Brave effort: Exeter pushed Leinster all the way
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Leinster were made to work very hard to grind out a 9-6 victory over Heineken Cup newcomers Exeter Chiefs in Dublin on Saturday.
Three Jonathan Sexton penalties proved enough to secure the result as the defending champions struggled to tame their visitors.
It could have been worse for Leinster but Argentina international Ignacio Mieres missed a last-minute penalty that would have snatched a draw for Exeter.
Led by man-of-the-match Tom Hayes, the Chiefs played the better rugby for much of a tryless Pool Five opener and looked right at home in Europe's top tournament.
Sexton twice put the home side in front with the boot in a cagey and low-scoring affair at the RDS Arena, once after 10 minutes of the first half and then again midway through the second half.
But Exeter were dogged throughout and never allowed the reigning European champions to get away from them, with Gareth Steenson matching his opposite number kick for kick.
The 28-year-old fly-half kicked penalties in the final minute of the first half and within just a couple of minutes of the Ireland number 10's second successful attempt to keep the home fans on the edge of their seat and fearing a shock upset.
The Chiefs were making it an uncomfortable afternoon for Leinster and a measure of the hosts' desperation was on show as full-back Ian Madigan decided to take on a drop goal from the halfway line.
Sexton did step up to restore order with his third penalty of the day in the final 10 minutes and the Irishmen looked to have done enough to scrape a narrow win to start the defence of their Heineken Cup crown.
Leinster did hold on and they did get off to a winning start but Exeter came within a whisker of coming away from Dublin with a draw that few would have argued that they deserved.
The tireless work of the Chiefs' pack was rewarded with a penalty just inside the Leinster half as the clock ticked over 80 minutes but, with Steenson off the field, Mieres was unable to convert it and the competition holders breathed an almighty collective sigh of relief.
The scorers:
For Leinster:
Pens: Sexton 3
For Exeter:
Pens: Steenson 2
Leinster: 15 Ian Madigan, 14 Andrew Conway, 13 Brian O'Driscoll, 12 Fergus McFadden, 11 Isa Nacewa, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Eoin Reddan, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Shane Jennings, 6 Kevin McLaughlin, 5 Damian Browne, 4 Leo Cullen (capt), 3 Mike Ross, 2 Richardt Strauss, 1 Cian Healy.
Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Heinke van der Merwe, 18 Jamie Hagan, 19 Devin Toner, 20 Leo Auva'a, 21 Jordi Murphy, 22 Isaac Boss, 23 Fionn Carr.
Exeter: 15 Luke Arscott, 14 Ian Whitten, 13 Phil Dollman, 12 Jason Shoemark, 11 Matt Jess, 10 Gareth Steenson, 9 Haydn Thomas, 8 Richard Baxter, 7 James Scaysbrook, 6 Tom Johnson, 5 James Hanks, 4 Tom Hayes, 3 Carl Rimmer, 2 Simon Alcott, 1 Brett Sturgess.
Replacements: 16 Chris Whitehead, 17 Chris Budgen, 18 Ben Moon, 19 Ally Muldowney, 20 Dean Mumm, 21 Will Chudley, 22 Ignacio Mieres, 23 Sireli Naqelevuki.
Venue: RDS
Referee: Pascal Gauzere (France)
Assistant referees: Jean-Luc Rebollal (France), Cyril Lafon (France)
Television match official: Daniel Irazoqui (France)
Timekeeper: Andrew Baird (Ireland)
Assessor: Clayton Thomas (Wales)
Citing commissioner: Ray Wilton (Wales)
Comments
new_j4a says...
@TVaddict, I agree....totally inappropriate, and we should all stick to rugby.... but I got a little annoyed with all of this scum sincero's "800 years of crimes against humanity" BS with little encouraging giggles from the eye gougers. And so to quote that great rugby pundit Woody Allen, I thought I'd try a few "...bricks and baseball bats..." (another quote worth looking up just for completeness).
Posted 07:51 16th October 2012
new_j4a says...
@Toulousain, funny? I am not amused to be confused with someone who appears reasonable and conciliatory in one instance, but then encourages scum like sincero in his anti-English diatribe. Sorry.
Posted 20:37 15th October 2012
TVaddict says...
@leinsterblue
Hang on a minute, where were you when Sincero was spewing anti-English rubbish?
@new_j4a
I had to google about the telegram and I never knew that! As interesting as it is though it's not really appropriate for a rugby site.
@connaughtabu
Agrees!
Posted 19:43 15th October 2012
lawynd says...
@J_HDK / crunchfit - If the ball is taken over the try line by a defending player it's a 5m scrum; if it's deliberately knocked out then it's a penalty; the rules are quite simple. The ball was definitely knocked out from in-field - it bounced just before the line and Madigan 'accidentally' shouldered it over both the try and dead-ball lines.
Posted 14:53 15th October 2012
lawynd says...
@leinster_goy - bitterly disappointed actually, Leicester really need some new ideas in the coaching staff and there are some glaring holes in the playing personnel...if you read my comments on Leicester stories over the last year or so you might have seen me make similar points. I would also agree with posters who've suggested that Youngs and Flood have shown they don't have the mental toughness at the top level, as they've shown for England too. All that aside though, I commented on this story the day before we played. ;)
Posted 14:52 15th October 2012
lawynd says...
