Sexton pressure is good for O'Gara
Their low-key preparations had the desired effect. Cheika and his management team can take a lot of credit. To lose a player of the calibre of Felipe Contepomi on the home straight could have had a disastrous effect on the team. However the time and effort put into Jonathan Sexton over the past few seasons came to fruition when it mattered most. He was a revelation with his calming influence having a galvanising effect on his more experienced colleagues.
One should never underestimate the confidence of youth. Both Sexton and Cian Healy proved that adage on Saturday. Yet nobody could have expected Sexton to dominate this clash to the degree that he did. With Contepomi now departing for Toulon, one hopes the Leinster hierarchy put their faith in the young out-half and resist the temptation to buy in a high-profile replacement for the influential Argentine international.
Sexton demonstrated that he has the temperament to perform in the most demanding and influential position on the rugby field despite the fact that, by his own admission, he struggled to sleep for the two nights before the decider.
His display is not only good news for Leinster and Declan Kidney but also, I suspect, for Ronan O’Gara. The Cork man has had no pressure on him for his No 10 green shirt for some time and that in itself is not good for any player. Now with a young pretender in his slipstream, O’Gara will benefit from the challenge in the build up to the World Cup.
Before returning to the international fold O’Gara has more pressing concerns. The Munster playmaker and his Irish team-mates set out this week with the challenge of winning a Lions test position for the opening clash with South Africa in Durban in just over three weeks. That is always the problem for the Lions. The clock can be your greatest enemy. Trying to achieve a balance in giving every player an opportunity to fight for a test place, while at the same time attempting to get your test combinations playing regularly together, is always a challenge.
That’s why Ian McGeechan has reduced the size of the touring party this time from 2005. He did, however, address one of the most baffling decisions when the squad was originally announced by only naming two out-halves. This seemed crazy at the time and placed a huge burden on O’Gara and Stephen Jones. There would have been pressure on them to tog off for every game. If one of them was to go down, sick or injured, on the eve of a test, the only back up was Riki Flutey who hasn’t played in the position for over three years and will also make a strong claim for the inside centre test berth himself.
The elevation of James Hook from the Ospreys as a replacement for back-three player Leigh Halfpenny is in some way an admission that the management have had a rethink. It will not have done Hook’s confidence any good however when McGeechan declared after the original selection that the third ranked out-half was some distance behind the two chosen.
After all the disruptions last week with the loss of Alan Quinlan and Jerry Flannery, along with original picks Tomás O’Leary and Tom Shanklin, the tour party will be relieved to have finally arrived on South African soil and start preparations for the tour opener in Rustenburg on Saturday. Once you have played the opening game, the tour tends to whizz past with all kinds of frenzied opponents coming thick and fast.
That opening game against a Royal XV should be a manageable introduction against a committed but limited composite team. After that, the tour party face four difficult assignments against experienced opposition in the Golden Lions, the Cheetahs, the Sharks and Western Province. That quartet of fixtures will decide the make up of the team for the first test.
The Lions management are sure to be represented at the Super 14 final in Pretoria on Saturday where the Blue Bulls, with a minimum of five of the likely Springbok side, take on the Chiefs in what should be a great final and offers a foretaste of the intensity the tourists can expect over the next six weeks.
But the last word today must go to Leinster. Despite suffering a temporary lack of confidence in the pool games against Wasps and Edinburgh back in January, they stumbled over the line into the knockout phase.
Perhaps fortified by the success generated at national level, their international stars returned to the fold primed and ready for action.
From the moment they took to the field in The Stoop to face Harlequins, they never yielded an inch and grew in stature through the quarter, semi and final phases of the tournament. Their triumph ensures there will be many teams lying in wait next October when the competition kicks off again, none with more hunger than their cousins from the south.
After a year in which Munster played a brand of rugby far superior to any produced by the province before, they paid the ultimate price for a poor performance in the semi-final when they were comprehensively outplayed by Cheika’s side.
The Munster players are feeling the pain right now as they have been cast in the shadow of the men from Leinster. The Leinster supporters were excellent in Murrayfield and the good humoured banter was in evidence at Edinburgh airport on the journey home on Saturday night. For of the sizeable Munster support in attendance, on the receiving end for a change, they took the slagging with grace. They had no choice.
With cries of “European champions” ringing in their ears one Tipperary man head to toe in his Munster gear could take no more. “European champions, you must be joking” he cried, “sure ye only finished third in the Magners League”. Ah yes, next season should be interesting.
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