Five talking points from Leinster's win over Connacht
Heineken Champions Cup Round of 16 Second Leg, Aviva Stadium, Dublin 15/4/2022. Leinster vs Connacht. Connacht’s Cian Prendergast is tackled by Garry Ringrose and Rhys Ruddock of Leinster. ©INPHO/Billy Stickland
Leinster had the option of a scrum or a lineout when a Connacht move broke down after 52 minutes. They were leading 35-8 at that stage with replacement Connacht tighthead Jack Aungier, who had come on for the injured Finlay Bealham, in the bin for a reckless challenge on Josh van der Flier.
Johnny Sexton immediately told referee Luke Pearce he wanted the scrum rather than the lineout. Cue a sequence of events which first really came to light during the Ireland match against Italy in the Six Nations. Uncontested scrums meant that Connacht would be further punished by the loss of another man in a law change which was introduced to stop teams manufacturing uncontested scrums in a game.
So, loosehead Mattie Burke, who had already put in a gruelling half, had to come back on, skipper Jarrad Butler and flanker Conor Oliver had to go off and Connacht were down to 13 men for over six minutes.
It was surprising Leinster only managed one try with the two-man advantage, but Sexton’s sharpness to call the scrum was entirely in line with a captain who was fully tuned in to what was going on around him.
Connacht really needed their big men to deliver if they were to have any chance of staying in the contest and, like the first leg in Galway last week, that meant Bundee Aki and Mack Hansen delivering big time.
Leinster kept a close on Hansen but the Aussie was still willing to try some audacious offloads and looked full of running when he got the ball.
The problem was that little ball found his way to his wing as Andy Friend’s men were beaten up in all the key areas, not least in the centre where former Connacht player Robbie Henshaw and Garry Ringrose sent out a clear message to Andy Farrell about their prowess as a partnership heading to New Zealand in the summer.
Aki has been Connacht’s best ever signing but it just didn’t happen for him in this one. His good mate Henshaw slipping from his clutches to score Leinster’s second try after 18 minutes killed any notion of a shock result.
And then Aki’s high tackle on Sexton, which another set of officials might have seen as a red card offence, saw Leinster score 14 points while he was in the bin.
The importance of Andrew Porter, not just to Leinster but to Ireland, was obvious in this one. He missed the first leg in Galway but his impact from the start in this one was awesome and having him in top shape will surely be key to how Ireland do at the World Cup in France next year.
Most sides would be content to have the likes of Cian Healy, Peter Dooley and Ed Byrne for this position but Porter just brings the performance level up several notches.
And the same could be said about scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park. In midweek there was a fear he could be suspended for this one but he dictated the flow of this match and would have probably been the man of the match until Lowe raced in for four tries.
There weren’t too many positives in this chastening experience for Connacht but as they make their way westward before heading to South Africa on Sunday, one of the bright notes is that lock Josh Murphy, who is moving from Leinster to the Sportsground in the summer, is the real deal.
He has got an opportunity to show what he’s capable of with James Ryan and Ryan Baird out of action, and Murphy certainly produced the goods not only in this game but also in the first leg in Galway last week, but his new teammates won’t thank him for the superb role he played in setting up the opening try of the match for Jamison Gibson-Park.
Andy Friend made a good point during the week that the scoreboard should have started at 26-21 before this leg kicked off. A five-point differential wasn’t that hard to track but if they are to persist with two-legged affairs why not just continue with the score from the first leg so that fans (and indeed players!) can follow the score if the contest is tight.
Unfortunately for Friend, the outcome of this one was decided early on when Leinster scored four tries from five visits to the 22 in the opening half.
Had Connacht been told they would amass 41 points over the two legs, they would have probably have fancied their chances of causing an upset but a double score outcome of 82-41 leaves no room for doubt about the gap between these sides.
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