Davies says Leinster are fit for Six Nations

SUCH was the magnitude of this performance that Leinster travelled to the Welsh valleys on Saturday with their Heineken Cup title hanging by a thread and yet they departed with their grip seemingly tighter than ever.

Yes, they were that good.

“Leinster could play in the Six Nations,” said a clearly impressed Scarlets coach Nigel Davies. “They know their game, they’re comfortable with it. They’ve shown they can compete consistently at the top level.”

High praise indeed and, though some observers pointed to the absence of Mark Jones, Matthew Rees and Dafydd Jones on the home side, Leinster took to the park minus Jonathan Sexton, Luke Fitzgerald and Shane Jennings.

It says everything about the gap in class between the two sides, on paper and on the night, that Jenning’s deputy, Sean O’Brien, claimed the honour of being the official man-of-the-match.

Shaun Berne’s was a similar story. With Sexton unavailable, the Australian utility back stepped into the cockpit at ten and dovetailed superbly with a stellar back line. His kicking wasn’t bad either, from the hand and the tee.

In truth, Michel Cheika husbanded his resources to perfection.

All his first-choice players, with the exception of CJ van der Linde, sat out last week’s Magners League trip to Newport and his side justified that strategy with the club’s best away European performance since Toulouse in 2006.

The Scarlets, however, are no Toulouse, either on the park or in the stands. They stood top of the group before the weekend, but their spanking new, 15,000-capacity stadium was less than two-thirds full for the visit of the European champions.

What, you have to ask, would it take to attract a full house in this venerated rugby hotbed and how exactly could a thousand Leinster fans drown out the natives to the extent they did?

Okay, so the day-trippers had a lot to shout about and deciding which of the four tries was best would be a thankless task. All were products of a commitment to running rugby, to playing what they saw in front of them.

The first, from Shane Horgan, was an individual effort. The second was a bewitching team move in a corner of the pitch the size of a living room that finished with Gordon D’Arcy sauntering over in acres of space.

The third was the most audacious with the ball passing between five pairs of hands after Eoin Reddan’s quick lineout inside his own ‘22’. Berne was the man in possession when it was touched down.

For the Scarlets, a side that revels in its reputation for exactly that brand of cavalier rugby, it must have been the ultimate frustration, especially with their own moves breaking down ad nauseum.

They did themselves no favours, moving the ball the width of the pitch time and again. Invariably, someone dropped the ball somewhere along the line. Only in the second-half, when their forwards drove up the middle, did things improve. By then, of course, their opponents were almost home and dry.

Leinster were making line breaks at will and it wasn’t just the backs cutting loose. Sean O’Brien and Cian Healy both led charges in the first quarter and Nacewa, Rob Kearney and Jamie Heaslip almost stretched the lead close to the interval.

By then, 22-0 adrift, the Scarlets were on the ropes and praying for the bell.

They used the breather to good effect. The third quarter was the home side’s best. Leinster hunkered down as best they could but, such was the pressure they were coming under, that Jonathan Davies’ try was no surprise.

When Nathan Hines walked to the sinbin soon after the torpid home support finally began to stir but Leinster had already surfed the worst of the waves by the time Sean Lamont saw yellow for a shoulder charge on Nacewa.

Berne exacted the best possible revenge by claiming three points from the penalty and when Hines trotted back on two minutes later the needle had all but dropped out of the red.

All that remained was that elusive fourth try and bonus point and it arrived courtesy of yet another passing move with nine minutes to go. Fittingly, given the role they had played all night, it was scored by a forward.

Berne made the all-important break, Heaslip provided a sublime pop-up pass from the ground after being brought down and O’Brien carried the ball and two defenders over the whitewash.

Job done.

SCARLETS: D Evans; A Fenby, S Lamont, J Davies, L Williams; S Jones, M Roberts; I Thomas, K Owens, D Manu; L Reed, D Day; S Easterby, R Pugh, D Lyons.

Replacements: P John for Thomas 65, V Cooper for Day 70, T Knoyle for Roberts 73, E Phillips for Owens 76, R McCusker for Pugh 76.

LEINSTER: R Kearney, S Horgan, B O’Driscoll, G D’Arcy, I Nacewa; S Berne, E Reddan; C Healy, J Fogarty, CJ van der Linde; L Cullen, N Hines; K McLaughlin, S O’Brien, J Heaslip.

Replacements: M Ross for van der Linde 50, B Jackman for Fogarty 70, S Wright for Healy 73, F McFadden for O’Driscoll 73, P O’Donohue for Reddan 74, G Dempsey for Berne 75, M O’Kelly for Cullen 75.

Referee: C White (England).