@Mr_Right - bugger, completely missed that! Fair enough call then if there was something that happened off-camera!
Posted 14:52 15th October 2012
Toulousain says...
@new_J4a. funny to hear that you and me and makemehappy are in fact all the same person? i seem to remember we had a pretty shaky start. (and i'm not sure i have chatted much to makemehappy).
@sincero. we've had some good banter re trevor brennan and craig joubert mon ami? perhaps you could help me to make peace for me with crunchfit?
@all HCup lovers, and echoing connaughtabu's thoughts, there is enough hostility on these pages with some of the SH types, let's try keep the NH's best club competition free of background noise.
My teams of the weekend in descending order.
Saracens
Ulster
Quins
Toulon
:-)
Posted 14:02 15th October 2012
heart_of_oak says...
connaughtabu - great post there, totally agree with you. All the nationalistic bile is just plain childish and has sod all to do with rugby. I hope you'll agree that not all English posters are bigots just as I don't think that of all Irish posters.
Shame about BoD who, over the years has been a fantastic player but it does seem he may be past his best. Does he plan to retire soon, would you know ? If so, I'd prefer to remember him for the great games he's had, what he's done for Ireland and the Lions. It'd be wrong if he was remembered for one or two recent poor games. Many posters seem to have quickly forgotten what a great player Martin Johnson was, seemingly only aware of this poor coaching record with England. O'Driscoll deserves better. But maybe we're writing him off prematurely. We can all have the odd bad game.
Leinster will still be a tough team to beat and I doubt if any other team will take them for granted because of this one poor performance. Exeter are the surprise package of recent years. No stand out star names for them but just hard graft and a game plan they stick to.
At the moment though, Toulouse and Quins are looking strong. If I had any money with which to bet, I'd put it on one of these two. But who knows ? It's early days yet.
Posted 13:30 15th October 2012
APV1 says...
I enjoyed this, as it gave a bit of a litmus test on the state of HC rugby. Leinster were lucky to win this. They played well, as did Exeter.
We'll all see this from a different perspective, all of which are correct. We'll all cite examples, too, to support our POV.
The ref made some poor decisions, allowing Leinster a couple of advantages. He made some in Exeter's favour too, but fewer and less crucial, I felt. If you need a clear example, Nacewa's deliberate trip was the outstanding piece of missed foul play during the match. There were others, from both sides, but that one was a shocker and he should have got a yellow.
Tom Johnson was looking good, which is excellent from an England POV.
@ leinster_goy - I don't agree with a lot of what you say, but I did love the line, "...a fly-half who looks like a post-op transsexual". Thanks for that, it made me chuckle.
@ leinsterblue - "...even idiots deserve to have their voice heard" Lucky that, eh?!
Posted 11:39 15th October 2012
connaughtabu says...
Fellow rugby fans,
Whatever you think about the ref, Exeter were the better team. They papeyed with power and vigour upfront and there backs had greater mobility and vision. They at least deserved a draw. Well done to them - giving the Irish frontrow a few roblems
As a Leinster fan (I support all the Irish sides), I was disappointed to see how stale the Leinster backs are. The problem lies in the centres - I don't think McFadden is a natural inside centre, he simply isn't big enough, give me Nonu any day! And then there is BoD, who is well past his best - his speed is long since gone, his kicking skills are nonexistent, wild aimless passes into touch and completely invisible in attack. His unwillingness to carry the ball makes it easy for the opposition defence - they just have to target the inside centre to snuff out attacks. Why wasn't Nacewa not at fullback?
ps: Let's stop all the personal stuff, fellow posters? :-))
Posted 07:34 15th October 2012
new_j4a says...
@leinsterblue, Sorry to see you go. You seem like a decent fellow. Before you go, google sincero's anti English bile on Planetrugby and try to understand what we are responding to. I'd be very happy if PR cut all of this non rugby rubbish out, but I am a bit tired of seeing it spew one way out of Ireland thanks to scum like sincero. (by the way I am Irish)
Posted 06:56 15th October 2012
TVaddict says...
@crunchfit
Ok, you seem sincere (apart from the last comment obviously) so I'll take the bait even if you are trolling.
-I actually don't know the rules around that 22 incident (why I personally didn't mention it). Though I thought that if the defending team throws the ball out into the dead zone then it was at least a 5m scrum, is that not correct? I also thought that the referee wasn't allowed to refer actions like that to the television match official, is that correct?
-Since you know so much about the rules, can you explain why Nacewa deliberate trip, stopping a possible try scoring opportunity, was not punished? Maybe it wasn't seen, but if it had been what should have been the punishment? Personally I'd have thought an act like that would have been a penalty and a yellow card.
-In regards to the ruck action I'm prepared to accept that the bad calls went evenly both ways, it's just a shame Exeter don't have a good kicker, would have won them the game!
Posted 23:07 14th October 2012
Carpelone says...
