Leinster grind out win against gritty Leicester

BATTLE: Leinster's Tommy O’Brien and Caelan Doris celebrate Dan Sheehan’s try. Picture: ©INPHO/James Crombie

Investec Champions Cup: Leicester Tigers 15 Leinster 23

Perhaps it is unfair to expect Leinster to be closer to their polished best after two European games with most of their first choice contingent available. Regardless, they remained lacklustre in the English Midlands, fortunate to come away from Welford Road with a victory after an ill-tempered, error-strewn affair.

On a night when both sides lacked a slick edge in attack, opportunistic scores were traded. Adam Radwan and Ollie Hassell-Collins set the stakes for Leicester, Leinster matching with Jamison Gibson-Park and Dan Sheehan.

Leo Cullen and co will be happy to get out of town with four competition points, given the nature of the contest. Some time from now, a missing try bonus point may well come back to hurt their knockout seeding. Especially if they continue to perform poorly once French opposition come into view after Christmas.

A fiery opening quarter frequently required intervention from Monsieur Brousset, the man holding the whistle on a bitter evening.

Two minutes in, Jack Conan was clattered in the head by Freddie Steward after claiming a cross-kick from Harry Byrne. Whatever about a card, not even a penalty was given as Conan’s slip just before contact was deemed to be sufficient mitigation. A common sense decision but that was no use to the backrow whose night was done as soon as it started.

Minutes later, Brousset again was called into action, this time to rule out a Tommy O’Brien score. Rónan Kelleher went long with a lineout throw, Robbie Henshaw on hand to tip back inside to his onrushing wing. He crossed the line after not being held in the tackle, but the officials spotted poor time-keeping from Henshaw. He was early, charging forward before the lineout was thrown, and Leicester were given an offside reprieve.

To top off an entertaining first quarter, James Lowe almost had to be forklifted away from Adam Radwan after an accidental aerial collision. That the passage of play was started by a sumptuous Ciarán Frawley dummy - on for the injured Jimmy O’Brien - will quickly be forgotten.

Lowe leapt to catch a loose ball and Radwan couldn’t get out of the way. When the Irish wing landed on a combination of his head and elbow, he went for who he deemed to be the culprit. An almighty scuffle ensued, the McCarthy brothers happy to bring their presence to the melée. Radwan was penalised and no cards were shown, although Lowe was fortunate not to see the penalty reversed for starting the whole thing.

The English wide man would have the next laugh. When Henshaw spilled in contact, Radwan was off. Three hacks forward led to a footrace, him versus Lowe and Byrne. The green jersey easily outsprinted the white ones for the first score of the game.

It was an opportunistic effort but one which showed the value of pace. Such a description could easily be applied to Leicester’s second score with the last play of the half. Billy Searle kicked into an understaffed backfield with Ollie Hassell-Collins in pursuit. He first beat Frawley to the ball, booting it into Lowe who couldn’t gather before winning another footrace to dot down.

Leicester had two opportunities and the same number of tries. Leinster were wasteful by contrast, a pair of penalties all they had to show for themselves in a 15-6 half-time deficit.

The visitors did score first after the break, albeit largely thanks to Tigers profligacy. First Searle missed a tricky penalty from just inside the Leinster half. Minutes later, as Leicester once again got a shove on at the scrum, the ball spilled loose at the back, a development which prevented Brousset’s arm from going up. Worse still, Gibson-Park reacted quicker than anyone else, gathering the ball and speeding his way into the corner.

On the hour mark, two new props for Leinster reversed their scrum luck. Rabah Slimani got the better of Nicky Smith, at least according to his compatriot Brousset. Byrne’s penalty gave Leinster the lead.

They never relinquished it. A Leicester neck roll killed their best opportunity of the half, Leinster kicking their way back down the field and into a more rosy winning margin. Hassell-Collins spilled in the backfield and when the Tigers were offside, Sheehan punished them with the resulting kick-to the corner-rolling maul combination.

Humiliation avoided, rather than job done for Leinster. They will have better days in this competition. They will have to.

LEICESTER: F Steward; A Radwan, W Wand (J Woodward, 76), S Kata (O Bailey, 67), O Hassell-Collins; B Searle, T Whiteley (O Allan, 62); N Smith (A van der Flier, 62), J Blamire (F Theobald-Thomas, 67), J Heyes (W Hurd, 67); C Henderson, H Wells (S Williams, 67); J Thompson, T Reffell (capt), J Moro.

Not used: T Manz.

LEINSTER: J O’Brien (C Frawley, 12); T O’Brien, R Ioane, R Henshaw, J Lowe; H Byrne (S Prendergast, 62), J Gibson-Park (L McGrath, 76); P McCarthy, (J Boyle, 59) R Kelleher (D Sheehan, 48), T Clarkson (R Slimani, 59); J McCarthy, J Ryan; J Conan (M Deegan, 3), J van der Flier (D Mangan, 76), C Doris (capt).

Referee: Pierre Brousset (France)