Leinster live off scraps to stay alive and kicking
What a cracking opener to the weekend quarter-final action, with what looked like the tie of the quarter-finals living up to its billing.
In so many ways, this was a remarkable game. Leinster somehow managed to conjure a win without any semblance of a set-piece in the second half, when their scrum was dismantled. Michael Cheika’s decision to withdraw CJ Van der Linde for Cian Healy with Stan Wright moving from loose-head to tight-head backfired badly. In addition, Leinster only had three lineouts and as a consequence, their attack was starved of possession.
Quite how they managed to score 29 points in those circumstances is a bit of a mystery, and it is no surprise that only nine of those came in that epic second half. That both sides enjoyed a 10-point lead at one stage of the game says everything about the topsy-turvy nature of this enthralling contest.
Clermont, in a mirror image of the French championship finals they have lost in recent seasons, will wonder why they lost. The answer is pretty simple and straightforward. In all, they missed six of their 11 kicks at goal, all but one of those by Brock James who, in addition, missed three drop goals.
The one he missed with the final kick of the game will haunt him every bit as much as his tragic misses in last year’s French championship decider. Opposite him the man who was under all the pressure coming into this game Jonny Sexton fared much better with a return of seven from eight, and that is why Leinster are through.
This was a game fit to grace the final itself. For drama, commitment and intense brutality it was up there with any international contest. Not for the first time, Leinster dipped into a reservoir of grit and courage to recover from an awful start, conceding 10 points in the opening 17 minutes.
Yet the pace of their first-half recovery was remarkable, even by their standards. Without any field position — it took them 20 minutes for their first foray into the opposition 22 — Jamie Heaslip produced two tries out of nothing when the one chink in Clermont’s armoury — a suspect defence — was unlocked first by Brian O’Driscoll and in turn by the remarkable Heaslip.
At half-time, Leinster were firmly in the driving seat but positional switches and a change in tactical approach from Clermont changed the shape of the game entirely. The French went route one, with a very impressive pick- and-go approach by the forwards leaving Leinster in all kinds of trouble.
In addition, James pinpointed Isa Nacewa as vulnerable on the wing and exposed him badly. He had a horror 80 minutes, while on the opposite wing, Shane Horgan also looked very rusty after his recent injury-enforced lay-off. As a result, the gigantic wing pairing of Aurelien Rougerie and Julien Malzieu had a field day and almost carried Clermont through, despite the ineptitude of James with the boot. In the circumstances it was incredible that the French point-scoring machine in the Six Nations, Morgan Parra, was offered just one kick at goal.
The champions live to fight another day, when they will have to travel to France to face the winners of Toulouse and Stade Français. They may have rode their luck, but showed enough when they did have the ball to worry any side. For now they can breathe a sigh of relief, sit back and watch what emerges over the rest of the weekend safe in the knowledge that somehow they are still alive in the tournament.
