A VICTORY IN DEFEAT
Rare home loss is offset by Toner and Henshaw lift
NO prizes for guessing what the majority of the Leinster squad will doing this afternoon.
Toulouse are in action in the Top14 at 3.50pm today.
They’ll be keeping a close eye on that one back at HQ. Clermont are in town for a blockbuster top-ofthe-table meeting in the Top 14. Such was the demand for tickets, the game was moved to the city’s football ground – the 32,700-capacity Stadium de Toulouse.
It has all the makings of a thriller in the south of a France.
All of Toulouse’s big guns will be in action: Kaino, Dupont, Kolbe and Huget while Ntamack and Medard are poised to make an impact from the bench.
Suffice to say, Toulouse will arrive in Dublin battle-hardened.
Leinster have had a slightly less taxing build-up to next weekend’s eagerly-anticipated European Champions Cup semi-final at Lansdowne Road.
Leo Cullen kept the majority of his frontliners out of harm’s way for yesterday’s Pro14 meeting with Glasgow Warriors.
They went down 39-24 in an entertaining encounter, but Cullen and his backroom team will not be overly concerned.
They have dominated Conference A all season and have been assured of a home semi-final in the playoffs for quite some time.
It has given Leinster’s coaching team plenty of room to manoeuvre on the domestic front. It meant the likes of Luke McGrath, Johnny Sexton, Garry Ringrose and James Ryan were sitting in the stands at the RDS in their suits while the entire first-choice frontrow of Cian Healy, Sean Cronin and Tadhg Furlong were on bench duty.
That trio entered the fray en bloc after the break but when Furlong went down clutching his knee midway through the second half, he was immediately hooked.
They were taking no risks. The focus is very much on Toulouse at the moment, it has been that way for a while.
If anything, yesterday was about getting some miles into the lungs and legs of some returning frontliners, namely Robbie Henshaw and Devin Toner.
Both have been out of action since that opening loss to England in the Six Nations, or 71 days to be exact. Both came through the game unscathed. Cullen would have been most pleased with that.
As would Joe Schmidt, Ireland’s head coach was in attendance at the RDS. That fella never takes a weekend off.
Then there was Sean O’Brien. Injuries to Josh van der Flier and Dan Leavy have thrust him back into the spotlight in recent times. He’s off to London Irish next season, but he may have a major say for Leinster and Ireland before he elopes to the Premiership.
The thing is, O’Brien doesn’t actually play a lot for Leinster.
This was just his eighth game in the blue jersey this season. That broken arm in November explains a good chunk of that absence, but it has been that way for a long time.
It was the same story last term. O’Brien played seven times for Leinster for a grand total of 343 minutes.
He played just eight games (racking up 487 minutes) for Leinster back in 2017 before going on to star for the Lions in New Zealand, playing all three Tests. So good that Warren Gatland said he was the player of the series in his tour diary.
He played every game for Ireland in that year’s Six Nations, racking up 342 minutes of gametime across five starts.
There’s a trend here: from 2013 to 2015, he averaged just seven games and just under 400 minutes per season.
You have to go back to the days when Schmidt was running the show at Leinster to see a version of O’Brien that could rack up big performances week on week.
When Leinster won their first Heineken Cup under Schmidt’s watch in 2011, O’Brien played 22 matches for his province and amassed a whopping 1,579 minutes of action on the pitch. He also played a full Six Nations campaign under Declan Kidney and starred at the World Cup in New Zealand later that year. It’s been a steady decline ever since.
He is very much a man for the big occasion these days. Mindful of his injury profile and the punishment his body has taken over the years, the IRFU have carefully managed his workload. That’s the beauty of a central contract. O’Brien hasn’t appeared at a captain’s run for club or country for years.
He impressed yesterday. O’Brien spoke earlier this week about wanting to get on the ball more often. He had four carries inside 10 minutes against the Scots and got through plenty of work after that. He and Henshaw were called ashore just before the hour mark. They should be feature against Toulouse. Likewise, Toner, who lasted the duration - that will stand to him next week.
It was the Kearney brothers who were stole the show yesterday, however.
Rob and Dave and bagged a brace each by the 61st minute. Leinster were leading 24-18 at that stage and were looking good for the win, but Glasgow showed their quality in the final quarter as their own set of brothers had the final say: Matt and Zander Fagerson both crossing as the visitors came roaring back, with George Horne adding another at the death.
They won’t spend too long agonising over this one, there are bigger challenges ahead.