Leinster now ready to focus on real battles

Leinster 15 Edinburgh 13

This was probably Leinster’s poorest display of the season and at times they seemed determined to cough up top spot to Glasgow Warriors and in the process face a semi-final showdown at the RDS against Munster rather than Ulster.

Leinster prevailed against a ramshackle and injury-ravaged Edinburgh side, who lost another three men in the opening half hour, and fell to their fifth defeat in a row.

Ulster won’t be fooled by this Leinster display as they head to the RDS next Saturday evening for a repeat of last year’s final.

Leinster got their end-of-season duties out of the way on Saturday in the wind and rain as tributes were paid to O’Driscoll and Cullen, and they will expect to be back to business next weekend.

“It will sharpen our minds,” said Leinster coach Matt O’Connor. “At the top level, the margins are very small. If you’re 10% off and don’t play well enough, you lose and that’s a clear reminder. Ulster taught us that as well. We need to control our destiny in terms of what happens next week.”

O’Connor said there is still no positive news on Luke Fitzgerald but welcomed back Sean O’Brien for his first action since December and another positive saw Fergus McFadden return for the first time since being sidelined by a knee injury in the Heineken Cup loss to Toulon.

“They were a bit rusty. What Joe [Schmidt] does with them, I don’t know. They were very comfortable with the fact that Sean was going to play again, that we had ticked all the boxes in relation to making sure his shoulder was 100%. He didn’t have any issues, he was alright and will feature next week. Fergus McFadden was in the same boat. It was an opportunity for him to play some rugby, give them a chance to get selected in the remaining games.”

One man who won’t feature next week is hooker Richardt Strauss who is out with a hamstring injury which threatens his participation in the Irish tour to Argentina next month. He limped off two minutes after a sustained bout of pressure put Leinster ahead for the first time after 10 minutes, when Jordi Murphy got over for his eighth try of the season.

Gopperth missed the conversion and that meant Leinster trailed 6-5 at the break, as Greig Laidlaw book-ended the half with penalties.

Leinster enjoyed their best spell after the restart but found Edinburgh with fire in their bellies in defence. With the home side lacking precision in execution, they had to be content with a Gopperth penalty to put them ahead after 51 minutes.

Dave Kearney, who unfortunately failed to hold a sublime through-the-legs pass from O’Driscoll, cut a great line to get over for their second try after a break from Gopperth, and the conversion made it 15-6 after 57 minutes.

Leinster got sloppy and Laidaw punished them, as Tim Visser went over for 65th minute try to ensure a nervous finish.

LEINSTER: R Kearney; F McFadden, B O’Driscoll, G D’Arcy, D Kearney; J Gopperth, I Boss; J McGrath, R Strauss, M Ross; L Cullen, M McCarthy; S O’Brien, J Murphy, J Heaslip.

Replacements: S Cronin for Strauss (12), D Ryan for O’Brien (51), C Healy for McGrath, M Moore for Ross (both 52), R Ruddock for Cullen (53), B Macken for R Kearney (58), I Madigan for D’Arcy (64).

EDINBURGH: C Bezuidenhout; S Beard, M Scott, A Strauss, T Visser; H Leonard, G Laidlaw; A Dickinson, R Ford, WP Nel; G Gilchrist, B Toolis; M Coman, T Leonar-di, D Denton.

Replacements: G Hart for Beard (3), D Basilaia for Denton (27), B Atiga for Scott (28), A Toolis for B Toolis (58), S Berghan for Neil, J Hilterbrand for Ford (both 64), P Francis for Bezuidenhout (70).

Referee: L Hodges (WRU).