A triumph for character and belief
Leinster committed all those cardinal sins yesterday — and a few more besides — and yet look at that scoreline.
That they left France with the win required to keep their foot to the throat of Pool One is testament to a team that possesses an innate knowledge about how to dig out results when their A-game is absent.
Trailing 14-0 after 20 minutes, they overcame such shortcomings to keep the French champs scoreless until the last play of the game inflicting their first home defeat in a year while racking up three tries of their own, the last coming three minutes from the end when down to 14 players.
A noteworthy victory, then. All four provinces have now won their games in France in the same season even if Leinster still need to beat Ospreys at the RDS this Friday to be absolutely sure of a quarter-final place.
A home berth in the last eight, alas, looks way beyond them thanks to Northampton’s win at the Aviva Stadium and the Saints are still clinging to their tails thanks to their defeat of the Welsh region yesterday.
“It’s impressive from the players,” said forwards coach Jono Gibbes. “From our point of view, sitting in the coaches’ box, what they did for each other out there today and the manner in which they did it wasn’t always the best way.
“But they hung tough. I think that’s pleasing. We’ve just got to make sure we have a good look at what we’re doing to feed other teams, really. 14 points to these guys seemed like a big mountain, to be honest.”
And how. Leinster’s problems were widespread in that opening half with the scrum shunted into reverse far too often for their liking and Castres pouring through the many alarming gaps in their midfield defence.
The latter ailment would persist all day thanks to a superb Castres back row and the midfield duo of Seremaia Bai and Remi Lamerat.
Their two tries, claimed by Richie Gray after 10 minutes and Brice Dulin 10 later, originated with bursts from the inside centre who brushed through six tackles for the first and bounced Brian O’Driscoll for the second.
That second score was particularly discouraging given Leinster had manoeuvred to within inches of the Castres line just moments before only for the excellent openside Ibrahim Diarra to pilfer the ball and set up the counter.
Both sides were guilty of coughing up possession throughout and it made for a game of perpetual motion, but Leinster managed to retain the pill long enough to hit back with two Jimmy Gopperth tries before the break.
Chosen ahead of Ian Madigan, the Kiwi 10 proved worthy of Matt O’Connor’s confidence with a 21-point haul and he took both of his tries brilliantly when Leinster were in most need.
The first arrived near the half-hour mark when the three-time European champions were finally rewarded for their patience inside the Castres 22 in spurning an easy three points to kick to the corner and maul, twice.
The try arrived thanks to a rare solid scrum which handed Gopperth the platform to step inside Remi Tales and it was a moment given added significance when the French out-half limped off minutes later.
His replacement, Dan Kirkpatrick, played well but it was Gopperth grabbing the game by the neck with another five-pointer on the stroke of half-time after a multitude of phases sourced from yet another turnover.
Cedric Garcia had kicked a penalty moments earlier to give Castres a 17-7 lead but it would be his side’s last score despite a second-half where they hammered at a Leinster defensive line that bent at times but never broke again.
It was rope-a-dope stuff.
Under the cosh for most of the half, Leinster raided upfield to score on five different occasions. The first four were kicks — three Gopperth penalties and a Rob Kearney drop goal — separated by only eight minutes.
The net effect was to turn a five-point deficit into a seven-point buffer with under 30 minutes to play and the killer blow was landed after 77 minutes when a fresh Ian Madigan released Jordi Murphy into the corner.
It was a score engineered with just 14 men after Sean Cronin’s sinbinning seven minutes earlier but the only cost to the visitors came in injury-time when Lamerat burrowed over to earn some reward for his display.
An unlikely win, but a welcome one.
CASTRES: B Dulin; M Evans, S Bai, R Lamerat, R Grosso; R Tales, C Garcia; Y Forestier, MA Rallier, K Wihongi; C Samson, R Gray; M Babillot, I Diarra, P Faasalele.
Replacements: D Kirkpatrick for Tales (30); A Peikrishvili for Wihongi; B Mach for Rallier (both 52). M Lazar for Forestier; J Tomas for Garcia (both 61); Y Caballero for Diarra (63); M Garvey for Bai (67); B Desroche for Faasalele (70).
LEINSTER: R Kearney; D Kearney, B O’Driscoll, G D’Arcy, L Fitzgerald; J Gopperth, E Reddan; J McGrath, S Cronin, M Ross; D Toner, M McCarthy; K McLaughlin, J Murphy, J Heaslip.
Replacements: S Jennings for McLaughlin (52); M Moore for Ross; C Healy for McGrath (both 62); I Boss for Reddan; L Cullen for McCarthy (both 66); I Madigan for D’Arcy (76); Z Kirchner for Fitzgerald (78).
Referee: N Owens (WRU).
Leinster’s first try was crucial. Had Castres added more points to the 14 they had at that stage the game may well have been beyond them.
The last Heineken Cup game at Stade Pierre-Antoine? Perhaps. Castres haven’t made the knockout stages since 2002 — a record symbolic of France’s lukewarm approach.
The trio of Saracens fans walking into the departures area of Toulouse airport when there was still five minutes left in their club’s game against the locals just down the road. Bad booking boys.
Castres’ midfield duo of Remi Lamerat and Seremaia Bai were superb, as was openside Ibrahim Diarra, but credit to Jimmy Gopperth.
Nigel Owens made few friends on his trip to Castres. The locals were livid at the Welshman’s refusal to give every decision to the home side, as so many of his colleagues have.
Castres will wrap up their latest Heineken Cup campaign away to Northampton Saints at Franklin’s Gardens next Friday at the same time as Leinster play host to Ospreys.
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