Leinster do enough to clip Ospreys’ wings

Leinster 20 Ospreys 16

As a script, this was almost identical to those submitted by the Heineken Cup champions in recent weeks — they might not have been at their best but they are becoming the market leaders in getting things done.

“The first-half performance was pretty average at best, wasn’t it?” said a straight-talking Michael Cheika. “The second-half we showed a big improvement. Physically, we were a lot better.”

Michael Cheika’s side have now won their last five games in both competitions by an average margin of three points. Gone for good, it seems is the all-singing, all-dancing side. In its place is a machine built purely for grinding out results.

They did so last night without their first-choice half-backs. With Jonny Sexton nursing his cracked jaw and a major doubt for the European semi-final in Toulouse, Shaun Berne stepped in at ten and emerged with a passing grade.

Interestingly, it wasn’t Berne but Fergus McFadden who took the kicks on goal. That begs a number of questions, chief among them being will he be accommodated in Toulouse if Sexton fails to recover in time?

“You pick the team first and foremost and we’ll see what happens from there,” said Cheika. “I don’t need to forecast that stuff yet, there’s no point. Plus, McFadden is playing well at the moment.

“His defensive game has improved out of sight. He has always been good attacking with the ball. It’s going to be touch and go (for Sexton) and it’s not far away, really. The chap’s not in a great situation at the moment.”

Ideally, Berne would have been served by Eoin Reddan here but the Ireland scrum-half was a late withdrawal with a strained quad muscle although Cheika was adamant that it was not a major concern.

This may have been a first-versus-second encounter but it was one shortchanged by the absence of talents like Brian O’Driscoll, Sexton and Rob Kearney through injury and a host of Ospreys through necessity.

Last night’s game was the Welsh side’s third in seven days and that resulted in James Hook, Mike Phillips and Ryan Jones all starting on the bench. Tommy Bowe was given the night off in its entirety.

Leinster were well aware of the flaws inherent in their performance against Clermont Auvergne seven days earlier, despite the win, and penalties were again the bane of Cheika’s life early on.

The count against the home side neared double figures in the first-half alone and Ospreys out-half Dan Biggar was no Brock James. The visiting 10 punished Leinster time and again for their indiscretions in that opening period.

He finished it with all 16 of his side’s points thanks to a try, conversion and three penalties and the only surprise was that the Ospreys’ total wasn’t greater as the Welsh region dominated possession and territory.

A number of multi-phase moves interlinking backs and forwards had come to naught before Biggar bundled over himself after 32 minutes, finally putting to rights a scoreboard that until then had Leinster in front.

It was an impressive performance by the highly-rated Welsh youngster as it had been Biggar’s over-ambitious pass that allowed Isa Nacewa run the length of the field for the game’s opening try.

McFadden added the equally routine conversion and a penalty to complete the home side’s contribution for the opening spell and, Nacewa’s opportunism aside, they rarely ventured into the visitors’ third.

As expected, an earful from Cheika was enough to generate an improvement on the restart but Leinster’s rehabilitation owed as much to a number of enemy sentries falling asleep at their posts after 52 minutes.

It was then that what, to the naked eye, appeared to be a routine lineout and feed from Paul O’Donohoe morphed into a try for Berne who cantered past a gaping hole in the Ospreys’ defensive line.

McFadden’s second conversion from under the posts handed them the lead and, by then, the visitors were already halfway through their replacements’ bench after their long week on the road.

Hook and Jones were the first pairing called on and Phillips followed midway through the half, but the momentum and the chance of a first win in Dublin in five years was slipping the Ospreys by.

Leinster should have generated more wiggle room for the closing stages but two missed McFadden penalty kicks — both of them routine — and a Berne drop goal that was inches wide kept the gap at a minimum.

Ian Gough supplied the home side with yet another chance to pull away towards the end with a needlessly late tackle on Berne that earned him a yellow card and McFadden obliged to convert his fourth of six kicks.

LEINSTER: G Dempsey; S Horgan, F McFadden, G D'Arcy, I Nacewa; S Berne, P O’Donoghue; C Healy, J Fogarty, M Ross; L Cullen, N Hines; K McLaughlin, S Jennings, J Heaslip.

Replacements: S Wright for Ross 40, M O’Kelly for Hines 40, Stephen Keogh for McLaughlin 65.

OSPREYS: G Owen; N Walker, S Parker, A Bishop, S Williams; D Biggar, J Nutbrown; P James, E Shervington, A Jones, I Gough, A Wyn Jones, J Collins, M Holah, F Tiatia.

Replacements: R Jones for AW Jones 50, J Hook for Biggar 50, C Mitchell for Jones 59, M Phillips for Nutbrown 64, I Evans for Tiatia 64, T Prydie for Owen 85.

Referee: A Lewis (Ireland).