Leinster v Edinburgh: Five takeaways as ‘level of Irish generosity’ sees ‘predicted pre-game rout’ fail to materialise
Leinster's Rieko Ioane celebrates his try which confirmed the win after an earlier scare from Edinburgh's Darcy Graham, inset (INPHO/Bryan Keane and Ben Brady)
Following a ropey 49-31 win for Leinster at home to Edinburgh, here are our five takeaways from Sunday’s Investec Champions Cup round of 16 encounter at Aviva Stadium.
The top line
Rather than Easter Sunday heralding the rebirth of the polished Leinster, you were left wondering if it was Christmas such was the level of generosity from the hosts before they finally woke up and punched their ticket to host Sale Sharks next weekend in the Champions Cup quarter-finals.
Leinster flew into an early 14-0 lead and the predicted pre-game rout looked very much to be on the cards. However, Edinburgh were then gifted three first-half tries off loose passes in a bonkers eight-try opening period knockabout that ended with Leo Cullen’s side only up by 28-26.
The potential for an upset result then became tangible not long into the second period.
Leinster knew their profligacy had to stop; the longer it went on, the more we would have ventured into the territory of last May’s semi-final elimination at the hands of Northampton… and a piece of opportunistic kick-and-chase Darcy Graham magic produced the unconverted 52nd-minute try that unbelievably had Edinburgh 31-28 up.
It was madness that the visiting team, on a horrible run of results, could somehow be ahead, but their lead lasted just four minutes.
Leinster reeled off three tries in a staccato burst to accelerate into an 18-point advantage they managed to protect in an assured way that was very different from how they had unconvincingly played for 50-odd minutes.
Leinster best still yet to come
Leinster boss Cullen came out swinging last weekend, insisting that the media quizzing him post-game after their latest laboured United Rugby Championship win read a newspaper article detailing how little his star players had been available to the club compared to the French internationals.
Using the Ireland matchday 23 that played against Scotland and the France 23 that took on England in the final round of the Six Nations, there were just two positional instances where an Irish player had more club minutes than his French counterpart.
For example, you had Caelan Doris’ 480 Leinster minutes easily eclipsed by Charles Ollivon’s 819 with Toulon, Tadhg Furlong’s 228 minutes comparing poorly with Dorian Aldegheri’s 654 with Toulouse and so on.
The serious point Cullen was alluding to was that the best was yet to come from Leinster and that the IRFU programme of managing star player minutes would now help at the business end of the club season.
That ‘best’ was evident in how crisp their attack was at times in this round of 16 tie, especially the finishing from Tommy O’Brien and the creative influence wielded by Jamison Gibson-Park and Rieko Ioane, but this potency was diluted by how they repeatedly allowed Edinburgh back into the contest. It was as if their concentration wasn’t where it needed to be.
The giveaway began with a Tadgh Furlong pass that eluded Jamie Osborne to allow Charlie Shiel a run in. Gibson-Park then missed his tackle on the 10-metre to allow Ross Thompson to canter to the line.
Thompson next picked off Osborne’s attempted pass to Gibson-Park, and a Harry Byrne pass meant for Gibson-Park near the halfway line was pocketed by Matt Currie to leave the interval gap at just two points.
This wobble continued into the second half when Graham struck with his score from another turnover, but there was a composure about Leinster behind the posts and the confidence that their attack still had a pile of scores in it was justified and they finished with a healthy points total of 49.
Aside from the contribution of their Six Nations contingent, they also had the use of the likes of Keenan, Ryan Baird and Andrew Porter (at least for a half) after they all missed the internationals due to injury.
It augers well. Winning in a way where they got a scare will sharpen the mind for next weekend will serve them better than the rout that had been anticipated.
The Edinburgh enigma
It was last Monday, in the latest edition of Planet Rugby’s weekly Who’s hot and who’s not column, when we took the Scottish Rugby Union to task over its decision in January to award Edinburgh head coach Sean Everitt a two-year contract extension.
