Cheika keeps high flyers grounded
Yet, here Leinster are, two games into the competition and with their foot on the throat of Pool Two.
Two wins, 10 points, the same number of tries and, thanks to Edinburgh’s first win in France on Saturday, Wasps and Castres, their two main challengers for top spot, are scrambling desperately for ballast just as the European competition is mothballed for seven weeks.
The English Premiership side faces a premature D-Day next day out in the Scottish capital in round three while Michael Cheika’s side would put a stake through Castres already suspect heart with a third win in the RDS in the first week in December.
“We just have to play the next game that comes to us,” said Cheika, anxious to rein in the overflowing levels of expectation after this six-try demolition. “I know that is cliched but the minute you start doing maths you are in trouble. If you keep playing footy you will hopefully do well. When the next game comes we need to be a better team than we were this time.”
No easy task that as Saturday was, by a distance, Leinster’s best performance of a season where they had grappled wildly for their groove. It was, in fact, their finest European display since the quarter-final defeat of Toulouse in France four seasons ago.
The result wasn’t by any means cost free, though. Leo Cullen departed before the second quarter with a broken collar bone which sidelines him for over six weeks while Brian O’Driscoll checked in to the treatment room at half-time with a knee ligament injury.
O’Driscoll is a doubt for next weekend’s Magners League trip to Glasgow but the centre did enough in the first-half to confirm the growing suspicion that his attacking game is again sparking to life. The second of his two tries where he kicked twice up the short side was a rare gem and will feature on any video compilation of his career highlights.
There were standout displays all over the park. Rob Kearney’s simmering season burst into life with a commanding performance while Shane Jennings’ ground-hogging saw him named man-of-the-match.
Aiding it all was an out-of-sorts effort from a Wasps side that has failed to gel this season. It was something of a shock to see a side prepared by Ian McGeechan and Shaun Edwards fail to perform so many of the basics.
“We made too many errors and that has been the story of our season,” said Edwards. “We lost the kicking battle and in the air. Their kicking game was on a different planet to ours. We’ve lost a lot of Premiership games already because of our poor catching and it was the same again here. We were second best the entire game.”
That brittleness under the high ball was targeted relentlessly by Leinster and no-one benefited more from the weakness than Kearney who was sublime in his aerial duties. The many cracks in the English defence were such that five of the home side’s tries came from turnovers.
Poor as Wasps were in defence, they threatened plenty in attack and dominated the ball for long periods in that opening 40 minutes. When Jeremy Staunton went over for their try after 39 minutes, the gap was down to just four at the change of ends.
It was then that Leinster really began to shine. Down Cullen and O’Driscoll, and with Wasps having survived the sin-binning of Phil Vickery before the interval, the momentum spent the break in the away dressing room.
Within two minutes of the restart, it had changed sides. Luke Fitzgerald’s try set the tone for the rest of the evening before three more from Contepomi, Rocky Elsom and Kearney added further sheen to what a superb game.
“There was a possibility for us to go back into our shell a bit,” said Kearney. “We had lost Brian and Leo and there were only a few points in it. It was pleasing the way we came back out. There were 15 leaders out there.’’
Onwards and upwards then but Cheika may be right to preach caution. After all, after the high in Toulouse four years back there was the subterranean low of defeat to Munster in Lansdowne Road.
The road ahead may yet cough up some unexpected twists.
LEINSTER: G Dempsey; S Horgan, B O’Driscoll, L Fitzgerald, R Kearney; F Contepomi, C Whitaker; S Wright, B Jackman, CJ van der Linde; L Cullen, M O’Kelly; R Elsom, S Jennings, J Heaslip.
Replacements: D Toner for Cullen 17, J Sexton for O’Driscoll 40, C Healy for van der Linde 65, G Brown for Fitzgerald 69, Stephen Keogh for O’Kelly 73, J Fogarty for Wright 73, C Keane for Whitaker 76.
LONDON WASPS: J Staunton; P Sackey, J Lewsey, R Flutey, T Voyce; D Cipriani, E Reddan; T Payne, R Ibanez, P Vickery; S Shaw, T Palmer; J Haskell, T Rees, J Worsley.
Replacements: R Webster for Ibanez 54, M van Gisbergen for Staunton 65, M Robinson for Reddan 69, S Betsen for Rees 73.
Referee: N Owens (Wales).
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