Leinster hang on for dear life

Leinster 18

At 18-13, the former NSW Waratahs was heading for the posts and looking to land a savage blow to his former Super 12s coach Matt Williams.

A try would have levelled the scores, the formality of the conversion with the last kick of the game would have sent the French champions into an all-French semi-final with Perpignan.

“That would have been a travesty of justice,” said Williams.

Leinster dominated for 80 minutes of regulation time but it took the best part of half an hour of huffing and puffing before they managed to break down a stringent French defence, which had been missing the considerable talents of Serge Betsen between the third and 13th minutes as the flanker sat in the sin bin.

O’Meara broke the deadlock with a 29th minute penalty, having missed an early attempt from the touchline and by half-time Leinster were 13-0 up, Keith Gleeson with a try converted by scrum-half O’Meara who added a further penalty in injury-time.

Biarritz opened their account two minutes after the restart with a penalty from French international scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili but Victor Costello widened the gap once more when charging over the line in the 46th minute, a try which O’Meara failed to convert.

The only other score in normal time was a Yachvili penalty, despite Denis Hickie appearing to touch down in the corner before having his score ruled out by the video referee. But even without the five points Leinster looked to be cruising at 18-6.

Then came stoppage time. Eight minutes of it, and Biarritz had not given up the fight. Thomas Lievremont got over the line for the French with Yachvili’s conversion closing the gap to just five points.

Cue some anxious clock-watching from the 45,800 Leinster fans among the 46,000 Lansdowne Road crowd, Stcherbina’s break out and Dempsey’s tackle.

For all the wobbles it was difficult to deny Williams taking satisfaction simply from the fact that the job had been done.

“I thought we were the better team by a long way,” he said, “and I was delighted with the performance. They are such a great team and their defence is so strong, we couldn’t put them away, we missed a couple of kicks, got over the line three times and they were disallowed, one score would have put them away but we just couldn’t.

“At full-time it was 18-6 and in the end we had to scramble but I think I’m fair in saying it would have been an injustice on the performance over the 80 minutes because I thought we played extremely well considering our preparation.”

Leinster fly-half Christian Warner was quick to praise that preparation. “It was basically a case of just doing the simple things right,” he said. “The coaching staff focused a lot on the individual roles for this game; that if everyone succeeded in playing their role correctly and to the best of their ability then the team thing would follow.

“It was a bit of a simplistic approach but it certainly paid off. It was a long time to have off as a team so it was just about getting the little things right and working together. That’s what we always look for but now we can work on that.”

Australian native Warner was one of the Leinster players left kicking his heels as the international contingent decamped to the Irish team base at Dublin’s Citywest Hotel for the Six Nations campaign. It proved to be a frustrating time for those left behind.

“It was hard with a lot of the guys away and doing so well and you’re pretty ready yourself to play,” the 27-year-old admitted. “But you have to wait for the day to arrive.

“There is club rugby involved and you can get a few games in there but a quarter-final of the Heineken Cup is a bit of a step up. We had had a bit of a workout last week against Connacht but unfortunately a few of the guys were still out injured. So all credit to the guys coming back, they certainly lifted the guys who hadn’t been playing in the last few weeks.”

“It was a great performance by both teams,” he said, “but we’re certainly happy with our first-half showing. We were probably unlucky not to have scored one or two more tries but full credit to Biarritz on that. We scraped it together when we needed to and even when it got pretty close near the end we held the ball in our hands and did the right thing.

“Our performance will certainly put us in good stead for our next game and I’m looking forward to two weeks’ time. I’d say Perpignan will play a little differently to Biarritz but it’s going to be a great chance for us to move into the final.”

Even more so if Leinster can remobilise the many thousands who flocked to Lansdowne Road on Saturday for their April 25 or 26 clash with Perpignan. It made for an occasion that will live long with Warner.

“The atmosphere was great,” he said. “It was the first time I’ve played there in a proper game. Playing in front of 47,000 people was great, something I’ll always remember as well as the victory. It’s the furthest Leinster have gone in the Heineken Cup so it’s very memorable. It was a great day.”

LEINSTER: G Dempsey; D Hickie, B O’Driscoll, D Quinlan, G D’Arcy; C Warner, B O’Meara; E Byrne, S Byrne (G Hickie 77min), P Coyle (N Treston 39min). L Cullen, M O’Kelly, E Miller, V Costello (A Kearney 68min), K Gleeson

BIARRITZ: N Brusque; P Bernat-Salles, M Stcherbina, J Isaac (G Bousses 63min), P Bidabe (M Etcheverria 75min); J Peyrelongue, D Yachvili; M Fitzgerald, J-M Gonzalez, D Avril, D Couzinet, O Roumat (O Nauroy 68min), S Betsen, T Lievrèmont, C Milheres (O Tonita 48min)