LEINSTER’S QUALITY WINS OUT
Sheehan and Conan to fore as Blues gain the upper hand on rivals
WHEN Jacques Nienaber eventually gets hold of a whistle and this group of players, he will have much to do – and plenty with which to do it.
Defensive creaks in the first 20 minutes here expose weaknesses he will be keen to address at Leinster. There will be great comfort in doing so with such a talented, experienced squad of players.
In a match enlivened by a local edge, and occasionally decorated with snatches of high-quality play, Leinster’s greater quality, though fitfully expressed, still told.
It wasn’t until the 25th minute that the sharpness of mind and execution that distinguishes them on their best days was revealed, as a combination of graft, opportunism and clean finishing put Jamison GibsonPark clear for their first try.
They also capitalised on Munster being down to 14 after Rory Scannell’s sin-binning; they needed the help after an opening that lacked their usual fluency.
That was to be expected given the staggered return of their Test stars after the World Cup, but that Dan Sheehan was to the fore in Leinster’s eventual recovery was no surprise. He withstood the pressures of a wobbling line-out to excel in France, and he should head the candidates being considered to succeed Johnny Sexton as Ireland captain.
He scored Leinster’s second try, to haul them free of an error-addled first quarter.
By the time the cameras were picking Andy Farrell out in the crowd, to loud cheers from all sides of the ground, the game was starting to assume its expected shape.
Sheehan’s evening wasn’t flawless – the set-piece seizures that saw Ireland’s line-out come apart against South Africa and, crucially, at times against New Zealand, have followed Sheehan and James Ryan back to Dublin. However, he provided the top-tier class that is the decisive difference between these two groups. Leinster have far more better players than Munster, and any notions of a fruitful evening for the underdogs in Dublin 4 required them to take any chance they got.
They did their best in the opening quarter, scoring a try, seeing another attempt held up, and wringing all they could from the opportunities provided by Leinster sloppiness.
The difficulty was that the home team were too good to remain constrained by their own mistakes, and Sheehan was in the vanguard of their eventual comeback.
Leading that charge was Jack Conan, who was the best player on the pitch in the opening half. His World Cup opportunities were drastically reduced by the foot injury he suffered in Ireland’s opening warmup match, but with inevitable questions about the future of Peter O’Mahony, he looks best placed to benefit – and playing like this makes a compelling case.
He was part of a stellar back-row alongside Josh van der Flier and Caelan Doris, but Conan was the stand-out. His ball-carrying provided momentum when there was none being generated in any other quarter, while Joe McCarthy, the greenhorn lock of whom so much is expected, was another rallying point for the Leinster revival.
One player who couldn’t affect their display was Ross Byrne, who injured an arm in an early attempt to tackle Craig Casey, and who looked thoroughly fed up after being substituted in the seventh minute. He sat among the replacements with an enormous ice-pack on his left elbow, and struggled to wrap a padded coat around himself in the biting cold.
As Byrne trudged off, Jack Crowley was sweeping over a kick from the right touchline to convert Craig Casey’s opening try.
It wasn’t the first time this year that the pair have been characters in a study of sport’s painful contrasts. Last May, Crowley kicked a famous drop goal to win a league semi-final, with Byrne’s reputed failure to do likewise a week later, and try and rescue Leinster as they floundered in the European decider, cited as fresh proof of his inadequacies.
Like much of the criticism he has faced, it felt unfair but this season pulsed with promise for him. With Sexton gone, his vast experience compared to the other contenders to be Ireland’s No10 put him in a good position. So did his inclusion in the World Cup squad, even if Crowley was preferred in the match-day selections for the bigger games.
Getting injured early here was deeply unhelpful, then, and not only because he could be out for some time, and at a pivotal point of the season ahead of Six Nations selections.
These matches are especially valuable to national coaches because they pit contenders against one another – and that’s where the interjections of Ciarán Frawley could be significant. He is, like Crowley, capable of covering a number of positions in the back division, which was a factor in Crowley making the 23 for the matches against South Africa and New Zealand in France. Coaches value flexibility. Frawley also had a crucial hand in Leinster’s opening try, with a creasing tackle on Tadhg Beirne that panicked the Ireland star into a Hail Mary offload snaffled by Gibson-Park.
In the post-Sexton dispensation, nothing is certain, no place is assured – and with such instability comes opportunity, especially for an outlier like Frawley.
He is, like Crowley, obviously, irrepressibly confident and trusting in his ability, and precisely the sort of young, hungry talent that Nienaber will seek to mould.
One preview of this game wondered if the World Cup winner is already having an impact on Leinster. Supporters will hope not, based on a dreadful first 15 minutes here, when gaps emerged with alarming frequency.
The expertise of the incoming coach is in defence, and any ambitions he has to broaden his influence will be contingent on tightening up their game out of possession. Surveying it all was Sexton, who was given a standing ovation by supporters of both stripes when he was presented to the crowd before the game.
The last time he was on this pitch in his civvies, it resulted in weeks of controversy and a significant ban. This was altogether more congenial, and a pre-match diversion much more pleasing than the earlier entertainment.
Mike McCarthy and Leo the Lion are the unlikeliest warm-up act in Irish sport. This is a weekend when there were some slick showmen in Dublin city. Watching the former Leinster and Ireland lock tackle the outsize mascot confirmed they weren’t in the vicinity of the action here.
The game itself proved a surer source of entertainment, particularly Munster’s cussed refusal to fold after Leinster’s third try.
Nor would Leinster yield, though, and the only roar to rival the one that greeted Sexton, came following the turnover penalty earned by Doris with two minutes remaining.
It was rich fodder for bragging fans – and a sign that this rivalry feels vital again.