Berquist pulls strings as Leinster sneak win

THE problem with dress rehearsals is that people continually fluff their lines. That’s one reason why pre-season friendlies have to be treated with a certain amount of scepticism, especially when coaches make so many changes that at one stage last night, substituted players were coming back onto the field to replace substitutes.

Yet amid all this, there were two performances of note to concentrate on. The first was Jamie Hagan’s. Big, strong and athletic, he should be on the plane to New Zealand as Mike Ross’ back-up. Instead, he was here, dominating a scrum and giving Leinster a foothold in a game they looked like losing heavily.

That they didn’t comes down to Hagan’s role in the scrum and Matt Berquist’s at out-half.