Talk of Ireland v Bulls spurred us to succeed, says Conan

TRY, TRY AGAIN: Josh van der Flier of Leinster scores his side’s third try during Saturday’s URC Grand Final against Vodacom Bulls at Croke Park. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

URC final: Leinster 32 Bulls 7

BULLS boss Jake White had talked Leinster up in the days before this URC decider. He had gushed over the province’s 12 British and Irish Lions, their dozen summer tourists with Ireland, their three marquee foreign signings. They were, he said, the benchmark for the league.

Results hadn’t backed that up. Three successive semi-final losses had been overshadowed by a hat-trick of Champions Cup decider defeats and this season’s last- four loss to Northampton Saints, but White’s words had struck a chord in the opposition camp.

“They came out with a lot of stuff in the media during the week about ‘It’s Ireland versus the Bulls’,” said Jack Conan. “So we said, ‘Right, let’s not disappoint them, let’s be at our best, let’s give Irish rugby’ and I thought we did that.”

The Bulls were poor but the winners had their say in that.

Leinster were three tries and 19-0 up within 23 minutes, with the game sewn up by two jaw-dropping defensive stands in the 10 minutes before half-time. One of them denied an 18-phase assault, the other a 15-phase of brute Bulls force.

That summed up their intent and physicality all day.

This was much more like it. Tyler Bleyendaal’s attack was finding its groove and Jacques Nienaber’s defence was fronting up in the manner that we had come to expect on the back of those two World Cup-winning campaigns with the Springboks.

The fifth star remains agonisingly out of reach but this stands as a win of monumental importance given the recent heartaches, and it allows Leinster to face the new season with a sense of renewal rather than regret and recrimination.

The pressure the whole organisation was under after that Saints loss can hardly be exaggerated. Rumours abounded of tensions within the walls at their UCD base and those vibes had started to filter into the public domain via some of their dealings with the media.

“We’ve lost in different ways, after extra time, you’ve just got to keep putting yourself in that position and keep pushing,” said Leo Cullen.

“You get criticism when you lose; it still doesn’t take away what we love doing. Pressure is part and parcel of sport.”

There were any number of pleasing sub-plots. Cian Healy didn’t play but got to finish his career by lifting a trophy on his last day at the office. Ross Byrne kicked the last two points of his Leinster career after coming on and before heading off to a new chapter in Gloucester.

Jordie Barrett got the day’s biggest cheer when receiving his medal, his short sabbatical having closed with a crucial second try, and White made a point of highlighting that very fact afterwards when he doubled down on his pre-match observations on largesse.

You couldn’t argue with the vast majority of his take on Leinster’s resources and capabilities, but so much of this ninth ‘league’ title came down to players whose names wouldn’t immediately slip from the lips when summing up those riches.

The province were missing Caelan Doris, Tadhg Furlong, Hugo Keenan, Jamison Gibson-Park, and Robbie Henshaw on Saturday. Among their best performers were Thomas Clarkson, Luke McGrath, Tommy O’Brien, and Jimmy O’Brien.

Clarkson was immense in a scrum that stood up to the Bulls’ renowned strength at the setpiece, McGrath emerged from the shadow of Gibson-Park to give a superb performance at scrum-half, and Tommy O’Brien has been one of their best all season.

Ryan Baird, who has up to now struggled to match potential with regular performances, earned his second straight man-of-the-match award. Jimmy O’Brien has come in from the cold after a season where he fell down the pecking order with club and country.

And their last try was scored by 21-year-old academy scrum-half Fintan Gunne.

The tale of those two scrum-halves — one a back-up veteran, the other a kid — summed up best the story of how some of the less likely lads stood up when Leinster needed to dig that bit deeper into their wider roster than would normally be the case on such a big day.

“Myself and Lukey started together at Leinster U16s in Terenure a long time ago, longer ago that I’d like to admit,” said Conan. “We’ve been very close for a long time so I’m absolutely delighted for him. He performed unbelievably well, and Gunner came on and took his try very well.

“So delighted for the two boys. Obviously tough for Jamo but it shows the strength of Leinster that there are two lads to come in that are ready to perform the way they did. So testament to them for their mentality and getting across their bits today. Delighted for Tommy, Lukey, and Gunner.”

None of which is to say that their British and Irish Lions contingent didn’t front up. They did, and that core can report for duty with Andy Farrell’s tourists now with their tails up, a first trophy in the Leinster cabinet in four years and all that bad juju exorcised.

Everyone a winner.

LEINSTER: J O’Brien; T O’Brien, G Ringrose, J Barrett, J Lowe; S Prendergast, L McGrath; A Porter, D Sheehan, T Clarkson; J McCarthy, J Ryan; R Baird, J van der Flier, J Conan.

Replacements: RG Snyman for Ryan (43); R Kelleher for Sheehan and R Slimani for Clarkson (both 56); R Byrne for Prendergast and F Gunne for McGrath (both 69); M Deegan for Conan, J Boyle for Porter and J Osborne for Ringrose (all 74).

BULLS: W le Roux; C Moodie, D Kriel, H Vorster, S de Klerk; J Goosen, E Papier; JH Wessels, J Grobbelaar, W Louw; C Wiese, JF van Heerden; M van Staden, R Nortje, M Coetzee.

Replacements: J Kirsten For Wiese (21); A van der Merwe for Grobelaar (44); A Tshakweni for Wessels (52); M Smith for Louw and N Carr for M Coetzee (both 65); D Williams for de Klerk (66); K Johannes for Goosen (69); Z Burger for Papier (71).

Referee: A Piardi (FIR).