Leinster unable to close out Sale

Leinster 22 Sale Sharks 23: The controversial move to Lansdowne Road certainly ensured a bigger "gate", and probably a better game of rugby, but it didn't make for a better Leinster result.

At Donnybrook they have beaten English opposition five times out of five; at headquarters they've lost two from two.

To their credit, Leinster rolled up their sleeves with a mightily improved effort in the second half, when they hammered away at an unrelenting Sale defence. But most of the damage had already been done in the first half, at the end of which the home side could be grateful to be only 20-13 in arrears.

Lacking cohesion, virtually everything malfunctioned in that opening half.

Even the Leinster setpieces, especially the normally ultra-proficient lineout, misfired as they coughed up four costly balls. Their kicking game was poor, they lacked continuity compared to Sale, they were undermined by the early loss of Brian O'Driscoll, and their far-too-narrow defence was regularly outflanked.

In the final analysis, they'll curse not only their first-half mistakes, but also, perhaps, the interruptions of the Ireland squad's training camps before the turn of the year which must have contributed to this lack of cohesion.

Bad blood will fester before the rematch as well. The Sale hooker, Andy Titterrell, is sure to be cited for stamping on Eric Miller's head, and Ben Gissing's use of the boot - though it did not look as bad - might also be examined.

Leinster had started tentatively, coughing up their first couple of lineouts either side of Sale outhalf Charlie Hodgson punishing Malcolm O'Kelly's failure to roll away at a ruck with a simple penalty.

Leinster responded with narrow phases for little gain in their half, clearly intent on not kicking the ball away.

But then they went wide when Keith Gleeson snaffled a Sale overthrow, ran at Hodgson and presented the ball perfectly.

This enabled them to send quick ball along the line to Gordon D'Arcy, with O'Driscoll and John McWeeney supporting on the inside. It seemed Eric Miller had fatally ignored a two-man overlap, but Reggie Corrigan was on hand to take the offload and score. Brian O'Meara converted.

However, Leinster soon suffered an ominous double whammy when, first, O'Driscoll was caught at the bottom of a ruck and within minutes hobbled off with a hamstring injury, to be replaced by David Quinlan, and then when Sale easily outflanked them to go in front after an ill-judged, poorly executed turnover chip ahead by outhalf Matt Leek.

Simply by keeping their width and going wide to the right and then back to the left, where the big men had remained from a lineout, they enabled Steve Hanley to pop the final pass for Jason White to score with men outside.

Leinster's defence, which must have expected this, was far too narrow and a truckload of them were taken out by the miss passes from Stu Pinkerton and Hodgson.

An O'Meara penalty and a left-footed drop goal by Gordon D'Arcy, after Quinlan and Shane Horgan had made the inroads, did little to upset Sale's rhythm.

Hodgson levelled matters again with another penalty, and the visitors' pack mauled back the restart. Mark Cueto then broke Quinlan's tackle for big yardage, and Leinster looked ragged and stretched as Alex Sanderson pounded toward the line. From the recycle Jones hugged the touchline to take Robinson's blindside pass and score.

Hodgson landed the touchline conversion, and then charged down a Leek kick but fumbled the chance to make it 27-13, and he closed out the first half with a missed drop goal. Leinster were in need of the chance to regroup.

The Leinster pack upped their intensity after the resumption, but O'Meara overcooked a box kick and missed a penalty to touch, Shane Byrne was wayward with a throw to O'Kelly at the tail and Costello was binned for killing the ball. At least Hodgson missed the resultant penalty, and this point of crisis served to get the crowd vocally into the game.

Taking Sale on more up front, suddenly the force was with Leinster as O'Meara landed a penalty and a drop goal either side of missing a kickable one after Sale lock Dean Schofield had also been binned.

But Leinster kept coming. Committing numbers to rucks, recycling the ball and forcing Sale to make their tackles (which they did), they hammered away until the visitors, who flirted with the offside line all night, did so once too often. O'Meara nailed the 74th-minute penalty.

Alas, that left ample time for Sale to work themselves into the current speciality of a late English drop goal. It came from Hodgson in the 80th minute.

Yet there were still nine minutes of injury time to come. With few calm heads around, it was a fittingly frenetic, error-strewn finale.

Leinster had their chances, not least after Hodgson knocked on inside his 22, but Mr Whitehouse was certainly no homer, and after Girvan Dempsey was collared by the corner flag, the Welsh referee adjudged O'Kelly hadn't grounded the ball over the line after stealing a short lineout.

Leek then scuffed a drop-goal attempt. Oh, for Felipe Contepomi, or Christian Warner, or perhaps Andy Dunne.

Scoring sequence: 3 mins: Hodgson pen 0-3; 7: Corrigan try, O'Meara con 7-3; 18: White try, Hodgson con 7-10; 22: O'Meara pen 10-10; 25: D'Arcy drop goal 13-10; 30: Hodgson pen 13-13; 32: Jones try, Hodgson con 13-20 (half-time 13-20); 52: O'Meara pen 16-20; 63: O'Meara drop goal 19-20; 74: O'Meara pen 22-20; 80: Hodgson drop goal 22-23.

LEINSTER: G Dempsey; J McWeeney, B O'Driscoll, S Horgan, G D'Arcy; M Leek, B O'Meara; R Corrigan (capt), S Byrne, P Coyle, M O'Kelly, B Gissing, E Miller, V Costello, K Gleeson. Replacements: D Quinlan for O'Driscoll (17 mins), D Dillon for Miller (75 mins), S Jennings for Gleeson, B Burke for D'Arcy (both 77 mins). Sin-binned: Costello (48-58 mins).

SALE SHARKS: J Robinson; M Cueto, G Bond, C Mayor, S Hanley; C Hodgson, B Redpath; A Sheridan, A Titterrell, S Turner, C Jones, D Schofield, J White, A Sanderson (capt), S Pinkerton. Replacements: M Cairns for Titterrell, B Stewart for Turner (both 62 mins), I Fullarton for Sanderson (68 mins), M Lund for Schofield (71 mins). Sin-binned: Schofield (56-66 mins).

Referee: Nigel Whitehouse (Wales).