Leinster ride luck to steal Chiefs’ scalp

Leinster 9 Exeter Chiefs 6

To a man, they agreed, this was one that Leinster were lucky to win.

Fergus McFadden admitted the holders “got out of jail” while Chiefs coach Rob Baxter accepted it was one the visitors had let get away.

Yet another shared consensus was that Exeter came to the table fully primed while the hosts were undercooked.

No doubt about it, the constrictions on playing their Irish internationals and a glut of injuries have left Leinster vulnerable and their pool is one where any scent of weakness will be pounced on ruthlessly.

On Saturday, coach Joe Schmidt bemoaned his side’s predilection to attempt the high-risk offload when going into contact or falling to the floor, which was suggestive of a team impatient to rediscover it’s va va voom.

The Rabo win over Munster had suggested that, for the third time in three years, the Dublin side had successfully sailed through some choppy early-season waters but this squeaky win was proof the storm has yet to fully abate.

Should they be worried? “No, I am not worried about our form,” said McFadden. We will look at our performances and what we need to address during the week. Small things. We put some good phases together here but we just weren’t clinical enough in their red zone to turn that into scores.”

In the end, Leinster depended on three Jonathan Sexton penalties to get them over the line. Those and a missed kick from replacement out-half Ignacio Mieres just inside the home side’s half with the last action of the afternoon.

With Sexton and his opposite number Gareth Steenson missing a pair of penalties each earlier in proceedings, the margin for error in this arm wrestle was painfully slim and one hopes the Irish province hasn’t emptied its quota of good fortune on day one. Tries, or even the suggestion of them, were non-existent, with the majority of the action centred on furious exchanges at the ruck and in the narrow channels as both defences shut attacking moves down with a merciless consistency. Exeter danced a fine line at ruck time but did brilliantly in slowing down Leinster’s ball while the Irish side pilfered at least half a dozen turnovers which in turn deprived their opponents of useful go-forward ball. It was that kind of game.

“There was a lack of structure,” admitted Leinster coach Joe Schmidt of his side’s display although he was frequently at pains to praise the performance of Exeter in their first Heineken Cup appearance.

“One of the things we pride ourselves on is that we keep our shape and guys know where they are. Therefore you don’t tend to get that isolated player we had today. It’s something we need to work on and if we do, hopefully we’ll be more fluid next week.”

Schmidt admitted that the success or otherwise of Mieres’ last penalty was going to dictate whether he would stress the positives in the dressing room or give his side a kick up the rear ahead of Saturday’s trip to Parc Y Scarlets. The wise decision would probably be to take a little from Column A and a bit more from Column B, as Leinster are meeting a Scarlets side that must win in order to maintain some hopes of making the last eight.

“They have the likes of George North, Davies, Scott Williams,” said McFadden. “They have a really prolific back line. They have big and dynamic runners. They have the guts of the Welsh back line there with (Rhys) Priestland steering the ship so it is will be just as tough.”

The hope is that Leinster will have the likes of Rob Kearney and Gordon D’Arcy back in contention by then and, among the few positives from two days ago, was the fact that there were no fresh injury concerns to complicate matters. Schmidt used just three replacements against the Chiefs, a sure sign that the champions are ticking by on a reduced roster right now, but win in Wales and they will have emerged through a difficult period with their threepeat hopes very much intact.

LEINSTER RUGBY: I Madigan, A Conway, B O’Driscoll, F McFadden, I Nacewa, J Sexton, E Reddan, C Healy, R Strauss, M Ross, L Cullen, D Browne, K McLaughlin, S Jennings, J Heaslip. Replacements: D Toner for Browne (53); H van der Merwe for Healy (53); S Cronin for Strauss (74).

EXETER CHIEFS: L Arscott, I Whitten, P Dollman, J Shoemark, M Jess, G Steenson, H Thomas, B Sturgess, S Alcott, C Rimmer, T Hayes, J Hanks, T Johnson, J Scaysbrook, R Baxter. Replacements: S Naqelevuki for Shoemark (55); W Chudley for Thomson (55): D Mumm for Johnson (59); C Whitegead for Alcott (66); I Mieres for Steenson (66); B Moon for Sturgess (66); C Budgen for Rimmer (76).

Referee: Pascal Gauzere (France).