Castres loom large on horizon for Blues

Leinster 9 Northampton 18

It is four years ago this week since Leinster played Castres on their home ground for the first and only time and it is more than the memories of the bone-chilling temperatures which will send shivers down spines at the thoughts of returning.

Leinster had travelled on the back of a convincing 33-10 win at the RDS — albeit one that left the fifth bonus point behind — knowing their hosts were in anything but the optimal sort of shape to spring a surprise.

Castres were second from bottom of the Top 14 and the double act of the Laurents, Travers and Labit, who would deliver a league title in 2013, were still six months away from assuming their posts with the club.

The end result was a dispiriting 18-15 loss for Michael Cheika’s side, a blip on the way to claiming the club’s first European title, but a near-costly one that condemned them to an ultimately torturous away quarter-final against Harlequins.

There can be no repeat next month.

Saturday’s loss to Northampton has already compromised a previously unbeaten run in this year’s competition and leaves Leinster propping up the rear in the race for home slots among the six pool leaders. Another defeat and the Amlin would probably be their lot again.

“We have two tough games against Castres and Ospreys,” said coach Matt O‘Connor. “We have to win those two games. We would have looked at those at the start of the pool and targeted those. So things haven’t changed dramatically from that end.”

Castres are not yet out of it, even after the weekend’s loss against Ospreys in Swansea, they are undefeated at home in nine games this season and the manner of Leinster’s win in the RDS in October will afford extra motivation.

Complacency will hardly be a factor then.

That had been a watchword all last week as it was and, though O’Connor dismissed it as a contributory factor given last week’s 33-point win, it was a result that belied sweeping generalisations about the current standards of the English game.

“I never portrayed it as being weak and people shouldn’t,” said the Australian who spent three years as head coach with Leicester Tigers. “There was nothing in that [game]. It was a tremendous game of football.

“There was a lot of really good things to be positive about in relation to the Heineken Cup. The Premiership is a unique competition. It’s a little different to Top 14 and the Rabo. There are world-class teams and players in it.”

Northampton didn’t approach that level. Their ambition and sweep was far less pronounced than that of the sublime Clermont Auvergne team that swept over Leinster in waves at the same stadium 12 months before.

Yet the Saints came armed with a thirst for revenge, a determination to dominate the physical exchanges and a game plan that was limited but effective.

There were 62 kicks from hand, which suited the visitors far more, and the desire to squeeze the three-time champions was evident in the manner Dylan Hartley consistently eschewed three points for kicks to the corners.

Allied to it all was a Leinster team that must have dropped more balls and missed more tackles in this one night than in their first three games combined.

“We were inaccurate,” said O’Connor. “We didn’t look after the ball as well as we would have liked. We certainly didn’t look after it as well as we did last week. And that let them into the game.”

It was book-ended with tries from George North on five minutes and Jamie Elliott after 81, the latter coming when a last, ferocious surge from Leinster ended with Jamie Heaslip’s spilling for Elliott to sprint the distance home.

It was fully merited.

Stephen Meyler had shanked two kickable penalties earlier on and the Saints had themselves knocked-on twice when in Leinster’s 22 in the opening half. Only for a spell after the break did the Irish side really turn the screw.

There were odes expressed on the night to the missing Sean O’Brien and Cian Healy, and expressions of dissatisfaction with some of referee Jerome Garces’ decisions, but none of them came from within the Leinster dressing room.

Ultimately, they knew that Northampton’s collective was superior, while Dylan Hartley, Samu Manoa and Courtney Lawes were the players to catch the eye.

They limited a side keenly fancied for this year’s title — and one that had scored 11 tries in their first trio of games — to a hat-trick of Ian Madigan penalties and deprived them of even a losing bonus point in the process.

Quite the turnaround, all told.

LEINSTER: R Kearney; D Kearney, B O’Driscoll, G D’Arcy, L Fitzgerald; I Madigan, E Reddan; J McGrath, S Cronin, M Ross; D Toner, M McCarthy; R Ruddock, S Jennings, J Heaslip.

Replacements: K McLaughlin for Ruddock; M Bent for McGrath (both 57); M Moore for Ross; Z Kirchner for D Kearney (both 61); L Cullen for McCarthy (74); J Gopperth for D’Arcy (79).

NORTHAMPTON SAINTS: K Pisi; J Elliott, G North, L Burrell, T Collins; S Meyler, L Dickson; A Waller, D Hartley, S Ma’afu; C Lawes, C Day; C Clark, T Wood, S Manoa.

Replacements: K Fotuali’i for Dickson; T Mercey for Ma’afu (both 53); S Dickinson for Manoa; E Waller for A Waller (both 68); M Haywood for Hartley; P Dowson for Lawes (73).

Referee: J Garces (FFR).