Boom and bloom time; these Irish wins just keep on rolling. Donnybrook has never seen anything quite like it, Leicester getting ratty, Leinster brilliantly, resiliently, staying the course and by the end the near capacity 7,000 attendance were roaring them home. Cue delirium and a pitch invasion.
In the cold light of day, it won't be hailed as a classic game, but it was a great win. The ripple was started by Leinster and Munster last week, Connacht threw a rock into the pond on Tuesday and yesterday evening Leinster added a boulder. There's no reason why it should stop now, for the Irish provinces suddenly have two things that were often in short supply in Irish rugby heretofore: belief and the requisite fitness levels.
In the almost ominous first quarter, it seemed that Leicester might be about to roll Leinster over. But, helped by the Tigers' slightly short-sighted and over-structured running game, Leinster kept making their tackles and hung in there.
Admittedly, they nearly suffered a collective sense of stage fright when finding themselves in a winning position in a manic finale. But where before Irish teams might well have wilted, Leinster's tacklers were knocking their celebrated opponents back further and further.
And all this with a mostly part-time squad buttressed by half a dozen full-timers against one of the English Premiership's professional elite. Irish rugby was caught with its trousers down when the game went professional, but professionalism is starting to have positive spin-offs.
It was, indeed, a spirited performance and all that stuff, but it was more than that too. Kurt McQuilkin led from the front with a near vintage return to form, hitting hard every time, enveloping opponents in the tackle, forcing turnovers and always recycling the ball with his hurdler's half-breaks. Perhaps the burden of captaincy is beginning to ease.
Close behind were a ton of team-mates, previously unheralded newcomers such as Reggie Corrigan, who had a mighty game, and Kevin Nowlan. David O'Mahony too had a huge tackle count as, of course, did action man Trevor Brennan.
Growing in confidence, they ran at Leicester with more and more conviction. In this regard Victor Costello can feel proud of his game against Eric Miller. Miller, granted, looked to have an extra dimension to his game when running with the ball, but Costello made a plethora of half-breaks to take Leinster on to and over the gain line. Indeed, with a little less orthodoxy, Leinster might have won more handily; often settling for safe kicks to touch off good scrum ball when they could have made Leicester turn and work harder for attacking possession.
In truth, Leicester played into Leinster's hands to a great degree. The watching Brian Ashton repeatedly bemoaned the wasted space as Leicester kept their runners and backs tightly packed within half the width of the pitch; further narrowing Donnybrook's narrower confines.
It was all very elaborate, often over elaborate; Monsieur Joel Dume occasionally penalising Leicester for crossing over, and that was when they didn't tie themselves in knots or spill the ball. With Waisele Serevi slotting in at out-half, off loose possession from his nominal left-wing position, Leicester attacked in tightlyknit waves. But potential tries were profligately tossed away as Miller, Serevi, Michael Horak, Craig Joiner and Stuart Potter all either turned back inside or knocked on.
Leinster were a little more expansive off less ball, neither the restarts or the line-outs were especially bountiful all evening, but they were drifting from deep and crowding themselves out.
With Joel Stransky pulling a penalty wide from in front of the posts, 22 minutes had elapsed before the first score - a Stransky penalty. With Leinster unable to break out and the crowd almost too polite, Stransky added another before Costello made the inroads for Alan McGowan to open Leinster's account. A loose Neil Back pass on the loop almost led to a foot rush and try for John McWeeney.
Leinster and Donnybrook began to believe. Their scrum remarkably none the worse for Peter Bruce's departure and the introduction of Paul Flavin with Corrigan switching to the tight side. Brennan stretched to haul Martin Corry back from the base of the scrum, effectively winning the penalty when Miller went over the top.
McWeeney bravely brought the crowd to life, retrieving a curious Back kick up the middle under his posts and bursting between Back and Will Greenwood to earn a line-out at the other end. Leicester drifted offside, McGowan put Leinster ahead, Leicester's brows furrowed and on came Austin Healy and Dean Richards.
But Stransky, who had an errorprone game, sliced a penalty to touch beyond the dead-ball line and Leinster had the bit between their teeth. McQuilkin brilliantly recycled the ball and though O'Mahony's pass ricocheted off Martin Ridge, the centre cleverly switched the point of attack for Nowlan (cometh the man, cometh the hour) to slice through the cover defence with some elan. McGowan's conversion left Leicester in dire straits.
Belatedly, they upped a gear and began bringing Miller and Greenwood more into the game after Stransky brought them back to 16-9. The reshuffled Leinster scrum withheld three five-metre shoves, Greenwood levering down the third (as he does) and Donnybrook erupted.
Leicester, limited if fired-up Leicester, kept coming but Leinster weren't for wilting in a rawboned, feisty finale. Big tackles were still required, McQuilkin enveloped Stransky and Ridge made a huge hit, knocking Greenwood to the ground and the ball 10 yards back. Leinster were home.
