Schmidt scoffs at sour Sarries

DID a strange sense of foreboding strike anyone as the final whistle blew on Saturday to deliver a well-earned Heineken Cup victory on the road for Leinster?

It certainly struck Saracens director of rugby Brendan Venter who believes his team’s expansive style is being strangled by more pragmatic outfits.

The South African went as far as to say that “rugby will die” if the sport’s powers that be do not intervene and properly police the new law interpretations in a consistent matter but while the bells were tolling in his mind they may in truth be merely for Saracens’ European ambitions this season.

Leinster fly-half Jonathan Sexton marked his return to kicking duties following a quadriceps muscle injury by putting on a flawless display with the boot and also scoring the Irish province’s only try of the game to personally contribute all 25 points for the visitors.

The victory, allied to ASM Clermont Auvergne’s defeat at Racing Metro, leaves Leinster sitting pretty atop Pool Two with a four-point cushion over Clermont after two wins from two.

Saracens, meanwhile, prop up the pool with just one losing bonus point to show for defeats at Clermont and now on their own patch at Wembley. And for all Venter’s grumbles that there could have been “50 more penalties” against Leinster and more than just the yellow card handed by French referee Christophe Berdos to hooker Richardt Strauss it will be that bare truth that stings Venter more than the future of rugby.

It is not often Leinster are portrayed as spoilers and Venter’s words were deftly kicked into touch by his opposite number Joe Schmidt. Leinster’s new head coach showed some sympathy for the Sarries boss but it came cloaked in barbed wire as he rightly pointed to the Londoners’ lack of penetration for all their possession.

“I think it is really difficult with the new interpretations of the penalty rules,” Schmidt began. “They went through 30 phases at end of game, for one team to have the ball for 30 phases suggests there is no contest, and rugby is a physical contest.

“I congratulate Saracens in the way they play the game, they play with a lot of width and energy, but they did play very lateral against us.

“We saw Clermont made 230 tackles and I think we made a fair few tackles today as well so while they keep the ball for very long periods sometimes they don’t make the line breaks, and if they look at their minutes in possession and line breaks made, I think there is a very significant message there that Brendan Venter could take from that as opposed to these state of the nation speeches.”

Ouch. That was as surgical as Sexton’s boot, the Ireland number 10 taking back the kicking responsibilities from Isa Nacewa two weeks after returning to action and sending over six penalties and the conversion of his own try.

With Brian O’Driscoll reduced to a water-carrying role and making for a nervy spectator having failed to overcome a hamstring strain sustained in the home win over Racing, Sexton’s return was a welcome fillip for the Leinster fans at a half-full Wembley.

And in contrast, Saracens suffered a cruel blow with the loss of their fly-half Derick Houggard after just 47 minutes to suspected torn Achilles tendon that may keep him out for the rest of the season.

Houggard’s departure was followed by Sexton’s try as Leinster opened up an 11-point lead at 22-11 but Saracens were given a renewed sense of purpose when Strauss was sin-binned for killing the ball and their first-half try scoring full-back Alex Goode began to kick the home side back into the contest as Leinster’s indiscipline at the breakdown became a major issue.

It also sent Venter’s blood pressure rising, though equally frustrating will have been his side running from touchline to touchline as the clock ticked down, vainly keeping the ball active without finding a way through Leinster’s solid white line of defence, happy to camp between halfway and their own 22 without ever coming under serious threat.

Not so much the death of rugby but the demise of Saracen’s Heineken Cup hopes and naturally enough, Leinster coach Schmidt was delighted with the effort, despite the blip midway through the second-half.

“I thought we almost ran out of ideas how to win the game at times, made it quite tough for ourselves,” he said. “There were some quite cheap penalties that we did give away, when we had a buffer with an eight-point margin and then an 11-point margin.

“I think last week we showed a bit of class with the ball, this week I felt we showed a bit of character without the ball.”

Had he his heart in his mouth as Sarries ran through those 30 phases? “I think I spat it out at that stage, 11-point lead and it was dwindled away, man in the sin bin with 20 minutes to play, pretty nerve-wracking stuff.

“That’s why people love the Heineken Cup. Coaches hate it but spectators love it. It’s a great competition.”

Saracens scorers – Try – Alex Goode; Pens – Derick Hougaard (2), Alex Goode (4)

Leinster scorers – Try – Johnny Sexton; Cons – Johnny Sexton; Pens – Johnny Sexton (6) ; Yellow Card – Richardt Strauss

SARACENS: A Goode; D Strettle, A Powell (K Ratuvou, 58), B Barritt, C Wyles; D Hougaard (N Cato, 47), R Wigglesworth (N de Kock, 47), D Carstens, S Brits, C Nieto, S Borthwick (capt), M Botha (H Smith, 62), J Burger, A Saull, E Joubert (K Brown, 47).

LEINSTER: R Kearney, S Horgan, L Fitzgerald (F McFadden, 47), G D’Arcy, I Nacewa, J Sexton, E Reddan (I Boss, 56), C Healy (H Van Der Merwe, 60), R Strauss, M Ross (S Shawe, 76), N Hines, D Toner (L Cullen, 69), S O’Brien, S Jennings (J Harris-Wright, 66), J Heaslip (capt).

Referee: Christophe Berdos (France).