Sexton soars as Leinster show mettle

Leinster 29 Clermont Auvergne 28

Leinster didn’t so much win this Heineken Cup quarter-final; they just happened to be ahead when the final whistle went, and there could hardly have been a thinner line between victory and defeat.

Brock James missed two drop goals in the last four minutes — the latter was the last kick of the match — and the French side will rue their Australian’s poor display in front of the posts throughout the evening.

Their out-half managed only five kicks from 10 penalties and conversions and skewed a third drop goal wide in the first-half. Jonathan Sexton, whose kicking had been so poor in recent months, kicked seven from eight.

Cometh the man and all that…

For Clermont, their well of bad luck stories at home and abroad is nearing the brim. Defeated in three successive Top 14 finals, they have now seen a hat-trick of European campaigns come to similarly sticky ends despite a plethora of standout displays at home and abroad over that period.

Leinster took to the pitch to a thunderous roar from the 20,000 crowd and the strains of Welcome to the Jungle, only to spend the first 20 minutes deprived of both territory and possession.

Like all visitors in such circumstances, Clermont sought to suck the energy from both the crowd and their hosts, and they did so in such awesome style that Leinster were visibly reeling from the blows.

The French pack was literally the driving force, punching holes throughout the champions’ rearguard and displaying the kind of soft hands more associated with centres and wings than props and locks.

Orchestrating it all was James, who was positively O’Gara-esque with his boot from play at that point, kicking long, chipping short and launching cross-field missiles left and right to stretch the defence and force an opening.

It was a little dink 11 minutes in that brought them a deserved opening try. Gonzalo Canale collected, fed Aurelien Rougerie and he in turn set Malzieu over the line unimpeded.

James added the two points and a penalty five minutes later and, by then, the champions were in all sorts of trouble. The penalty county was six to one against and they were making basic errors galore.

It was a full 19 minutes before Leinster set foot in their opponents’ 22 but a Sexton penalty from under the posts two minutes later settled the nerves before they cooked up the move that turned things on their head.

Rob Kearney’s chase of an Eoin Reddan box kick allowed the cavalry arrive and force a turnover and, when it was eventually worked wide, Brian O’Driscoll made a mini-break before releasing Jamie Heaslip who barrelled over.

Clermont’s hopes of stemming the reversing tide were being stymied by James’ kicking difficulties, and the waves began to crest their heads when Heaslip bulldozed over for a second try seven minutes before the break.

Another Sexton conversion, followed by his second penalty, left it 20-10 and there was still time for Morgan Parra to take over from James temporarily and miss with another penalty before the interval.

Many a French team has folded its tent on the back of such a turnaround on the road but Clermont refused to follow such a dog-eared script and Leinster’s advantage was all but obliterated within 10 minutes of the restart.

Malzieu was, again, the man to land the hardest blow, touching down in the left corner after a slow, penetrative drive by the pack and a passing move through four pairs of hands.

James then sandwiched a Sexton penalty with a pair of his own before disaster struck for Shane Horgan, who failed to control a James clearance and compounded his error by having his own kick blocked down.

Malzieu picked up the pieces to run in and claim his hat-trick and James landed the conversion to leave the visitors five points to the good. Incredibly, there were still 18 minutes to play.

The next chapter, in keeping with all the tit-for-tat, was written by Leinster who came within inches of a third try through Gordon D’Arcy and they pushed with such intent that Anthony Floch was sent to the sin-bin for a deliberate knock-on.

That particular tide didn’t yield another five-pointer but it proved enough to cough up three penalties, two of which Sexton sent soaring through the uprights. That left them 29-28 to the good.

With a full seven minutes to go, there was always going to be another twist in the tale and it was James’ misfortune that the opportunity should fall to him on a night when his radar was so unreliable.

LEINSTER: R Kearney; S Horgan, B O'Driscoll, G D'Arcy, I Nacewa; J Sexton, E Reddan; S Wright, J Fogarty, C Van Der Linde; L Cullen, N Hines; K McLaughlin, S Jennings, J Heaslip.

Replacements: C Healy for van der Linde (40), B Jackman for Fogarty (73), G Dempsey for Kearney (76, inj).

CLERMONT AUVERGNE: A Floch; A Rougerie, M Joubert, G Canale, J Malzieu,;B James, M Parra; T Domingo, M Ledesma, D Zirakashvili; J Cudmore, T Privat; J Bonnaire, A Lapandry, E Vermeulen.

Replacements: J Pierre for Privat (52), A Audebert for Lapandry (52), V Debaty for Domingo (69), B Cabello for Ledesma (73).

Referee: D Pearson (England).