Leinster tire as French call the tune in staccato affair

In the end it followed a dog-eared script. Classy French lose their heads and annoy the referee to distraction before pulling themselves together and winning with relative ease. Irish pluckily hint at an upset but are left to reflect on another one that got away. Plus ca change?

If the big Donnybrook crowd were disappointed with all of that, the feeling will have been multiplied in the home dressing-room. In a predictably stilted and feisty affair, discipline was always going to be a key factor if Leinster were to turn over a technically superior outfit.

For almost 50 minutes things had generally been going well and had they taken all their opportunities, connected with their line-outs and found their penalties to touch, Leinster might well have been more than 17-8 ahead at that juncture.

The penalty count was 15-5 to the home side, as Leinster largely kept their heads while Stade were losing theirs. Alan McGowan had just inched them further ahead, the Stade pack had over-ran Diego Dominguez's restart but when the Leinster scrum broke up (as they were inclined to do all night) Angus McKeen stupidly pushed out at Serge Simon, a fair old messer it is true, and suddenly Stade were being let off the hook.

Even then a fired-up Leinster, roared on by the floodlit crowd, were shunting a Stade maul backwards when Mr David Davies apparently caught Victor Costello throwing a punch. Thereafter the penalty count tilted the other way, finishing up 20-13, and after Dominguez brought Stade back into range with a penalty, he orchestrated a compelling French comeback.

McKeen even compounded his earlier indiscretion by repeating the offence at a collapsed five-metre scrum, obliging Mr Davies to reverse a home penalty in Stade's favour. In truth, at 17-25 down with seven minutes to go, the game may have been up but while Leinster ultimately extended a good side, they'll know they could have extended them more.

For the most part, they played a clever territorial game, but although their scrum managed a few shoves they couldn't launch the turbo-charged Victor Costello quite as much as they liked. Ultimately, the ever-willing Craig Brownlie proved an even more productive target runner off popped loose ball.

Given Leinster had no orthodox open-side, Stade largely played into home hands by continually attacking around the fringes, where the back-row made their tackles and the work-rate of the Byrnes, an improved Gabriel Fulcher and Pat Holden couldn't be faulted.

Nevertheless, Stade made the greater impact in contact on or around the gain line, with the result that their playmaking scrum-half Ludovic Lousteau was able to take the ball on the front foot more often than Derek Hegarty. Eventually, the surprisingly narrow tactics of attacking off the halves' inside shoulders paid dividends as Stade began to cut through regularly in the final quarter.

It had all begun so differently. A pre-match shirt mix-up had forced a hurried dash to Lansdowne Road for a set of green jerseys but unfamiliar though they looked, Leinster warmed to their task from the off.

Keeping Dominguez's long kick-off in the hand, they engineered a relieving penalty when Stade's backs drifted offside. From a Fulcher take, Costello took it up the middle, Stade went off side again and McGowan landed a 45-metre penalty.

Alas, amid the frequent spillages, the game quickly degenerated into a none-too-surprising staccato affair. Mr Davies blew a veritable concerto, six successive penalties against the visitors in the opening seven minutes setting the trend. So, more surprisingly, did a fumble by Simon which undid a hard-worked Stade overlap though Dominguez soon drew the sides level.

Leinster were missing a few first-up tackles, requiring two covering tackles by the industrious Pat Holden, before striking off a deep Girvan Dempsey penalty to touch and drive off Costello's take, when McGowan nimbly stepped inside a tackle and put Ridge over.

Ironically, while his running game went well, McGowan missed the kickable conversion and a penalty before making it 11-3 after Richard Dourthe, true to form, had been yellow-carded for blatantly taking Ridge out off the ball.

McGowan, twice, and Dempsey missed penalties to touch, and from the latter Lousteau sniped through to put Dourthe over. McGowan's brace of post-interval penalties kept hold of the initiative, whereupon Leinster lost control.

Stade made an effective triple substitution up front and after his restorative penalty, Dominguez complemented a rare move out wide by putting Christopher Moni over off the ensuing ruck ball on the blind side with a deftly disguised inside pass. Stade were ahead and away.

A surge by Sylvain Marconnet spreadeagled a wilting Leinster defence, affording Thomas Lombard ample space to saunter over. As Leinster began losing their way - McKeen's second lapse followed by McGowan tapping a kickable penalty - Dominguez calmly steered over another penalty.

Team Selections

Leinster: K Nowlan; D Hickie, S Horgan, M Ridge, G Dempsey; A McGowan, D Hegarty; E Byrne, S Byrne, A McKeen, P Holden, G Fulcher, T Brennan, V Costello, C Brownlie. Replacements: B Carey for Ridge (65 mins), G D'Arcy for Nowlan (69 mins), D O'Brien for Brennan (69 mins), P Smyth for S Byrne (75 mins)Stade Francais: S Viars; T Lombarde, R Dourthe, C Mytton, E Bolobolo; D Dominguez, L Lousteau; S Simon, L Pedrosa, P Gimbert, H Chaffardon, D Auradou, C Moni, C Juillet, R Pool Jones. Replacements: V Moscato for Gimbert (45 mins), D Georges for Auradou (45 mins), S Marconnet for Pedrosa (45 mins), S Keith for Moni (72 mins)

Referee: David R Davies (Wales).