potential for the subdued atmosphere because you’re going off last week which was what 46,000 and you’re in around 15,000 there today, maybe less, which is still a decent attendance,” Cullen continued.
The challenge is the sequence of games. I don’t know how you get that exactly spot-on, to suit the spectator, the supporters. When you’ve a South African team up here, or vice-versa, there’s going to be next to no travelling support realistically.
“There are still some challenges with that. We’re coming to the end of the second season of this competition and the nature of the teams, they’re beasts of teams, the South African teams, and I think it’s hugely exciting but there’s definitely some challenges for the future to get that sweet spot, isn’t there?
“Big thanks to the support and everyone who turns out and creates the interest in these games because it’s a challenge because everyone goes ‘OK, we’re back to the Aviva again’. There’s a challenge within that. And for us it’s just trying to keep it fresh.”
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