Lethal Leinster have stamp of champs

Leinster ceased playing catch-up on Munster in Europe when they won their second Heineken Cup last season but that doesn’t mean they can’t still learn a thing or two from their southern brethren.

Saturday’s 31-point defeat of Cardiff Blues at the Aviva Stadium was the biggest victory enjoyed by any team in a Heineken Cup quarter-final since Munster eased past the Ospreys with 34 to spare in 2009.

It was, in fact, the joint-fourth largest win for any side in the last eight in the entire history of the tournament but none of the teams above them in that particular list went on to claim the crown come May.

Joe Schmidt talked late on Saturday night about the impossibility of building momentum in this tournament, with its fits and constant restarts throughout the season, and the record books would bear that out.

It’s 14 years since Toulouse had 41 points to spare on Harlequins at this stage and didn’t make the final. Ditto for Stade Francais 12 months later when they boasted 56 more than Pontypridd. Then there was Munster who fell to Leinster in the semi three years ago.

Lest we forget, Munster were heavily favoured that day in Croke Park and rightly so after the all-singing, all-dancing destruction of the Ospreys which they completed shortly before Leinster dogged out at a punishing, low-scoring win against Harlequins at The Stoop.

Little did anyone know it then but that win in London signalled a shift in power in Irish provincial rugby that those basking in the magnificence of Munster’s Thomond Park cakewalk would have thought highly unlikely at the time.

“There were some dark enough days, days when we were a bit flaky,” said captain Leo Cullen. “That probably changed, in my eyes, when we went away for that quarter-final against Harlequins and dogged out at 6-5 result over there.

“We came in under the radar that year against Munster for the semi-final. They were the team that was being hyped up that year. They were the European champions and they’d just come off beating the Ospreys by 40 points or something like that.

“They were on the back of two Heineken Cups in three years as well so we need to learn from that as well. We won pretty convincingly this time at home but we have to realise there were parts of our game where we probably let ourselves down.”

Cullen’s main beef was with a dysfunctional lineout but there was so much more to admire than admonish in Leinster’s performance, the manner in which they racked up their four tries inside just 48 minutes, in particular.

Isa Nacewa claimed the first after just 12 minutes, Rob Kearney two more, but it was the third that elicited the most oohs and aahs thanks to a delicious reverse pass from Jonathan Sexton whose importance to the team just grows and grows.

Sexton was sidelined with a broken jaw the last time Leinster travelled abroad for a European knockout fixture, to Le Stadium in Toulouse for the semi-final in 2010, but they are not the same team they were back then.

All the evidence suggests they are better now.

Almost a third of Saturday’s starting side played no part in that 26-16 defeat, for one reason or another, while Mike Ross was approaching the end of a dispiriting first season in Dublin and was used for just five minutes off the bench.

And it isn’t just the personnel. Leinster have evolved under Schmidt who has built on the foundation laid by Michael Cheika.

“I still think it’s going to be tough going away in the semi,” said Cullen, “but we’ve been together for a good period of time. Every season, the organisation has added an extra couple of pieces to the jigsaw.

“They’ve always added greatly to the team and that’s what we’re obviously looking to do, we’re looking to improve every year to strengthen the squad and we’re lucky with the Academy guys we have coming through. Young guys are all pushing through to make the team.

“That’s what we’re trying to build here, we don’t want to just be successful for a flash in the pan season, we want to be continually pushing for honours. Leinster Inc, or whatever you want to call it, is hungry to be successful.”

Scorers for Leinster: Tries: Nacewa, Kearney (two) and O’Driscoll. Cons: Sexton (four). Pens: Sexton (two).

Scorers for Cardiff Blues: Pen: Halfpenny.

LEINSTER: R Kearney; I Nacewa, B O’Driscoll, G D’Arcy, L Fitzgerald; J Sexton, E Reddan; C Healy, R Strauss, M Ross; L Cullen, B Thorn; K McLaughlin, S O’Brien, J Heaslip.

Replacements: S Jennings for McLaughlin (49), S Cronin for Strauss (53), D Toner for Thorn (60), F McFadden for Fitzgerald (60), I Boss for Reddan (62), H van der Merwe for Healy (66), I Madigan for O’Driscoll (69), N White for Ross (72).

CARDIFF BLUES: L Halfpenny; A Cuthbert, C Laulala, D Hewitt, T James; D Parks, L Williams; G Jenkins, M Breeze, S Andrews; B Davies, J Down; M Paterson, M Williams, X Rush.

Replacements: M Molitika for Down (60), R Rees for L Williams (69), C Sweeney for Parks (69).

Referee: D Pearson (England).