Leinster had to prioritise and sacrifice to battle on two fronts as Champions Cup semi looms

SPECIAL MOMENT: Gus McCarthy of Leinster is presented with his first Leinster cap by teammate Thomas Clarkson. Pic: Harry Murphy, Sportsfile

A few weeks ago the Bulls were under fire, particularly from the media in England for sending an understrength team to face the Northampton Saints in the Champions Cup quarterfinals.

The Bulls duly lost heavily and had to take the stinging barbs along with the chastening loss. But their focus was the URC and success in that tournament.

Leinster took a similar approach for their two-week URC tour to South Africa because their priority is the Champions Cup. Like the Bulls, they came away with nothing and have fallen off the top of the URC standings behind Glasgow.

It means if the play-offs go according to seeding, then Glasgow [at this stage] would host the final. But for Leinster, Champions Cup glory is the ultimate goal and if they beat the Saints this weekend, then the sacrifice and the beatings from the Lions and Stormers in South Africa, would have been worth it.

Conversely, if Leinster somehow fail to stop Northampton after they undermined their URC prospects, it won’t look as clever. But this is the world professional rugby teams have to operate in. Something has to give somewhere.

Head coach Leo Cullen opted out of media duties post the 42-12 loss to the Stormers in Cape Town on Saturday, apparently because he was racing to catch an early flight to return to Dublin to oversee preparations for the Saints clash.

Jacques Nienaber already left South Africa four days earlier to handle the ‘first team’ and their quest for Champions Cup glory.

So it was left to assistant coach Kieran Hallett to front up after a tour that also included a 44-12 loss against the Lions at Ellis Park.

“You never want to lose games, and you really want to try and win two trophies,” Hallett said. “Regardless of what Leinster team we put out, we expect to win.

“It was disappointing not to come away with any [league] points, but we also have to look at the growth of individual players on the tour. It will be different for each person.

“There will be sticky parts of the season, though, where you have to make decisions on selection and make decisions about whether it’s going to be viable to play the same team five weekends in a row.

“It’s a very transient situation in the squad, a very [clear] split, and we’re used to that internally even though externally people probably don’t understand that [process].

“The group goes away for November, for Six Nations, and now for this part of the season, and the rest of the squad has to perform.” 

Of course, Leinster should still host a URC semi-final, despite the South Africa setbacks. The other added bonus is that a bunch of academy players have been exposed to the harsh realities of facing world-class opposition in a distant land. And that can only be a good thing in the future.

Despite going 30-0 down early in the second half, Leinster scored two quick tries to briefly stagger the Stormers. They dominated for a 20-minute period but ultimately the experience of the home team saw them add two late tries to come away with a bonus point win.

“It’s always disappointing not to come away with any points,” Hallett said.

“That is what you set out to do. If we’re looking for positives, we had a lot of individual growth during this tour – and that may benefit us in the long term.

“Moving on from the Lions game, we challenged the young players to show more fight, intent and a bit more character. They showed that during periods of this game, and we’re happy with that.

“We know these are the lessons we have to learn.”