After 'weird start to the season', Leinster feel like they are clicking
Dan Sheehan: "There’s good excitement to play good Leinster rugby of old." Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile
Concerns over Leinster’s and, by extension, Ireland’s prospects for 2026 were, if not allayed, certainly eased by the province’s 34-point defeat of Connacht at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday night.
And by Dan Sheehan’s words after it.
The display wasn’t perfect. Far from it. Leinster lost the plot for almost 30 minutes of the first-half when, after a fast try crowned by two converted tries, they made far too many errors and coughed up far too many penalties.
A 33-0 second-half was a more uniformed effort against a visiting team that could ill afford to go without some key and experienced players. There were clearly signs of the hosts finding something approaching some fluency.
Their eight-try attacking game was to the forefront in that. It still isn’t a thing of beauty but it was effective and at times smooth enough here to suggest that performance levels might start to match a results column that shows a run of seven successive victories.
Sheehan spoke after about how, as captain, he had put such a focus on improving that attacking game in training last week. And he shone a light on how some of the team’s frontline stars are only now finding their feet.
One of 14 Leinster players to feature for the British and Irish Lions in Australia last summer, he was also part of an Ireland team that failed to fire in their two big November internationals, against New Zealand and South Africa.
“It was obviously a weird start to the season where people were in all sorts of situations and personally I feel like now I’m clicking, I’m back match fit and I can focus on my job. It is probably similar with a lot of the lads.
“People are looking forward to playing. We have to make sure we keep making the right decisions and that we play whatever game is in front of us. There’s good excitement to play good Leinster rugby of old and that we bring a physical edge as well.
“That’s probably the number one thing.”Â
So, when did this return to match fitness kick in? “Probably coming back into Leinster the last couple of weeks.”Â
Cullen interjected at that point, joking how the hooker’s week off over the Christmas was the reason for him hitting of straps now, but there is clearly more to it than being spared a trip to Limerick two weekends ago.
The Leinster head coach has explained repeatedly how the Lions trip and the presence of so many others on Ireland’s summer tour was always going to have an adverse effect on Leinster, and so it seems to have proved.
Ireland too. If Sheehan wasn’t match fit in November then it’s fair to assume that more again if his Lions teammates were at a similar level.
Leinster made nine changes to the team for this game and had to juggle again when Rabah Slimani and Harry Byrne were unable to take their places on the bench before kick-off. First-world problems, you might say, but problems all the same.
“It can be tricky at the start of the season where you are only getting a certain amount of games and just trying to get match fit again because you can’t replicate time on the pitch,” said Sheehan. “It’s nice [now], you feel you’re right into the season now.”
This was the province’s sixth game of the post-November block and the nature of this win gives them no little momentum ahead of next Saturday’s Investec Champions Cup visit to Dublin of Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle.
Rieko Ioane, James Lowe, RĂłnan Kelleher, Tadhg Furlong, James Ryan and Caelan Doris are among the players available to return to the starting line-up or wider matchday 23 for that one and no-one will want to sit this pool tie out.
“It’s massive for the club,” said Sheehan. “Lads will be bouncing in on Monday now for a European week, especially where we can play La Rochelle at home. Obviously a good rivalry there in the past. They’ve all been close games and come down to one or two-score games.
“There will be a great buzz, there was in the changing room after that win there [against Connacht] so we just have to keep building on that momentum. We can’t afford an off-week now.”Â
: C Frawley: T O’Brien, H Cooney, C Tector, J Kenny; S Prendergast, J Gibson-Park; J Boyle, D Sheehan, T Clarkson; J McCarthy, B Deeny; D Mangan, W Connors, J Conan.
: A Porter for Boyle (36); J van der Flier for Connors (45); M Deegan for Mangan (50); L McGrath for Gibson-Park, J Cahir for Clarkson and G McCarthy for Sheehan (all 63); A Osborne for Frawley (66); C O’Tighearnaigh for McCarthy (68).
: S Gilbert; C Mullins, David Hawkshaw, B Aki, F Treacy; J Ioane, M Devine; D Buckley, D Tierney-Martin, F Bealham; J Joyce, D O’Connor; J Murphy, C Prendergast, S Jansen.
: P Boyle for Jansen (7-15) and for Prendergast (51); Murphy for Devine (11); E de Buitlear for Tierney-Martin, B Bohan for Buckley, F Barrett for Bealham and H West for Mullins (all 53); D Murray for Joyce (60); C Forde for Hawkshaw (64).
Referee: Andrew Brace (IRFU).
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