HOSTS ARE STUNG BY BLUES
Leinster’s young guns to the fore again in easy win
THE Ricoh Arena was once a stadium that struck fear into Leinster’s ranks.
Leo Cullen took a callow squad here this time three years ago and could only watch on from the stands as a young side low on experience and confidence was demolished 51-10 by a rampant Wasps outfit.
Dai Young’s men would top the pool as winners that season. Leinster would finish a miserable campaign at the basement of the group.
How times have changed. Leinster are now the European kingpins and yesterday they showed the gulf in class that now exists between these two sides.
Over their two Pool 1 encounters, Leinster have beaten the English Premiership outfit by an aggregate score of 89-22.
This victory was not quite as emphatic as that 52-3 thumping at the RDS, but there was plenty of positives throughout this clinical display.
Without the likes of Rob Kearney, Johnny Sexton and Luke McGrath — who are all still on the treatment table — Cullen put his faith in Jordan Larmour, Ross Byrne and Jamison Gibson-Park to fill the full-back and half-back slots. None of them let him down.
There was further disruption in the Leinster ranks when No8 Jack Conan was forced to withdraw from the starting line-up before kick-off with a shoulder injury.
Sean O’Brien was not a bad replacement. The Ireland and Lions flanker has been out of action since he broke his arm against the Pumas at Lansdowne Road in November.
He got through 56 minutes of work here and will be all the better for the run-out. The Tullow man delivered some trademark power in the loose and physicality at the breakdown before he understandably tired midway through the second half. O’Brien would make way for Max Deegan soon after. Leinster’s conveyor belt of back-row talent continues to churn out top class performers.
Wasps had injury worries of their own with England flanker Brad Shields pulling out of the starting team with injury prior to kick-off.
Shields was ruled out by a side strain, and fellow international Joe Launchbury — although he passed a head injury assessment — did not rejoin the action following a knock.
That was just the beginning of their problems. The hosts would find themselves 3-0 down when Byrne fired over a 12th-minute penalty. The Leinster No10 then converted a fine try from Garry Ringrose, the Ireland midfielder weaving through some weary Wasps tackles to cross for the opening try of the afternoon.
Ringrose was his usual busy self in Coventry and was a constant threat in the wide channels.
Having Robbie Henshaw alongside him certainly helped.
Like O’Brien, Henshaw was another injury victim form that autumn international meeting with Argentina.
Henshaw didn’t even get onto the pitch that day, the 25-year-old suffering a hamstring injury during the pre-match warm-up.
Henshaw was not given much hope of featuring in the Six Nations, but he battled back to get into contention for this game. Joe Schmidt has included the former Connacht man in his Six Nations plans, and Henshaw did his cause no harm with a busy shift at the Ricoh.
Byrne would soon punish Wasps again with his second penalty as they struggled to cope with the visitors’ intensity.
Leinster would take a 20-0 lead into the interval thanks to their driving maul which has become a potent weapon for the province this season.
On this occasion, the impressive Rhys Ruddock rose high to take Sean Cronin’s throw and the hooker duly dotted down off the resulting maul.
Wasps rallied from 20 points adrift to score second-half tries through No8 Nathan Hughes, scrum-half Dan Robson and replacement wing Marcus Watson, with Lima Sopoaga kicking two conversions, but the damage had long been done.
Wasps, already eliminated from the competition and resigned to finishing bottom of the group, saw England forward Hughes require treatment on his right ankle after just three minutes, but he carried on as Leinster pressed for an early score.
Things got worse when Wasps skipper Launchbury went down following a ninth-minute collision before departing for a head injury assessment which proved the end of his match, despite passing it. pressure piled on a spirited — but limited — home side. They added a second try five minutes before half-time when Cronin emerged with the ball from under a pile of bodies after Leinster’s forwards drove a close-range lineout, with another Byrne conversion taking Leinster 20 points clear by the interval. Wasps, at last, gave their supporters something to cheer when Hughes crashed over for a 53rd-minute try that Sopoaga duly converted, but normal service was quickly resumed through a second Cronin try from another driving maul. Robson then claimed an opportunist touchdown to put Wasps in double figures, yet Leinster regrouped and secured a fivepoint maximum when a slick passing move ended in Reid crossing the line near