Robbie Henshaw rolling up his sleeves for up-the-jumper rugby

Joe Schmidt must have loved the manner of Leinster’s win last week. 

Robbie Henshaw rolling up his sleeves for up-the-jumper rugby

Flagged as the tie of the weekend, Exeter-Leinster at Sandy Park lived up to the expectation. Not because of any free-flowing rugby — there was none — but because of the elemental nature of the struggle between two heavyweights.

Ball retention has been key to the Chiefs’ rise to prominence, but Leinster targeted their strengths in Devon. Their game-clinching try was a triumph of patience and execution and one-upmanship. Forty-four phases, most of them pick and goes. The boundary between backs and forwards was all but obliterated, the likes of Robbie Henshaw and Fergus McFadden lending shoulders to the wheel, as Leo Cullen’s men rolled towards a third European win in three attempts.

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