Qualification for last year’s URC top eight play-offs and two wins from three in their Champions Cup pool games convinced the brains trust that the time was right to back their South African.
Eleven and a half weeks later, that decision still leaves much to be desired. A 63-10 Champions Cup hammering started the rot, and their Easter Sunday exit from the tournament at the hands of Leinster means their recent league and cup run is played eight, won one, lost seven.
Yes, there was plenty of encouragement to take from a match where they somehow scored five tries and contrived to nudge ahead on the scoreboard 12 minutes into the second half. However, when you take a step back from the giddiness of that situation, the reality was that it wasn’t a powerful Edinburgh performance that had propelled them in front.
Instead, it was because Leinster repeatedly gifted them tries… and when the onus was then on Edinburgh to kick on and safeguard this unexpected lead, they were quickly blown away in a manner more akin to the porous defensive efforts they had been producing in recent months.
The defeat now means their season is done. With Europe now over, they are already finished in the URC where they are in 13th spot, 17 points off the eighth and final qualification place with just four games remaining. Everitt badly needs his team to finish on a high and not let this ‘free swing’ at Leinster be a lucky effort with no lasting legacy.
Ioane stands up
All Blacks midfielder Ioane, Leinster’s big-money signing for this latest Champions Cup campaign, has received pelters over the winter for the inconsistent level of his performances.
Aside from providing result-defining moments of play, his acquisition was supposed to lift the levels of some of the lesser-known Leinster players he had been lining out with.
There have been too many stutters since his December arrival to say he has earned his money, but there were plenty of green shoots on Sunday to suggest that the better weather just might be the stage to bring the best of him.
There were some lovely moments, starting with the way he combined with Byrne to put O’Brien in for his second try. It must also be noted that in Leinster’s time of most urgency, he stood up.
With Van der Flier’s try, having wrestled back the lead from Edinburgh, it was his meaty carry that was central to the daylight-creating try from Clarkson.
The midfielder then looked very stylish when showing a clean pair of heels to race all the way from the 10-metre line to score off a Gibson-Park assist.
His level of attacking performance was undeniably much better than what we have seen previously.
Dapper ref Pearce
Hands up, referees are a bugbear to this writer. Far too often, decisions are inconsistently applied, and if the across-the-board standard isn’t adequate at the elite level where these whistle blowers are handsomely recompensed for their labour, it’s no wonder that grassroots level officiating is akin to the wild west every weekend down at the local club.
That said, we have a soft spot for Luke Pearce, and not just because our paths have crossed on our respective travels. He really does have a positive way with his words on the field, and he made sure this final round of 16 tie of the weekend passed off without any finger-pointing in his direction.
We don’t normally refer to an official’s looks, but we’re making an exception in this instance, given there was a chance that the dapper Pearce would be arriving in Dublin minus his kit.
Followers of his X account will know that his bag was lost by Loganair on a flight from Manchester to Exeter, and a lack of progress with the phone numbers he was provided left him pleading, “Some help would be appreciated. I need my kit for the weekend!”
The missing bag was eventually found, allowing Pearce to look the part at Aviva Stadium, and he was quickly into his rhythm, being firm and decisive, for instance, in his 13th-minute decision that a collision involving Keenan needed a sanction against Edinburgh. “That’s not foul play, always falling,” he explained cheerily.
Rather than stemming the flow, he quickly made decisions as he went along, but he had no qualms on a couple of occasions reversing what he initially signalled when spotting the stadium replays. That was a great use of the tech without formally stopping the play for review.
Then, when there was an actual review needed, he quickly ruled out Josh van der Flier’s early second-half ‘try’, spotting an issue with the grounding after the try had already been converted.
He was also no slouch when reacting to Graham’s verbals after he poleaxed a Leinster player off the ball when chasing a restart from halfway, marching Edinburgh an extra 10 metres back after awarding the penalty.
It was unfussy, uncomplicated refereeing that lent itself well to this high-scoring Easter treat.
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