Leinster sit back and nearly pay price
Now he is ready to give some advice to his Leinster colleagues after a reasonable but certainly not grand Heineken Cup opening at Donnybrook last evening..
O’Meara admitted that Leinster have to improve significantly if they hope to make an impact on this campaign. “We played in fits and starts, did ok in the first half but really should have put them away.
“We had the opportunities to really do that in the early stages of the second half but let them back into the game. It’s all about improving our standards and we will have to do that quickly.
“It’s a tough group and we cannot afford to sit back and let the opposition come at us. That was the disappointing thing about this game. We were better than our six points advantage but in Europe you cannot take anything for granted. Maybe we did a bit and we almost paid the price for that. Bristol have quality players in key positions and I certainly think it’s going to be very difficult for us over there. Hopefully, we will have put together a few decent performances before that.
“It has been a difficult time for us because we haven’t been together as a team that much. Hopefully, things will get better as we get more opportunity to train together. It wasn’t a great win but it was a win and that’s what counts.”
It all started at a frantic pace even though the quality was hardly up to scratch. Brian O’Meara kicked Leinster into the lead after five minutes but Felipe Contemponi equalised three minutes later. The high ball was the order of the day and quality rugby not in the equation.
Leinster huffed and puffed, threatened as the skies opened, but never looked capable of pulling away. O’Meara kicked a second penalty when Alex Brown went deliberately offside and he kicked another shortly afterwards. But Bristol, reduced to 14 men when Brown was shown the yellow card, had already tacked on another three points from Contemponi.
The only early threat of a Leinster try came when Denis Hickie broke out of defence and was unlucky not to win the race for a potential score. The one thing Leinster can look back on with pride from that first half was the power of their scrummaging. Bristol were in desperate trouble throughout that period and it took its toll.
Five minutes from the break, Leinster won a line out, rumbled forward and the ball was spun wide. Even without Brian O’Driscoll in the centre - he suffered a blood injury seconds before - Leinster had the power and pace to storm through for the opening try.
Girvan Dempsey came into the line, Gordon D’Arcy came from the right wing and sent out a long pass to Denis Hickie who slid in for the try that O’Meara converted. When the scrum half kicked a penalty to stretch the lead to 13 points it was all much more comfortable, although Leinster’s lack of composure was still evident afterwards when they turned over possession twice in ideal attacking positions. It didn’t help either that O’Meara missed a further penalty before the break.
Contepomi narrowed the gap four minutes into the second half but Leinster responded instantly. Christian Warner made the telling break on the narrow side and Victor Costello picked up to surge over for the try that O’Meara converted..
Leinster ruled the territory in the ensuing minutes but were unable to add to that total. Then, out of the blue, Bristol got back in the game with a try by Daryl Gibson that Contepomi converted. Substitute Paul Johnstone was yellow carded but Christian Warner was unable to take advantage from the penalty. Gordon D’Arcy took over the goal-kicking duties and kicked a beauty from 50 metres to give Leinster the breathing space they required.
They required every bit of it because Contepomi went in for a 78th minute try and converted himself to reduce the deficit to six points.
LEINSTER: G. Dempsey, D. Hickie, B. O’Driscoll, S. Horgan, G. D’Arcy, C. Warner, B. O’Meara, R. Corrigan (captain), S. Byrne, P. Wallace, L. Cullen, M. O’Kelly, A. McCullen, V. Costello, K. Gleeson. E. Byrne for Wallace (injured, 55). D. Dillon for McCullen, B. O’Riordan for O’Meara (both 66).Temporary. D. Quinlan for Horgan (26-36)
BRISTOL: S. Drahm, D. Rees, M. Shaw, D. Gibson, P. Christophers, F. Contepomi, A. Pichot, D. Crompton, S. Nelson, E. Bergamaschi, G. Archer (captain), A. Brown, C. Short, B. Sturnham, M. Lipman. P. Johnstone for Bergamaschi (55), A Higgins, for M. Shaw (63). A. Sheridan for Brown
Referee. A. Ireland (Scotland)