I expected Leinster to play much better in the HC pool. What is happening?
Posted 22:11 14th October 2012
leinsterblue says...
@Sincero - I posted a similar comment to planet rugby several months ago when (funnily enough) there were similar derogatory remarks posted against Irish fans... the response I got back was that even idiots deserve to have their voice heard...I have said it before and I will say it one final time as after that pretty gross comment I will not be posting on this site again - planet rugby are anti-Irish, othewise they would not post such comments
Posted 19:58 14th October 2012
leinster_goy says...
lawynd must be smarting from the loss today. clermont, Leinster, ulster and now toulouse have proven in recent times that the tigers are over-hyped has-beens, with little more than mediocre imports (choo-choo thomas ran out of steam today!) and a fly-half who looks like a post-op transsexual
won't be long before saffacens, harlecheats and north-sham-pton are exposed in the same brutal fashion. sometimes i wonder if we would really miss the english teams if they pulled out
Posted 19:05 14th October 2012
new_j4a says...
@Sincero Howling with laughter! Now you see how it feels. Some rugby, a slight reference to your financial predicament and and off hand reference to shameful page in your history....nothing to do with race! But it is a good imitation of the anti English bile you spew on this site regularly. Here's a quote from you directed ar Craigsman less than a month ago:
Sincero says, "Now, I will simply not put up with your whining victimisation of yourselves that you seem to have gotten from reading red tops. 'Ohhh, you can't say nuffink about nobody, except us white English'. Well, no... I will say what I want about whom I want. It's called freedom of expression. It's not based on any prejudice, but if it were, that would be my own choice, and not up to anyone to tell me what is an acceptable or unacceptable stance. .... You do not dispute any of the charges levied against you, yet you come on here to complain that I've been racist in my criticism?"
It seems that you are fine when dishing it out but call for the "teacher" when you are on the receiving end? What was it about that telegram on May 3rd, 1945 that so shames you? Was it to seek assistance for the Leinster Rugby Club? Help us understand since you are so good with History....and so dismal at rugby.
Posted 18:42 14th October 2012
crunchfit says...
@lawynd
The only reason you'd think that may have been anything other than a 22 dropout is because you don't know the rules. It was a close call to make on the spot, but being able to view it on replay, it was a simple call to make and the right call was made.
@TVaddict
You take what the Sky commentators say as some sort of proof? They are usually in favour of sides playing against Munster and Leinster and occasionally Ulster, depending on who they're playing, not to mention they're just bad commentators. I remember during the finals last season an Edinburgh player was holding Terblanche down by his neck and hair and pulling him into the ruck but Stuart Barnes insisted the Edinburgh player was just "resting his arm on his neck". That was one of the not so subtle examples, but that kind of thing happens all the time.
@Sincero
Just to let you know, him, makemehappy, Toulousain and one other account (forgot the name, if I see it used again I'll let ye know) are all the same person. He invests invests a lot of time starting and perpetuating arguments. He even has slightly different personalities for each one!
Posted 17:29 14th October 2012
Mr_Right says...
@lawynd
If you watch the penalty incident again where Strauss knocks on you will notice in the background, before Strauss knocks on that Nacewa is taken out off the ball. That's what the penalty was for and Dewi Morris on Sky commentary didn't see it. So it was a correct decision.
Saying that Exeter played very well, deserved a draw and have some great chants!
Leinster need to step it up big time.
Posted 11:57 14th October 2012
Sincero says...
Have only seen the match live, but am certain an unbiased (not Sky) analysis will show the referee did huge favours to the away side... to lalwund taffy lad... Isa got clothes-lined on a kick through right in front of me... which you missed... off their feet all day long, multiple off-sides and one ludicrous call of no yellow after all that for entering the rolling maul and pulling it down from our side... The referee was atrociously biased to Exeter... not to take anything away from them and their performance, or how they playing him... but the haters... let's face it... you've your own wee agendas and inferiority complexes... we put up with it as 3 times and reigning champs... you matter not.
Posted 03:17 14th October 2012
Sincero says...
hi Planet Rugby... can you please look at the ignorant, racist bile spouted by newj4a below, and act accordingly? Thanks.
Terrible by Leinster today... thought the referee was atrocious, and left his cards in the locker... cynical play all over from the Chiefs. That said, fair play to them... could well have nicked it. Their fans were great.
We have huge problems, and I can't see us solving them in time. Chiefs were solid and incredibly fit and well-organised, but I can't see anybody stopping Clermont from topping this group. We need the injury list to be quickly shortened, but th fact remains that the IRFU forced us to sell Hinesy, who was happy and settled, and wanted to stay, and allowed Thorn for a 3-month replacement last year. All inconsistent... and Hinesy is really irreplaceable anyway. Mad Dog at FB doesn't inspire... he's a 10, and why Isa was ever shifted from 15 I'll never know.
Excellent 1st pod jumping from Exeter decimated our line-out... shouldn't have been that simple. So much wrong...
That said, it's still 4 points... could have been 2 or 1... we're not out... but the way this group is, we need miracles... seen them before... so must keep the faith and hope again.
Posted 03:11 14th October 2012