Leinster lift their game in empty venue

LEINSTER captain Rhys Ruddock said his players were forced to use their own energy to compensate for a lack of crowd atmosphere when they beat the Southern Kings at a near-empty Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.

There was a sparse turnout of 3 011 fans at the 46 000 capacity stadium when Leinster condemned the Kings to a third consecutive defeat in the Pro14.

In contrast, when the Kings played in Europe against Scarlets in Wales and Connacht in Ireland, there were close to capacity attendances at both games at smaller stadiums.

“Sometimes when there is a big stadium, and there are not huge amount of people, you just need to bring your own energy,” said Ruddock.

Though the Kings held the Irish outfit in the first half, they fell away after the break on their way to a 3110 defeat in which they were outscored by five tries to one.

It was a third consecutive win for the unbeaten Dublin-based side who are Conference B leaders.

“I thought the energy the Kings brought in the first half was greater than ours and that left us second best a lot of the time,” the Leinster skipper said.

“But we re-grouped at halftime and then I saw that the intent and energy we brought. That allowed us to get a hold of the game and we kind of grew from there.

“We were disappointed with the first half, but credit to the way the Kings played and they put us under pressure with ball in hand and that was tough to defend.”

Leinster coach Leo Cullen said he was pleased to emerge with the win and that his attention was now focused on Friday’s clash against the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein.

“We were a little bit inaccurate in the first half and the Kings put us under a lot of pressure,” said Cullen.

“Leinster just did not have enough control of the game. We were much more composed at the start of the second and we had better execution. We were also more direct with our carries and our ball security was better.

“We got turned over four or five times at the ruck in the first half. There is a lot to work on, but we are pleased with the outcome and happy with our bit. Now we are looking ahead to the Cheetahs.”

The Kings face Italian side Zebra at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in their second home game of the season on Saturday night.

In their first game in South Africa, Zebra were beaten 54-39 by the Cheetahs in an action-packed clash in Bloemfontein.