Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
SIXTON HAS GOT REASON FOR REGRET AFTER LOSS
JOHNNY SEXTON’S six penalties — a tally of 18 points — would have been enough to win six of the previous Heineken Cup finals.
But it is not a statistic that counts for much — there are others more damning for the Blues, who were big favourites before the game but scored zero tries to La Rochelle’s three.
La Rochelle, with their weighty possession through the last quarter counting for a lot, had 61 per cent possession, made 143 carries to 72 and 87 tackles to the Blues’ whopping 210.
Leinster were underpowered, unable to cope physically as players such as Uini Atonio, his sub Joe Sclavi, Danny Priso and Will Skelton bashed their way forward.
In hindsight, Leinster got their bench wrong, they needed big impact tacklers/defenders or dynamic attackers capable of staging and maintaining a breakout.
Leo Cullen has used — but dislikes — the six-two split between forwards and backs but an extra back-row would have been handy, while he decided not to use Ciaran Frawley or Jordan Larmour, whose breakout skills come to mind.
As it was, the substitution of Sexton with 18 minutes left on the clock turned out to be a watershed moment; his side couldn’t get out of their own 22m for most of the rest of the game.
Cullen said he had wanted to ‘freshen’ things up and, besides,
Sexton was struggling having taken a bad bang on the ankle.
Also, although less likely, Cullen may have been spooked by an uncharacteristic Sexton moment, when he was hesitant in possession near his own line, failed to clear the ball, and was nailed.
Certainly Leinster didn’t prosper with Ross Byrne on the field, even if he did add a penalty; there were two poor handling errors in particular that conceded possession at crucial junctures.
There’s a fair chance Cullen (inset) will never again set his bench up that way, to simply hold what they have on a scoreboard. Rather they will factor in a need for a different gear, a mini-commando unit if you like who can change dynamics or at least die trying.
“There were a lot of things that didn’t go our way in the last 30 minutes and when we were in control of the game,” said a disconsolate Sexton afterwards.
“We had chances to score, we just couldn’t nail it, that’s the devastating bit.
“It’s a tough way to lose, in the last second and not even have a chance to come back and try to win the game.”
In hindsight, it seems clear Leinster should have fired at the corner more often.
“Probably,” said Sexton of the in-game dilemma. “At times we could have been a bit more aggressive and gone for tries on a couple of those penalties, because they were repeatedly infringing.
“But we decided to keep the scoreboard ticking over, but hindsight is a great thing, everyone is an expert.
“We made the decisions, and we were in control.”