SEXTON & CO ARE HUNGRY FOR MORE IN BILBAO
Sexton and Ryan lead the charge as unstoppable Leinster crush Scarlets in one-sided semi
JOHNNY SEXTON may not appreciate this, but he summoned the spirit of Ronan O’Gara on a riotous afternoon in the Dublin sun. It was 12 years ago on a sunny day at Lansdowne Road that O’Gara scored a famous try in the semifinal of the European Cup.
After running in his score against a bedraggled Leinster that day, he jumped the advertising hoardings and celebrated with Munster fans.
A dozen years on, Sexton stayed grounded but his jubilation ran as strongly as O’Gara’s after scoring Leinster’s fifth try in an awesome performance.
Their rivalry with Scarlets is not as pungent as the Munster-Leinster enmity of 2006, but this was an enormous challenge for the Irish No 10 and his team.
They were facing opponents with gathering notions, and they eviscerated them. With 20 minutes to go, the game was over, Sexton confirming it with his final flourish. After he scored it, he raised a fist in jubilation to the Leinster supporters and they roared back their adoration.
Their team are rampant once again. It is impossible to see anyone beating them in the final in three weeks’ time, even their old foes to the south.
They had stars everywhere, with Tadhg Furlong, Scott Fardy and James Ryan, in particular, outstanding. But Sexton is the inspiration, as critical to the fortunes of his province as he is to the ambitions of his country. He spoke on Friday about learning how to address referees while keeping his temper.
He wasn’t venting at Romain Poite as the teams ran off at half time, but he listened as Scarlets captain Ken Owens badgered the official.
Sexton had his say, too, but his most eloquent interjections came in play, masterful throughout.
He was responsible for the last act of the first half, a marvellous conversion from the right-hand line after Fergus McFadden’s try.
Sexton was hit late and nastily in the lead-up to the score and he had his right bicep strapped before converting.
McFadden was injured in scoring, too, the Scarlets wing Steff Evans sliding in knees-first as the Leinster player dived to the line.
The discipline of the Welsh team was cracking, and it was no wonder. A 15-point half-time margin was a fair reflection of a contest Leinster had dominated, scoring three tries to none.
Their opponents were kept on life support by three Leigh Halfpenny penalties, themselves resulting from Leinster errors.
Given the ballyhoo that had heralded the Scarlets’ progress to the last four, it must have been sobering for them and their coach Wayne Pivac to try and subsist on occasional Leinster sloppiness.
It wasn’t a diet that could sustain them all the way to a final place in Bilbao.
Leinster had to listen all week to the praise lavished on their rivals. Much as the change inspired by Pivac at the Scarlets is inspiring, Leinster are capable of playing even better rugby, and the evidence was produced in abundance.
Their back row, led by a ferocious performance from Fardy, completely outplayed the opposing unit, and Sexton and Jamison GibsonPark controlled the flow of the contest.
There was a fierceness about the Leinster game generally that was apparent, too. Rob Kearney chased a kick ahead by Isa Nacewa in the first half, and eventually forced Evans into touch. Kearney bounced to his feet after making the tackle and instinctively hugged Robbie Henshaw.
When a side plays a fast, highskills game as Leinster do, their spirit and their appetite for the game’s flintier virtues can be overlooked. But there was no missing
the hunger that drove them on here. Henshaw epitomised this in a thundering display after 10 weeks out injured.
He injured a shoulder in the Six Nations against Italy, but he careered into the Scarlets defensive line here as if his joints were shaped from iron, not muscle and bone.
Henshaw brings power but also class back into the side; he is a clever defender and fleet-footed as well as bulldozing when on the charge.
His return meant Nacewa was moved out to the left wing. Wherever he played, he was a possible weakness — or so said former Welsh wing Shane Williams.
Analysis from Williams earlier in the week was hardly incendiary but Nacewa replied with a curt ‘Pass’ when asked about it the day before this semi-final.
There is no denying his age — he turns 36 in July — but if his game has diminished, there was not much proof of decline here.
Leinster could have picked Leo Cullen on one wing and Leo Varadkar on the other, and the two would have emerged untested from this encounter.
The dreadful effort from the Scarlets was a direct consequence of how well Leinster played. They weren’t allowed to be imaginative or daring. They had to stumble and suffer.
Ryan was one of their unrelenting tormenters. He scored the first try after 10 minutes, and then delivered a sweet off-load to Fardy put the Australian in for the fourth.
This was his 20th match as a professional rugby player — he has yet to lose one. Tadhg Beirne was the Leinster-schooled second row that attracted most coverage before the semi-final, but he was another left floundering in red.
He and Ryan could play for Ireland together before this year is out, but Ryan looked world-class in this contest.
Sexton was animated talking about Leinster’s desire in the pre-match press conference. Other players might be sated after winning a Grand Slam. Not him and his teammates, he said, and they proved that here.
Losing to the Scarlets in last year’s Pro 14 semi-final left a wound that festered among this group. Their biggest match of last season was a Champions Cup semi-final loss to Clermont, but there was a lingering sting to how they lost in the RDS in the league.
Their preparations were not ideal, as Sexton alluded to on Friday, and then they had to listen to months of talk about how the axis of power in Celtic rugby was shifting. It righted itself yesterday in glorious sunshine. The world is spinning to Leinster’s taste and design once again.