Blue whirlwind sweeps all before it

Leinster 33 Northampton 22:A CERTAIN brew don't do European Cup finals, for only a Heineken Cup final could throw up something like this. There have been one or two duds, but not many, and there have been a few epics along the way, but this might have been the best of the lot.

If the first half was Leinster’s worst 40 minutes of Heineken Cup rugby in at least two years, then, given the context, the second was their best.

There was more pressure emotionally and mentally for them to deliver, and it showed.

They looked nervous from the off and completely taken aback by the sheer power of the Northampton scrum and straight running which persistently pierced inside shoulders. When Nathan Hines – typical of his rare, off-colour first half, but not his second – spilled a routine restart nearing half-time it was Leinster’s ninth handling error of the half to go with eight missed tackles in an oddly porous defence.

But it was almost as if the teams had swapped shirts at half-time, for about the only aspect of Leinster that was remotely recognisable was their jerseys.

At the same time, it would have constituted some trick by Northampton to replicate the tempo and intensity of their first period for another 40 minutes.

The tone was set early on by outside centre Jon Clarke stepping inside Gordon D’Arcy, and there were all manner of unlikely culprits – even Brian O’Driscoll, who was clearly handicapped by his knee injury.

Then, after Jonny Sexton was unlucky to see a monster touch-finder from inside his 22 roll into touch-in-goal, Eoin Reddan left too big a gap for Calum Clark to get inside him and put his flanker partner Phil Dowson over.

Even in that nightmarish first 40 minutes, Leinster had their moments, but Richardt Strauss couldn’t hold on to Shane Horgan’s hard offload, then O’Driscoll was collared on a break by fullback Ben Foden.

Good breakdown work by Seán O’Brien and a D’Arcy counter led to Sexton penalties, but otherwise the game’s remaining 49 points would be scored at the other end. As Leinster were forced to defend on the back foot, Foden beat O’Driscoll on his outside and Dylan Hartley rumbled over.

The half ended with outhalf Stephen Myler, who had been cutting through the defence, hitting the post with the difficult conversion.

The boys in blue appeared to have given themselves a very long route back into this final, but as it transpired they took the express route. Within five minutes of the second period Sexton’s conversion from a similar point went over via the upright to spark a 17-point haul in 17 in minutes by the out-half to turn the game on its head.

Nothing encapsulated the scarcely credible turnaround more than the scrum. Where Northampton pulverised the Leinster pack in the first half, even when reduced to seven men by the sinbinning of Brian Mujati (centre James Downey went to flanker), upon the resumption Mike Ross and co not only steadied the ship, but even began remorselessly rolling forward and gaining ascendancy. In the context of the game, this was seismic.

Initially, Leinster had managed a decent hit, whereupon the well-timed second Northampton shove sent a shudder through the pack. Leo Cullen conducted a prolonged discussion with referee Romain Poite (who, to be fair, was on top of a frenetic and frantic game without being over-bearing) to complain that Soane Tonga’uiha was illegally standing up.

In any event, after a quick half-time video session on Greg Feek’s laptop, Ross and co ironed out the problems by getting lower and not letting the 22st Tongan twist underneath him.

Leinster also began generating quicker, go-forward ball, hitting harder and savagely clearing out at the breakdown, whereas in the first half they had been a tad stand-offish. After regrouping for 10 minutes, and driven by a violent desire, they found the freedom to cut loose with nothing to lose which sparked the turnaround.

O’Driscoll somehow summoned up a vintage 20 minutes or so, and O’Brien, Heaslip, Strauss and Isa Nacewa began powering through gaps. The first scrum of the second half and an O’Driscoll break lit the torch, and Sexton took on the responsibility to slice through himself twice either side of rewarding the improved scrum with another three-pointer.

As with the O’Driscoll break, there was another clever piece of blocking by Heaslip in providing the loop pass for Sexton’s second try.

In between tries, Reddan had tapped a penalty from inside the 10-metre line, which was psychologically pivotal. They had abandoned cup rugby to play their normal game, but also took better care of the ball, carrying more two-handed than in the first half while still making their superior offloading game tell.

Northampton’s response to falling behind was a few pick-and-goes from a lineout inside halfway and an up-and-under. Leinster reacted as if to say: is that all you’ve got?

By the time they fell 10 behind and emptied their bench to let Shane Geraghty play his catch-up game, the die had been cast.

Revealingly, the excellent Foden said afterwards that they had failed to “choke” out the opposition with a lead, as they had done in the quarter-final and semi-final, whereas once in front Leinster went on looking for tries.

Nacewa brilliantly claimed that up-and-under, and soon O’Brien was powering through scrumhalf Lee Dickson for Strauss to take it on and then, of all people, the remarkable Leo Cullen. A few phases later the soon-to-depart Hines – perhaps the signature signing of the Cheika years – powered over for the clinching score: 27 unanswered points in 27 stunning minutes.

A blue whirlwind. The only blemish was that Sexton didn’t nail his last penalty to break Diego Dominguez’s 30-point record haul in the 2001 decider.

Blemish? Nah. This was not a day for blemishes.

SCORING SEQUENCE: 7 mins: Dowson try, Myler con 0-7; 14: Sexton pen 3-7; 21: Myler pen 3-10; 31: Foden try, Myler con 17-3; 36: Sexton pen 6-17; 39: Hartley try 6-22; (half-time 6-22); 45: Sexton try, con 13-22; 53: Sexton try, con 20-22; 57: Sexton pen 23-22; 61: Sexton pen 26-22; 66: Hines try, Sexton con 33-22.

LEINSTER: I Nacewa; S Horgan, B O’Driscoll, G D’Arcy, L Fitzgerald; J Sexton, E Reddan; C Healy, R Strauss, M Ross, L Cullen (capt), N Hines, K McLaughlin, S O’Brien, J Heaslip. Replacements: S Jennings for McLaughlin (h-t), H van der Meuwe for Healy (61 mins), F McFadden for D’Arcy (68 mins), I Boss for Reddan (72 mins), S Wright for Ross, D Toner for Hines, I Madigan for Sexton (all 78 mins), J Harris-Wright for Strauss (79 mins).

NORTHAMPTON SAINTS: B Foden; C Ashton, J Clarke, J Downey, P Diggin; S Myler, L Dickson; S Tonga’uiha, D Hartley (capt), B Mujati, C Lawes, C Day, C Clark, P Dowson, R Wilson. Replacements: Mercey for Clark (28-36 mins), M Easter for Wilson (62 mins), A Waller for Tonga’uiha, S Geraghty for Myler, J Ansbro for Downey, Mercy for Mujati (all 67 mins), B Sharman for Geraghty (68 mins), M Sorenson for Day (77 mins), S Commins for Ashton (78 mins). Sinbinned: B Mujati (26-36 mins), P Dowson (59-69 mins).

Referee: Romain Poite (France)