Grinding their way to glory

CAN things really get any better for Irish rugby?

It hardly looks likely after the latest triumph for the game in this country saw Leinster dog it out in the style of their great rivals Munster at Murrayfield on Saturday to pull off a Heineken Cup final victory over Leicester Tigers. So we now have back-to-back Heinekens and Magners, not to mention a first Grand Slam in 61 years!

There was a time when Leinster teams just couldn’t have achieved this kind of result. They weren’t hungry enough, didn’t want it enough, but this team with a strong Australian influence proved a different proposition altogether. Coach Michael Cheika finally bred a winning mentality into his players, which became evident in their recent wins over Harlequins and Munster and was re-emphasised at Murrayfield.

True, the Tigers weren’t quite the side they might have been had they not been involved in titanic battles in each of the three preceding weeks and probably weren’t all they were cracked up to be anyway. To their credit, though, they took the disappointment of a second European final defeat in three years in sporting fashion and coach Richard Cockerill refused to make any excuses.

“We have no complaints, Leinster are a good team, they took their chances, and deserved it,” he recognised. He also pointed out that only a penalty goal separated the sides, kicked by Jonathan Sexton in the 69th minute when the excellent referee Nigel Owens pinged a Leicester player for not staying on his feet at a ruck. It was fitting that Sexton should have been the matchwinner after the awesome drop goal he had landed from the halfway line and at an angle in the first half, while he also belied his experience by controlling the game splendidly.

Inevitably, however, one has to go back to the Aussie influence at this point, for when it comes to the game’s central figure, how does anyone look beyond the dynamic number six Rocky Elsom. And if his coach and compatriot Michael Cheika is remembered for anything, it will be his success in attracting the powerful Wallaby to Dublin at the beginning of this season to add the kind of spine and backbone that had been missing for so long.

He was immense on Saturday and never relented, whether he was smashing into and through the Tigers in attack or withstanding their best efforts in defence. He took knock after knock, as evidenced by a bloodied nose, but seemed unaware of such inconsequential issues.

There were many Leinster heroes. Brian O’Driscoll, for instance, playing his heart out and inevitably taking the knocks that from time to time made one wonder if he could continue and whether he would be the latest Irishman putting his Lions place in jeopardy. Like Elsom, though, he had the heart for battle and as Cheika admitted, he never thought of taking him off, acknowledging that O’Driscoll “would have done a Ronaldo on me had I tried.”

In other words, this Leinster team wanted the trophy so badly and were so hungry and committed that not even a side of Leicester’s renowned reputation for winning tight games could deny them. When they had Cook Island prop Stan Wright sin-binned on 32 minutes and the Tigers went from 9-3 down to 16-9 ahead during his absence, the fear was that the same old story was about to unfold. As O’Driscoll noted: “The vast majority thought it would end up in a two to three score win for Leicester.”

He was probably right. Leinster would fold, they suspected, like those before them had done. Quickly, decisively and skilfully, however, they put that notion to bed with a cracking try by Jamie Heaslip, a man who this year has shown the facility for doing just that when the occasion most demanded. Remember his cracker against France at Croke Park and how he finished off Peter Stringer’s break against Scotland?

So with 32 minutes to go, the teams were level at 16-all and the game was balanced on a knife edge. Would the Tigers’ greater experience in this kind of situation prove decisive, or would Leinster’s hunger and resolve and noticeable advantage in footballing skill carry the day?

Two tired teams fought tooth and nail for the glory until Mr Owens spotted a Leicester indiscretion in the 68th minute and Sexton somehow guided the ball inside the far upright from 35 metres out on the left.

Both teams made mistakes as the clock ticked away. Shane Horgan fumbled a straightforward catch, Leicester, not for the first time by any means, struggled to control their line-out possession. As the triumphant winning captain Leo Cullen admitted, “it wasn’t pretty but this was all about winning.”

If Elsom, Sexton and O’Driscoll were the driving forces, the essential point about the game is that it was a triumph for the team ethic. Great credit is due to the Leinster line-out who won at least four throws against the head in the opening 20 minutes alone. Where were new Lion Tom Croft, the vastly experienced Ben Kay? Nowhere, really, and certainly playing second fiddle to the veteran Malcolm O’Kelly, to whom this will have meant more than most having played in Leinster’s first Heineken Cup game in November 1995, and Leo Cullen.

And you can only reflect positively on 21-year-old Cian Healy who has somehow managed to make the enforced absence of South African C.J. van der Linde seem almost like an irrelevance. Healy will only get better and looks a massive prospect for the future.

Chris Whitaker isn’t everyone’s idea of the ideal scrum-half but the Leinster players think the world of him, a point well made in that he was invited to accept the trophy with skipper Cullen at the end of this, his last match. For much of a game that didn’t produce a whole lot of good football, it was a case of getting down and dirty and here not a single Leinster back or forward was found wanting.

You could say the same about Leicester who never had an aversion to that kind of thing. For all the skill and effort of the excellent Geordan Murphy (whose departure with a bruised hip flexor on 48 minutes was a massive blow) and centre Dan Hipkiss, they were found wanting this time, not least because Sam Vesty proved that he is not an out-half no matter what else he might be and because the pack (except for a few scrums after the arrival of Julian White in place of Martin Castrogiovanni) never gained the upper hand.

Leinster scorers – Tries: Heaslip. Cons: Sexton. Pens: Sexton 2. DG’s: O’Driscoll, Sexton.

Leicester scorers – Tries: Woods. Cons: Dupuy. Pens: Dupuy 3.

LEINSTER: I Nacewa, S Horgan, B O’Driscoll, G D’Arcy, L Fitzgerald, J Sexton, C Whitaker; C Healy, B Jackman, S Wright; L Cullen, M O’Kelly; R Elsom, S Jennings, J Heaslip.

Replacements: R. Kearney for Fitzgerald (71), J Fogarty for Jackman (55).

LEICESTER: G. Murphy, S Hamilton, A Erinle, D Hipkiss, A Tuilagi, S Vesty, J Dupuy, M Ayerza, G Chuter, M Castrogiovanni, T Croft, B Kay, S Newby, B Woods, J Crane.

Replacements: M Smith for G. Murphy (47), H Ellis for Dupuy (75), J White for Castrogiovanni (52), L Moody for Woods (60), L. Deacon for Crane (32).

Attendance: 66,856

Referee: N Owens (Wales).