More gruel than guile from Leinster
Michael Cheika’s men look anything but a side that will have a say in matters come May.
Once again they had to rely on the boot of Felipe Contepomi. The Argentinian kicked four penalties yesterday, bringing his tally to 14 in three games, during which his team has failed to score a single try.
It is a startling statistic given the abundance of riches in the squad but the persistence with Isa Nacewa at 10 and the stubborn adherence to Alan Gaffney’s flat alignment in attack again acted like a cork on Leinster’s normally bubbly back line.
Rob Kearney was named man of the match while there were other impressive attacking contributions from Rocky Elsom and, to a lesser extent, Brian O’Driscoll but these were mere crumbs of comfort on a menu dominated by gruel.
It is now 249 minutes and counting since they registered a five-pointer. God knows they had enough possession and territory to change that stat on this occasion but the day was not a complete disaster.
Their reward for yesterday’s endeavours is a quarter-final tie away to Harlequins who look far from untouchable despite beating Stade Francais twice in pool four. It could have been much worse.
Wasps were ahead with two tries already on the board with 13 minutes to go at the Stade Pierre-Antoine. Had they been able to push on and clinch a win with two more, Leinster would have been out.
Other bleak scenarios beckoned. At one point yesterday, the mathematics added up to a trip to Thomond Park while Stade Ernest Wallon was also in the mix before Toulouse’s draw with Bath at The Rec.
Leinster’s initial problems yesterday were of the most basic variety. The first scrum was destroyed on their own put-in, Bernard Jackman’s first throw curved away like a kite on the wind and he couldn’t hit the 6’10” Devin Toner with his second.
Edinburgh were minus half a dozen key personnel and had nothing to lose. They flung the ball about but were undone by their indiscipline, both in attack and defence, conceding 10 penalties in the first-half alone.
Contepomi landed his first two penalties towards the end of the first quarter and Leinster briefly suggested that they might actually be building towards something more promising with a handful of line breaks in the plays that followed.
The first came from Kearney whose mazy burst through the line ended with a knock-on from Stan Wright while Jamie Heaslip’s advance was hamstrung when John Houston took Contepomi down off the ball.
The Scot paid for his behaviour with 10 minutes in the bin but Leinster could only add two more penalties before the break and had one cancelled out by Chris Paterson who recorded his side’s only score of the day.
It got much worse in a second-half where driving rain only added to the air of despondency. It became clear very quickly that Leinster would not score the four tries needed to make Wasps’ result academic.
Edinburgh started the half nudging their way towards the Leinster line but were undone when the ball squirmed out of their control at a ruck and was returned with interest deep into their own 22 courtesy of Cian Healy’s swinging boot.
The rest of the half was spent almost exclusively in Edinburgh’s half. Edinburgh kept them out through fair means and some foul — some of which might have warranted yellow — but the Irish province’s failure to cross the whitewash was largely of their own making.
Elsom directed a couple of tongue lashings at his own forwards for their repeated failure to send the ball out towards the backs when the occasion demanded it but scrums, rucks, lineouts and carries all added up to naught.
They did cross over twice but Fitzgerald’s effort after 47 minutes was disallowed for a forward pass from Contepomi and Elsom’s touch down with ten minutes to go was executed after the whistle had already gone.
It was that kind of day.
LEINSTER: R Kearney, S Horgan, B O’Driscoll, F Contepomi, L Fitzgerald, I Nacewa, C Whitaker; C Healy, B Jackman, S Wright; T Hogan, D Toner; R Elsom, S Jennings, J Heaslip.
Replacements: G D’Arcy for Horgan (54), J Fogarty for Jackman (69), O Le Roux for Healy (72).
EDINBURGH: C Paterson, A Turnbull, N De Luca, J Houston, J Thompson, D Blair, G Laidlaw; K Traynor, A Kelly, G Cross; C Hamilton, B Gissing; S Newlands, S Cross, A Hogg.
Replacements: G Kerr for Traynor (55), A McDonald for Hogg (59), B Cairns for Houston (65), S Lawrie for Kelly (72).
Referee: C White (RFU).
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