RUGBY HEINEKEN CUP: WHAT A difference a week makes. The euphoria of victory over Munster was replaced by numbing defeat as Leinster succumbed 12-9 to London Irish in the opening match in defence of their Heineken Cup crown.
The road to this season’s final at the Stade de France steepened appreciably as the Exiles produced a hard-working, gritty performance to snatch victory and even at this early juncture take a firm grip on Pool 6.
The howls of derision that greeted the final whistle were primarily directed at French referee Romain Poite, and with some justification, but Leinster would be foolish to look for mitigation in the erratic performance of the official. Instead they’ll need to focus on their own shortcomings, notably the lineout.
There are certain truisms in rugby and the primary one is the importance of winning set-piece possession. Leinster were second-best out of touch and also were outmanoeuvred at the breakdown, where Steffon Armitage and Chris Hala’ufia were particularly effective. The net result was the home side were unable to generate the continuity to impose their patterns. They lacked precision and were too frenetic in possession.
The Exiles, in contrast, played territory using the boot of fullback Peter Hewat and outhalf Chris Malone, and were aggressive in the collisions. Hewat kicked two penalties and replacement outhalf Ryan Lamb coolly added a brace in the second half.
Leinster’s response came from outhalf Jonathan Sexton who landed three penalties from four.
This victory will hurt Leinster because they had enough possession in the first half to open a gap on the scoreboard but instead the teams went in at 6-6.
A delighted London Irish captain Bob Casey enthused: “This is a special victory but we won’t get carried away. If we don’t build on this against Llanelli next week then it will count for very little. I’d like to pay tribute to our fitness coach Alan Ryan (a Terenure man) because I thought we lasted the game very well.
“Morale is very good in this squad, so even when we gave away that penalty, I thought we could still go on and win the match. I suppose the two areas that made a big difference for us was the lineout and the breakdown. We were able to deny Leinster a platform.”
London Irish coach Toby Booth smiled when asked what had pleased him most. “Four points if I am brutally honest. The fact that we have won a game in the backyard of the defending champions was reflected in the way that the players celebrated at the end. I actually thought it was going to be a draw. As the game went on we got stronger and we snuck it at the end.”
Leinster coach Michael Cheika admitted: “We didn’t play well on the ground. We weren’t effective enough at the ruck. They were able to get in and we gave away too many penalties. We got one point, we might have got two, but we were aiming for four.
“We have to play well, the referee is not relevant. We didn’t get the quick ruck ball that we needed. We were inconsistent at the lineout, but our scrum was good. Our defence was good, we never looked like letting them through. There were good and bad aspects to the performance.
“We have been here before, losing to Bath at home in the opening match. This is probably more disappointing. We now have to go and win the next game because that would put pressure on the others.”
London Irish will relish the prospect of hosting the Scarlets next weekend, knowing that they had taken a significant step forward. For Leinster the losing bonus point won’t console them one iota. They travel to Brive next weekend knowing anything other than a victory probably won’t suffice.
