Sad as Leinster fail to show

Leinster 13 Leicester 29: Leinster's broken promises lay strewn around Lansdowne Road on Saturday night, the ineptitude of their performance in marked contrast to the pre-contest aspirations. Players had spoken of the poignancy of the occasion, a chance to erase memories of the Perpignan match and to offer a decent fanfare to departing friends and team-mates.

The province never provided substance to the pre-game hype, beginning tentatively. It was only when Leicester had mentally switched off with the Heineken European Cup quarter-final already won that Leinster managed a consolation.

Coach Declan Kidney had gambled slightly on team selection, plumping for Ciarán Potts and Keith Gleeson in the backrow: by the 57th minute both had been replaced, Victor Costello and Shane Jennings called to arms.

Gordon D'Arcy, too, was sprung from the bench as the home side desperately sought salvation. This time there was to be no late reprieve.

A stranger watching Saturday's game would have wagered his mortgage it was Leicester that had negotiated the pool stages unbeaten and were the tournament's number one seeds. They produced a performance commensurate with those credentials, laced with the requisite intensity, self-assurance and, at times, a certain swagger.

It was in marked contrast to Leinster, who only fitfully managed to impose any patterns. The work of the pack lacked dynamism and was easily thwarted.

There were four turnovers out of touch and a serious shellacking in the set scrums. The back play was largely lateral, predictable and almost exclusively reliant on Brian O'Driscoll.

For many of the home supporters it wasn't simply that Leinster lost but the manner of that defeat that rankled most. There was precious little for them to enthuse about. In the opening 42 minutes or so, the match was played almost exclusively in the Leinster half and while they remained commendably resolute in defence, they were not going to survive indefinitely.

They will also reflect on the indiscipline that saw them cough up 11 penalties and a yellow card. Leicester outhalf Andy Goode emphasised the folly of such carelessness. Many of the transgressions were avoidable, not least Leicester's two tries, both of which had Leinster DNA.

The first came as a result of Leinster outhalf David Holwell hitting the post with a penalty. The ball was eventually cleared long only for Leinster to compound the misfortune by turning over their own lineout.

Leicester swept into their opponents' half, worked through several phases and then loaded the blindside just outside the Leinster 22.

Felipe Contepomi recalled Horatio on the bridge, completely outnumbered, and once he bought Ollie Smith's dummy, Potts was never going to have the toe to hunt down the impressive centre.

It shattered the tone of the previous 10 minutes when Leinster survived largely intact - they did concede a penalty to trail 6-3 - despite being corralled metres from their own line.

During this period they conceded two penalties, both of which Goode kicked to touch only for Leicester hooker George Chuter to be pinged for crooked in from the second throw. Even then Leinster managed to self-destruct, conceding a penalty on the intervention of a touch judge. Goode kicked the 22-metre award, tagged on the conversion to Smith's try and then in chasing his own clever chip was clumsily obstructed by Potts.

Referee Joel Jutge brandished the yellow card - he would later fail to do so when Leon Lloyd was guilty of a late tackle, but this is an addendum not an integral part of the plot - and Goode landed the 35-metre penalty. At 16-3 Leinster were in serious trouble.

Leicester were physically bossing the game up front, Graham Rowntree, Martin Corry, the outstanding Lewis Moody and Neil Back in the van of everything the team accomplished.

On the few occasions Leinster managed to retain the ball for any length of time, the English club applied an aggressive, suffocating defence that drifted unerringly to O'Driscoll and Girvan Dempsey in the outside channels.

The visitors' back play was also better, not least the contribution of Geordan Murphy, sharp and incisive and offering little cameos of his sublime ball-handling skills and footwork. It was his most assertive display this season on Irish soil.

Leinster required a fast start to the second half and while they never accomplished that, Holwell's penalty and the arrival of Costello, Jennings and D'Arcy suggested a more equitable contest.

That hope was shattered 60 seconds after the restart. Horgan won the aerial duel but his tap-down was expertly anticipated by the peerless Moody, the Leicester flanker grabbing possession and tying in defenders before releasing Darryl Gibson for a try.

Goode posted the conversion before adding a penalty and a drop goal to nudge his team into a 29-6 lead. Leinster's perseverance was rewarded on 73 minutes when D'Arcy ran a line that fixed the drift defence and Horgan powered between the tackles of Goode and Gibson, shrugging off Sam Vesty and defying Back's last-gasp intrusion for a fine individual try.

Holwell, arguably Leinster's most accomplished performer on the day, added the conversion but it offered mere window dressing to a contest already decided. The New Zealander returns home, Costello retires and others will be cut from or leave the squad.

Leinster had the opportunity on Saturday to achieve something special as a group and exorcise a few bad memories. It's not that they failed; it's more they barely turned up and that is the saddest postscript to this contest and this group of players.

SCORING SEQUENCE: 11 mins: Goode penalty, 0-3; 17: Holwell penalty, 3-3; 33: Goode penalty, 3-6; 38: Smith try, Goode conversion, 3-13; 40: Goode penalty, 3-16. Half-time: 3-16. 55: Holwell penalty, 6-16; 56: Gibson try, Goode conversion, 6-23; 63: Goode penalty, 6-26; 67: Goode drop goal, 6-29; 73: Horgan try, Holwell conversion, 13-29.

LEINSTER: G Dempsey; S Horgan, B O'Driscoll, F Contepomi, D Hickie; D Holwell, G Easterby; R Corrigan (capt), S Byrne, R Nebbett; L Cullen, M O'Kelly; C Potts, E Miller, K Gleeson. Replacements: V Costello for Potts 48 mins; G D'Arcy for Contepomi 52 mins; S Jennings for Gleeson 57 mins.

LEICESTER TIGERS: S Vesty; G Murphy, O Smith, D Gibson, L Lloyd; A Goode, H Ellis; G Rowntree, G Chuter, D Morris; M Johnson (capt), L Deacon; L Moody, M Corry, N Back. Replacements: S Bemand for Ellis 33-40 (+2) mins; A Healey for Vesty 74 mins.

Referee: J Jutge (France).

Yellow card: C Potts (Leinster) 40(+2)-48 mins.