Leinster title hopes crash in Cardiff

IT took a late David Humphreys penalty to deny Leinster the Magners League title on the final lap last year but there was no need for drama in the Arms Park last night, where the Irish side’s ambitions disappeared long before the last act.

Needing a win to end Cardiff’s own title ambitions, and a bonus point to make tonight’s Ospreys game against the Borders academic, Leinster were overrun by the home side, who had the five points wrapped up themselves long before the hour.

Leinster can have few complaints. Though they hovered around the leaderboard all year, their form since the end of the Six Nations has hardly been that associated with a championship-winning team.

Last night’s was their third defeat in six league matches and, when they search through the ashes of the campaign, they will realise that it was defeats away to Glasgow and the Ospreys last month that truly scuppered their plans.

That it was Cardiff who finally pulled the plug is no surprise. Dai Young’s side had previous, having beaten Leinster in a nine-try thriller next door at the Millennium Stadium 12 months ago.

At least Leinster had the consolation of going down fighting last year. Last night, they gave an abject performance more reminiscent of a mid-table side than a team chasing a championship.

The rain cascaded down in Cardiff all day and, though the sun finally made an appearance half an hour before the kick off, much of the paddock resembled a duck pond.

Not the sort of ground to go looking for tries on then, nor was it the sort of surface on which Leinster have been known to thrive. Add in their struggles away from Donnybrook and the omens were far from favourable.

Cardiff came into the game looking to match Leinster’s tournament record of 15 straight home wins — a run that stretches back to November 2005 — which proved to be motivation enough.

The ideal start for Leinster would have been a couple of early scores to curb Cardiff’s enthusiasm. Instead, the opening jousts merely whetted the home side’s appetite.

With less than six minutes on the clock, out-half Nick Robinson scythed through a gap in Leinster’s line where Contepomi and Keith Gleeson were supposed to be on sentry duty.

The break was decisive, Robinson laying off his right shoulder to flanker Robin Sowden-Taylor who did the necessary. Ben Blair passed on the opportunity to stretch the lead to seven but the template had been set.

Contempomi and Blair swapped penalties midway through the half as Leinster attempted to negotiate a path through to the try line but one crunching tackle from Gethin Jenkins on Gleeson 25 minutes spoke volumes of Cardiff’s intentions.

As Leinster pushed and probed, penalties were their only reward and Contepomi passed on two kickable attempts on goal in favour of a kick for the corners.

Gordon D’Arcy was an ankle tackle away from the elusive touch down at one point but the visitors’ lack of punch was apparent when Contepomi kicked the next penalty over the posts to reduce the arrears to two points.

Leinster weren’t long in their slipstream. Five minutes later, Cardiff scrum-half Mike Philips sent a clever grubber kick into Leinster’s rear echelons, allowing Girvan Dempsey no option but to collect and run into touch yards from his end line.

Gethin Williams lumbered over from the subsequent line-out and, though Blair again sent the conversion awry, there was nothing in the script to suggest a happy ending for Leinster.

As it was, the final chapter was all but written a full half hour before the end credits rolled, by which time Cardiff had secured the bonus point thanks to another brace of quick-fire tries, one exquisite, the other less so.

Rhys Williams claimed the first but all the praise was reserved for Nick Robinson’s superbly-weighted cross field kick that gave Chris Czekaj ample time to collect and send the wing on his way.

Four minutes later they doubled the dosage, Mark Stcherbina batting down a Shane Horgan chip before scampering over, but the Irish international redeemed himself by chasing down a punt upfield and winning the chase for the touchdown.

The muted “celebrations” said it all. Nobody in the 9,309 crowd believed a miracle was about to happen and that included Michael Cheika’s men out on the park. An awful night got even worse minutes later when Contepomi — who passed his medicine exams earlier in the day — was given 10 minutes in the bin for a high tackle.

That was effectively that and both sides declared their innings with a full 15 minutes to go by emptying their benches.

Cardiff will hope that Borders can do the unlikely by beating the Ospreys in Nethradle, a result that would take the title to the Arms Park instead of the Liberty Stadium.

Leinster, deprived at the death for the second year in a row, will hardly care one way or another.

CARDIFF: B Blair, R Williams, J Robinson, M Stcherbina, C Czekaj, N Robinson, M Phillips; Gethin Jenkins, G Williams, G Powell, D Jones, R Sidoli, S Morgan, R Sowden-Taylor, X Rush. Replacements: T James for R Williams 65, S Roberts for Jenkins 65, N McLeod for Blair 70, M Lewis for Morgan 70, R Shellard for Sowden-Taylor 73, R Thomas for G Williams 73, W Evans for Phillips 74.

LEINSTER: G Dempsey, R Kearney, S Horgan, G D’Arcy, D Hickie, F Contepomi, C Whitaker; R Corrigan, B Jackman, W Green, T Hogan, M O’Kelly, S Keogh, K Gleeson, J Heaslip. Replacements: S Wright for Corrigan 40, G Easterby for Whitaker 40, C Warner for Kearney 55, C Jowitt for Keogh 60, O Finegan for O’Kelly 62, L Fitzgerald for Dempsey 67.

Referee: M Changleng (SRU).